Retailers Morrisons, Tesco and Aldi have joined UK dairy cooperative Arla to reduce methane emissions.

The project will see a collective effort across the food industry to trial the use of Bovaer®, a feed additive that reduces enteric methane emissions from cows on average, by 27%.

As part of its FarmAhead™ Customer Partnership initiative, Arla will work alongside retail partners Morrisons and Aldi, and with Tesco on its new Future Dairy Partnership initiative, to highlight how feed additives can be introduced to normal feeding routines.

The new project, which will also involve around 30 of Arla’s farmer owners, aims to provide a “better understanding” of how these feed additives can be rolled out across a larger group of farmers.

Paul Dover, UK agricultural director at Arla Foods, commented: “We know that reducing methane is a big opportunity when it comes to improving our carbon footprint at farm level and feed additives like Bovaer® have huge potential in helping us tackle this issue. Bringing partners together from across the food & grocery industry in this kind of initiative highlights the support there is for British farmers in transitioning to more sustainable farming methods.

“We are extremely excited about this new collective way of working alongside our retail partners and the possibilities that feed additives, such as this one, present. However, rolling them out at scale will not be easy due to the cost involved, so it’s important we understand more about their usage potential and then work together with the industry, Government and our partners to support farmers if we want to harness the opportunity they present in driving down emissions.”

Testing where to drive change

Arla said its Bovaer® trial will provide a “more practical understanding” of how to scale the use of feed additives, how it impacts on farm operations and the opportunity to work more collaboratively with the feed industry.

In a joint comment, Morrisons, Aldi and Tesco said: “Through collaboration as part of Arla’s FarmAhead™ Customer Partnership, we have the ability to address some of the climate challenges facing our food system. It is this collective approach that is really going to make a difference. Being involved in using a feed additive is a great way of testing out where we can drive change at scale to bring down emissions.”

Andrew Barraclough, Arla Farmer owner and one of those involved in using Bovaer®, stated: “Working on initiatives that help reduce our impact on the environment is something that I am extremely passionate about. We know that feed additives have a lot of potential in helping us to reduce emissions, but they can be expensive, which adds to the overall cost in producing milk.

“Farmers are trying to accelerate the transition to more sustainable dairy farming, but we can’t do it alone. It’s why collective initiatives like this between Arla and its customers are so important for farmers – we need the wider industry to come together and support us if we are going to drive change.”