Improved productivity and sustainability in high value dairy production through the deployment of low cost wireless methane sensors

The intensification of dairy farming has resulted in an increasing disconnect between the vision that consumers have of a dairy farm and the reality. As a consequence, when consumers are provided with a partial picture of the practices employed on dairy farms, the over-riding conclusion is that current farm practices do not protect the environment; 1 in 3 adults believe that the farming and production of dairy foods significantly contributes to overall climate change. The farms and dairy companies able to clearly communicate and provide evidence of the positive impact that their operations have on both the local and global environment are more likely to remain not only economically viable but are able to gain access to higher value markets. The requirement to ensure the sustainability of the dairy supply chain is to establish a validated standard framework enabling the certification of best practices for rewarding production practices minimise the detrimental impact on climate.

In the UK, it is currently estimated that?10% of the?country's total GHG emissions come from agriculture, (46.3 Mt CO2e pa). The main GHG from agriculture is methane from ruminants (56%), followed by nitrous oxide from fertilisers (31%).?The most important greenhouse gas in farming is methane predominantly from ruminants which has a GHG impact 34 times that of CO2\. Globally cattle contributes to 13% of methane emissions. The dairy sector has begun to address the pressing need to reduce methane emissions through genetics and with the use of feed additives. However, presently, there is no industry standard for methane measurement that can independently quantify the mass of methane produced on an operational farm, driving a near-term need for reliable cost-effective measurement methods. Research farms have deployed automated feeder systems with aspirated methane measurement devices e.g. Green-feed, however these are prohibitively expensive (~£70k per unit), a significant barrier to widespread adoption.

The project aims to deliver a low-cost, robust methane sensor which can be rapidly retrofitted to existing farm equipment e.g. milking robots with minimal installation cost to increase the adoption of GHG measurement equipment. The approach is compatible with creating sensor networks for infield deployment to provide real-time measurement with higher granularity over current remote sensing survey approaches. The power harvesting solution eliminates the need for both hard wiring (which is not practical or cost effective) and battery power, unacceptable due to the need for regular changes and also environmentally unacceptable.