Feed additive reduces methane emissions If cows fart less, is the milk climate-friendly?
The feed additive Bovaer makes cows burp less: This is supposed to make milk more climate-friendly. But is it true? Opinions are divided in the UK, but there are high hopes for the product in Switzerland.
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- The feed additive Bovaer reduces Kühne's methane emissions by 30 percent.
- The product is being tested on a large scale in the UK: Corresponding dairy products are being widely advertised, but are also provoking protests.
- In Switzerland, the product is approved but hardly ever used. This could change.
Climate-friendly milk? The issue is currently causing trouble in the UK. There, the feed additive Bovaer is currently being used on a large scale in a test run. The product reduces the methane emissions produced by dairy cattle during digestion by an average of 30 percent. In plain language: the cows burp and flatulate less.
A dairy cow releases up to 120 kilograms of methane per year. In the short term, this greenhouse gas is more dangerous than CO2 and contributes significantly to climate change. Agriculture wants to and must reduce emissions. Bovaer could help with this.
This is also the aim of the marketing strategy in the United Kingdom. Products from animals that have Bovaer mixed into their feed are presented as particularly climate-friendly. They are available in many supermarket chains - and have sparked protests, calls for a boycott and conspiracy theories, as reported by the BBC and others.
Methane inhibitor makes milk more expensive
According to the Tages-Anzeiger newspaper, Bovaer is available in 59 countries and is also approved in Switzerland. However, the product, which is produced by DSM Firmenich, based in Kaiseraugst AG in the Netherlands, is only being used by a small number of farms in Switzerland.
According to the manufacturer, Bovaer has been tested in over 100 agricultural trials and examined in dozens of studies. However, according to the Swiss Milk Producers' Association (SMP), there is still no reliable data on the long-term effects of its use.
"Bovaer contributes to a reduction in the ecological footprint of milk and beef products," DSM Firmenich nevertheless points out the benefits of the product. However, this comes at a price. Even if only one gram of Bovaer is needed per 20 kilograms of feed, the price of milk increases by one to two centimes per kilogram on the producer side alone if a farm produces exclusively Bovaer milk. This was the result of calculations by the milk trading organization Aaremilch.
It is not worth it for the farmers: they would pay more for the feed, but would gain nothing from it. Unless they were compensated by a climate protection program.
Skepticism among some, hope among others
The environmental protection organization Greenpeace Switzerland is also sceptical. According to spokesperson Barbara Wegmann, feed additives are one way of technologically reducing climate emissions. However, this would not be enough. "To reduce the climate and environmental impact of our diet, we need a change in consumption," Wegmann is quoted as saying by the Tages-Anzeiger newspaper.
Nevertheless, the Swiss Farmers' Association would "expect a run on this milk" if it were to be marketed. Spokesperson Sandra Helfenstein believes that "the population could then consciously prefer this particularly climate-friendly milk."
