NZ scientists make breakthrough in Facial Eczema research
A significant breakthrough in understanding facial eczema (FE) in livestock brings New Zealand closer to reducing the disease’s devastating impact on farmers, animals, and rural communities.
New research into genetics and breeding could lead to New Zealand raising livestock with lower nitrogen emissions and so lower greenhouse gas effects.
Two research projects are looking into the possibility of a link between the nitrogen content of milk and animal emissions, and the possibility of identifying then replicating genes to control the level of animals’ nitrogen emissions.
Fonterra’s Less Footprint programme manager, Dr Mike Scarsbrook, says the research is showing that what an animal eats, and genetic factors, play a part in how much nitrogen it excretes.
“This means if animals with lower nitrogen emission can be identified, that trait can be bred into the national herds and the whole country can benefit from lower emissions,” he said.
Nitrous oxide is a small but critical part of NZ greenhouse gas emissions, making up 12% of all emissions in 2016. Like methane, nitrous oxide is a strong contributor to climate change because it more effectively traps heat than carbon dioxide – by about 300 times.
But unlike carbon dioxide, which can last for thousands of years in the atmosphere, nitrous oxide breaks down in about 114 years.
AgResearch, Massey University, DairyNZ and Abacus Bio are the research partners and Fonterra is helping to fund it.
AgResearch has also filed for a patent that builds on this work and provides an option for new tools to identify the low-emitting animals at a genetic level.
NZPork has appointed Auckland-based Paul Bucknell as its new chair.
The Government claims to have delivered on its election promise to protect productive farmland from emissions trading scheme (ETS) but red meat farmers aren’t happy.
Foot and Mouth Disease outbreaks could have a detrimental impact on any country's rural sector, as seen in the United Kingdom's 2000 outbreak that saw the compulsory slaughter of over six million animals.
The Ministry for the Environment is joining as a national award sponsor in the Ballance Farm Environment Awards (BFEA from next year).
Kiwis are wasting less of their food than they were two years ago, and this has been enough to push New Zealand’s total household food waste bill lower, the 2025 Rabobank KiwiHarvest Food Waste survey has found.
OPINION: Sir Lockwood Smith has clearly and succinctly defined what academic freedom is all about, the boundaries around it and the responsibility that goes with this privilege.