Brenda O’Farrell
The Advocate

A proposal to encourage Canadian farmers to reduce methane emissions from cattle through a credit-trading system was announced by the federal government at the COP28 conference in Dubai last December.

The Reducing Enteric Methane Emissions from Beef Cattle proposal is the latest climate-change initiative put forward by the Canadian government in its ongoing efforts to reduce the effects of greenhouse gases.

The proposal would provide farmers who reduce methane emissions created by cow burps the opportunity to collect credits that could then be sold to other businesses seeking to meet their own emission targets.

These offset credits would be provided through the Canadian Greenhouse Gas Offset Credit System and governed by the system’s previously established regulations.

Each credit would represent a metric tonne of methane emissions.

Reducing burp emissions would be achieved through improving diets for cattle and using strategies that support “more efficient animal growth,” according to the proposal.

Methane is emitted by cows during the animals’ natural digestive process. As food is digested, feed is converted into methane and released back into the atmosphere through burping.

According to the guidelines outlined for the proposal, the aim is to generate emission reductions that are “real, additional, quantified, verified, unique and permanent.”

Only cows confined to “beef cattle feeding operations” qualify. Grazing beef cattle and dairy cows are not included. The government could include other ruminants other than beef cattle in the project at a later date.

Studies of methane emissions from livestock show these emissions can be reduced by altering the animals’ diet, including using high grain rations and adding fats and oils to rations. Feeding higher quality forage – like replacing grass hay with alfalfa, as one example – can reduce the animal’s methane emissions.