Empowering Sustainable Livestock Practices: Advanced Sensors for GHG Monitoring

Livestock industry accounts for approximately 14.5% of total global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The primary sources of GHG emissions from ruminant animals are enteric fermentation and manure disposal, which are inherent and essential parts of the animal food cycle. However, different approaches are proposed and some implemented to mitigate methane emissions from individual animals, including genetic selection of more efficient breeds, implementing new farm management methods, and utilizing feed additives. Individual animals are being monitored for GHG emissions by different techniques such as the GreenFeed system or chambers, which are great for research/controlled environments, but they are costly, not scalable, and not designed for long-term and on-farm herd-level measurements.

Farmers are investing heavily in mitigating GHG emissions in their operations to meet the requirements of the 2030 Emission Reduction Plan. Consequently, there is a clear market demand for a technology that can measure, document, and monitor farm-level GHG emissions.

In this project, we propose an applied solution to measure GHG emission rates at the farm-level and validate and test it across multiple provinces. The short-term objectives of this initiative are to develop a proof of concept for our GHG emission measuring technology and conduct a pilot test in 10 farms in Nova Scotia. The subsequent long-term objectives include optimizing and validating the accuracy of herd GHG emission rate measurement and investigating the sensitivity of our technology in capturing GHG emission variations resulting from different mitigation strategies and across multiple provinces.

The anticipated outcome of this project is a network of sensor modules installed in barns, each comprising an array of sensors to capture various GHG contributors. These modules will communicate wirelessly with a cloud-based database. The proposed solution will provide the livestock industry with a reliable tool to demonstrate measurable and verifiable reductions in emissions at the herd level.