By Stan Maddux

Indiana Correspondent 

GREENFIELD, Ind. – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has cleared the way for dairy farmers to place a dietary supplement in feed to reduce the amount of methane released by their cows to help fight climate change.

“This monumental announcement has the ability to accelerate the opportunity for climate-neutral dairy farming while creating a new revenue stream for dairy farmers across the country,” said Jeff Simmons, president and CEO of Elanco Animal Health Inc.

The Greenfield, Ind.-based company is the maker of Bovaer, which was determined by FDA to meet safety and efficacy requirements for use in lactating dairy cattle following years of research and trials.

“We appreciate FDA’s commitment to maintaining high standards for science-based review while balancing the need to quickly bring solutions to the market,” Simmons said.

According to the company, Bovaer works by suppressing the enzyme in the cow’s rumen that forms methane.

The rumen is the first and largest compartment of a cow’s stomach that serves as a fermentation and storage vat for feed and is home to millions of microorganisms, mainly bacteria, which cows need to digest plant parts.

The rumen on the left side of a cow can hold up to 25 gallons of material.

According to the company, feeding one tablespoon of Bovaer to a lactating dairy cow can reduce methane emissions by 30 percent or about 1.2 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions annually.

Feeding one million cows Bovaer would reduce emissions equivalent to removing more than 285,000 cars from the road for a year, according to the company.

Farmers using the product will not see much of an increase in their operating costs and will be financially compensated for reducing the carbon footprint of their operations.

The annual return for farmers could potentially be as much as $20 or more per lactating cow while the added expense of using the product would amount to “a few cents a gallon of milk,” said Katie Cook, vice president of livestock sustainability and farm animal marketing at Elanco.

Elanco expects to begin making the product available and giving producers carbon credit value for the methane they eliminated from the atmosphere in the third quarter of this year.

Gregg Doud, president and CEO of the National Milk Producers Federation, said Bovaer could also help protect dairy farmers from slumping sales as consumers increasingly demand and switch to lower carbon foods.

“Bovaer is an innovation that can help U.S. dairy farmers remain globally competitive and maintain their role as leaders in more sustainable dairy production,” he said.

Elanco has also partnered with dsm-firmenich, which has headquarters in Switzerland and the Netherlands, to expand distribution of Bovaer across North America, including Canada and Mexico.

The product is already available for use in Canada and Mexico in beef and dairy cattle, according to officials with both companies.

Dsm-firmenich is known for over a century for its work in science and nutrition in areas like fragrance, taste, health and nutrition.

“We congratulate Elanco and the U.S. dairy sector on this important milestone and will support Elanco by providing initial supplies from Europe,” said Dimitri de Vreeze, CEO of dsm-firmenich.

According to the United Nations, the world’s population has until 2030 to curb greenhouse gas emissions like methane or deal with irreversible impacts on the planet.

Science has shown that methane lasts about a decade in the atmosphere and is 27 times more potent than carbon dioxide at trapping heat on earth.

“Reducing enteric methane is critical if we are to reach our climate goals,” said Dr. Frank Mithoehner, a professor at the University of California Davis Medical Center and a Cooperative Extension air quality specialist in the Department of Animal Science at the university in Sacramento.

Carbon dioxide is not as heat trapping but can remain in the atmosphere from 300 to 1,000 years, according to science.

For that reason, experts believe reducing the amount of methane released into the atmosphere can have the most positive short-term impact on slowing global warming.

Methane, a natural byproduct of how cows digest their high fiber diet, is blamed for about 30 percent of the current rise in global temperatures. Studies show a single cow can produce 70-120 kilograms of methane a year, mostly through burping.

Globally, studies reveal the 1.5 billion heads of cattle raised for meat production release at least 231 billion pounds of methane into the atmosphere each year. Livestock production is blamed for about 14.5 percent of global greenhouse emissions.

Greenhouse gases, once in the atmosphere, act like a blanket, slowing the rate at which heat leaves the planet, according to science.

Elanco has been involved in animal health for close to 70 years by creating and delivering products and services aimed at preventing and treating disease in farm animals and pets. 

“Bovaer will create value for farmers while helping food companies meet consumer demands and deliver on their sustainability commitments,” Simmons said.