13 June 2025
Sheep farmers’ views wanted for Sustain Sheep research
Led by researchers in Teagasc Athenry, the Sustain Sheep Project is seeking farmers’ views to assess their awareness of genetic tools that can help reduce methane emissions and support climate change adaptation.
Sustain Sheep is an international project, creating knowledge and infrastructure to incorporate genetic merit for low environmental impact traits into national breeding indexes for sheep.
At the same time, the project aims to broaden the understanding – both nationally and internationally – of what impact such inclusions may have on key production traits such as growth, feed intake and efficiency.
The knowledge generated will provide a comprehensive list of recommendations for breeding programmes to be determined in tandem with the economic implications of selecting for low methane sheep.
The project is being led by Teagasc, with the support of Sheep Ireland. Teagasc has received funding for the project from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) under the Green ERA-HUB funding programme.
As part of the project, a survey is being carried out online across six countries: Ireland, the United Kingdom, France, New Zealand, Norway and Uruguay. And along with assessing sheep farmers’ awareness of genetic tools that can contribute to the mitigation of methane emissions and enhance climate change adaptation, it also aims to identify the participants favoured mode of accessing information, allowing researchers to tailor future communications to stakeholders about the project results and the wider subject.
For more information on the Sustain Sheep survey, watch the below video:
Share your views and access the Sustain Sheep survey here.
The latest results from the project and the survey will be available at the Sheep 2025 Open Day in Teagasc Athenry on the 21st of June.
