This project investigates conceptual advances in methane diagnosis and mitigation strategies for ruminants in Brazil. Mitigation strategies involving improvements in livestock systems and feed practices are tested.

RumenGases is divided in two parts: I) Conceptual advances: It is responsible for the standardization and validation of methodologies to be used in beef and dairy cattle, sheep, goats and buffalos for enteric methane evaluation. Some of the methodologies to be considered are: open-circuit chambers, in vitro gas production techniques and SF6 tracer gas technique. II) Mitigation Strategies: Some of the strategies to be considered are pasture management, crop-livestock integration, feedlots, silvopastoral systems and diet ingredients (bio-diesel by-products, oils, essential oils, herbal extracts, forages, feed additives, concentrates, secondary compounds and forage legumes)

The RumenGases project comprises dozens of partner organizations including research institutes, government agencies, universities and international partners from Canada, Australia, Scotland and New Zealand. Dairy industry is taking part in the project as well.