RumenGases project is a specific project component of the PECUS Research Network.

RumenGases will investigate conceptual advances in methane diagnostics and mitigation strategies from ruminants in Brazil. A reference methodological centre for enteric methane measurement involving the use of chambers, SF6 tracer gas technique and in vitro methodologies will be created. Mitigation strategies involving improvements in livestock systems and feed practices will be tested. A screening of five hundred substrates obtained from Brazilian tropical biodiversity will be carried out to identify potential substances for enteric methane mitigation.

Main expected outcomes are:

• to develop strategies of enteric methane mitigation, besides bringing benefits to the environment, provide greater productivity and profitability for tropical livestock systems,
• to contribute with national greenhouse gases inventories data,
• to estimate the contribution of Brazilian methane enteric production to GHG,
• to identify mitigation management practices which would enhance both competitiveness and sustainability of livestock farming in Brazil,
• to identify Brazilian flora substances as potential additives for enteric methane mitigation, and
• to provide scientists, government agencies, livestock industry and society with reliable enteric methane emissions data based on local conditions (e.g. specific emission factors as most of available data to data comes from temperate zones of the globe only).
  

The project is divided in two parts:

I) Conceptual advances, including:
The creation of a centre of reference in methodologies to measure enteric methane emissions. It is be responsible of the standardization and validation of methodologies to be used in beef and dairy cattle, sheep, goats and buffalos. Some of the methodologies to be considered are: respirometric chambers, in vitro gas production techniques and SF6 tracer gas technique.

II) Mitigation Strategies, including:
Some of the strategies to be considered are pasture management, crop-livestock integration, feedlot, silvopastoral systems and Inclusion of diet ingredients (bio-diesel by-products, oils, essential oil, herbal extracts, forages, feed additives, concentrates, secondary compounds and forage legumes.

The RumenGases research network comprises several dozens of partner organizations including research institutes, government agencies, universities and international partners from Canada, Australia, Scotland and New Zealand. Dairy industry is taking part in the project as well. The total cost of this collaborative research is estimated to as much as $1.5 million, financed both by state and privately over next four years.