Phenomics

A new test facility for validation of sniffer devices measuring methane output of dairy cows

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Abstract

Governments worldwide have committed to decrease greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2050. Animal breeding has been identified as one of the important mitigation tools to reduce the environmental footprint of livestock because it is cost-effective, permanent and cumulative over generations. The achieved effect of animal breeding, however, depends highly on the scale of GHG recording. Therefore it is important to record the methane (CH4) emissions of many individual animals. Sniffers are widely recognized instruments to measure these CH4 and carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations in the breath of ruminants during milking or feeding. Even though sniffers are widely used as the method of choice to phenotype substantial numbers of cows long-term, there is a lack of (1) comparability of sniffers of different manufactures, and (2) protocols in terms of methods to calibrate and utilize the equipment at farm level to increase the repeatability. Therefore, in September 2025, we established a test facility at the Dairy Campus (Leeuwarden, the Netherlands) to evaluate the performance of five different sniffer devices over time. This is a part of the Global Methane Genetics initiative, which supports international harmonization and standardization of methane recording. These sniffers are connected to a measuring tube that is installed in the feed bin of a DeLaval milking robot, ensuring all four sniffers measure the same air sample at the same time. Sixty cows visit this milking robot several times during a day. Once per month we perform a reference method where the same air that is analyzed by each sniffer is also sampled in a 10 liter Nalophan sampling bag inserted in a closed vessel. These bags with air are then analyzed in the laboratory by using a gas chromatograph. This is considered to be the gold standard for gas quantification in the field of agricultural research. We then compare the average CH4 and CO2 concentrations recorded by each sniffer to the CH4 and CO2 concentrations from the gas chromatography, sampled in the same timeframe. This shows us how well each of the sniffers compare to the gold standard, and if there are differences in this between the sniffers. In total the sniffers will be tested for one year, with monthly references. A GreenFeed (c-lock inc.) is installed in the same area, and the cows can visit it freely. This gives us CH4 production measures of the same cows on the same day. The Spearman rank correlations are ~0.33 for all sniffers, showing that cows ranked high for CH4 concentration also are higher emitters in g/day. The International Committee of Animal Recording (ICAR, Utrecht, the Netherlands) has made this an official service for sniffer manufacturers as of January 2026.

Keywords: 2026

How to Cite:

Bà¼ttgen, L., de Haas, Y., Gredler-Grandl, B., Snijder, J., Van Gemert, C. & Veerkamp, R., (2026) “A new test facility for validation of sniffer devices measuring methane output of dairy cows”, World Congress on Genetics Applied to Livestock Production Digital Archive 2026(1): 2286335. doi: https://doi.org/10.31274/wcgalp.23935

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