Royal DSM, a science-based company in nutrition, health and sustainable living, has announced that it is taking the next step towards implementing its methane inhibitor Bovaer in the Netherlands
This will be achieved through a trial at the Dairy Campus in Leeuwarden, which aims to gather all information necessary for accreditation of Bovaer by the Carbon Footprint Monitor/Climate Module of the Kringloopwijzer (the annual nutrient cycling assessment).
The trial has been designed together with a consortium from across the Dutch Dairy Chain, comprising of DSM, Wageningen University & Research, FrieslandCampina, Agrifirm, De Heus & ForFarmers. The trial will deliver methane reduction results for different ratios of grass silage and maize silage diets typical for Dutch circumstances and different dosages of Bovaer.
The trial will run from November 2019 to February 2020 and will be supervised by a team of cattle nutrition experts from Wageningen University & Research.
The participating feed producers Agrifirm, De Heus and ForFarmers commented, “Within the National Climate Agreement, we have agreed that the agricultural sector will deliver a contribution to making our food production more sustainable. A part of that commitment is to further reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of the sector, for example by reducing the methane emissions from the cow’s rumination process with practical, economical and animal-friendly solutions. This has the potential to create added value for our dairy products and could contribute to increasing public support for the way we produce our food in the Netherlands.
“These experiments should elucidate to what extent the additive mitigates methane emissions. After this trial further investigations are required to evaluate the feasibility, business case and technical on-farm application of the product.”
