SUSTAINABILITY 76 FEED & ADDITIVE MAGAZINE April 2025 Incipient research on a vast collection of tropical forages – grasses, shrubs, legumes and trees – shows that changing livestock diets can significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Founded on a vast, decades-old collection of carefully preserved seeds, rapid technological advances allow scientists to unlock transformative ways to reduce livestock farming’s outsized environmental footprint. A team of scientists lead Andy the short-haired sheep into an airtight chamber and serve him a precise portion of Guinea grass. Andy will spend the next 24 hours in the high-tech enclosure while the researchers measure how much methane Andy releases while digesting the Megathyrsus maximus. The little-used forage is one of dozens of palatable, nutritious and easily digestible pasture grasses researchers are analyzing at the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT in Colombia. They expect the research results will uncover more methane-mitigating grasses that farmers can use to change livestock diets and significantly reduce the industry’s planet-heating emissions. Andy and his charismatic ovine buddies – who spend most of their time roaming silvopastoral areas across the Alliance’s sprawling 500-hectare campus – may be the newest darlings of the forages lab, but they are just one part of ongoing research aimed at making livestock systems more sustainable. TROPICAL GRASSES AND OTHER FORAGES CAN BOOST LIVESTOCK SUSTAINABILITY – AND NOT JUST IN THE TROPICS Sean Mattson Global Communications Officer Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT Andy the short-haired sheep (Peliguey) eats Megathyrsus maximus, an understudied tropical grass with potential to reduce methane emissions from livestock, on the Colombia campus of the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT. Andy is one of several sheep in a project that will evaluate forages for their methane-mitigation potential in livestock diets. More than 2,000 will be screened in the Alliance’s gene bank and the promising candidates will be sent for trials in the Alliance’s new methane lab. Peliguey sheep are used in the experiments because they are easier to handle and are ruminants with similar digestive systems to cattle. Credit: Sean Mattson/Alliance
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