New diets for cows, sheep could cut emissions

Feeding the animals maize silage, naked oats and higher sugar grasses could reduce the amount of methane they produce, the study by Reading University and the Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences showed. Agriculture accounts for around nine percent of all British greenhouse gas emissions. Most of this comes from sheep, cows and goats. Farming accounts for 41 percent of Britain’s overall methane emissions, which are harmful to the environment. A trial showed that high-sugar grasses could reduce an animal’s methane emissions by 20 percent for every kg of weight gain and naked oats could reduce methane emissions from sheep by 33 percent.