Sustainability & efficiency

Balancing Methane Reduction and Genetic Gain: Insights from Methane Efficiency Evaluations in Canadian Holsteins

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Abstract

Enteric methane production in dairy cattle is genetically unfavourably correlated with milk production traits, particularly fat yield (correlation ~0.40). Fat yield is a major determinant of milk price and strongly influences Canada's national selection indexes, Lifetime Perfomance Index (LPI) and Pro$. Therefore, selecting animals for lower methane emissions without considering this correlation could inadvertently reduce fat yield and compromise economic returns, an outcome dairy producers would find unacceptable. To address this, Canada's Methane Efficiency (ME) evaluation was designed to be genetically independent of milk production traits, ensuring that selection for reduced methane emissions does not negatively impact progress in economically important traits. This rationale underpins the present study. Canada introduced genetic evaluations for ME in April 2023 for Holsteins, becoming the first country to offer evaluations specifically aimed at reducing methane emissions in dairy cattle. Since implementation, knowledge transfer initiatives have focused on promoting ME adoption and supporting the Dairy Farmers of Canada's net-zero objective. The objective of this study was to assess the impact of selecting sires with higher ME on Canada's national selection indexes, Pro$ and LPI. The dataset included 774 sires with at least 100 insemination records in Canada between April 1, 2024 and March 31, 2025, which represents a 12-month period one year after the introduction of ME evaluations. A total of 785,034 inseminations were included in the analysis. Genetic evaluations from December 2025 were used to assess the genetic merit of the sires. Weighted averages for Pro$, LPI and ME were calculated based on insemination counts. To evaluate the effect of ME-based selection, minimum thresholds corresponding to the Holstein breed average and one or two standard deviations above the average ME were applied. Across all inseminations, weighted averages for Pro$, LPI and ME were 2,021, 3,541 and 101, respectively. When restricting to sires with ME ≥100 (532 sires, 543,528 inseminations), averages increased to 2,196, 3,608 and 104 for Pro$, LPI and ME, respectively. Further increasing the threshold to ME ≥105 (203 sires, 216,365 inseminations) resulted in averages of 2,381, 3,675 and 107 for Pro$, LPI and ME, respectively. These findings indicate that selecting sires with higher genetic evaluations for ME can reduce methane emissions without compromising overall genetic progress as measured by LPI and Pro$. Further research is needed to see the impact on individual traits.

Keywords: 2026

How to Cite:

Fleming, A., Jaton, C., Lohuis, M., Malchiodi, F., Miglior, F., Sloan, D., Sweett, H. & Van Doormaal, B., (2026) “Balancing Methane Reduction and Genetic Gain: Insights from Methane Efficiency Evaluations in Canadian Holsteins”, World Congress on Genetics Applied to Livestock Production Digital Archive 2026(1): 2295618. doi: https://doi.org/10.31274/wcgalp.24350

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