Abstract
Approximately three quarters of the UK land area (18.6 m ha) is classed as agricultural land (including woodlands); this hosts over 200 million livestock of different species and breeds. The mitigation of the environmental impact of livestock production systems is increasingly recognised as an important objective and a necessary part of the UK’s overall climate change obligations. Understanding variation in the way in which different breeds of livestock, or different animals within breeds, utilise the available resources in a system can help to develop tools that can mitigate GHG emissions. Different breeds, or different genotypes within a breed, vary in the efficiency with which they convert the resources within a system into animal product and, consequently, in the proportion of used resources that ends up as waste. As a result, the environmental impact associated with the production of a kg of human food of animal origin varies as well. This project will summarise current knowledge on the characteristics of breeds, and genetic variability within breeds, for nutrient and energy efficiency traits and on the incorporation of lifecycle nutrient efficiency targets into animal breeding programmes as per Recommended Action 31 of the UK National Action Plan for FAnGR. The project will draw on expertise from IBERS and SAC on nutrient efficiency, system efficiency and dietary utilisation an integrate with genetics expertise to examine how these traits could be incorporated into breeding programmes. To ensure that the project is guided by relevant academic and industrial experts steering committees will be established to advise on project progress. This will help ensure that the outputs from the project have industry relevance. The review will not only give an inventory of our knowledge about genetic/breed differences in traits that are relevant for lifecycle nutrient efficiency (‘state of the art’) but it will also serve to identify more clearly: (i) the traits that are most likely to contribute most to genetic/breed differences in lifecycle nutrient efficiency and (ii) identify the type of research that is required to determine with more confidence which genotypes/breeds are most suitable for which environments from a lifecycle nutrient efficiency point of view.
United Kingdom