In our pursuit to make animal production more sustainable, it is essential to measure progress and track reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. Solutions from Zinpro® enhance performance, health and efficiency while delivering measurable decreases in carbon impact.
Why Emissions Intensity Matters in Agriculture
Increasing the number of animals results in more meat, milk and eggs to help meet growing food demands. However, this also leads to higher overall carbon emissions. For example, between 2005 and 2025, the global dairy herd grew by 11%, causing an 18% rise in total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Without significant improvements in efficiency, animal health, production per animal and overall management, this increase could have been much higher (up to 38%).
While reducing absolute emissions remains a priority, progress has been made in lowering emissions per unit of product which is known as emission intensity. In the dairy sector, GHG emissions per kilogram of milk dropped by nearly 11% between 2005 and 2015, demonstrating the impact of these advancements.
Role of Feed in Reducing Carbon Emissions
Animal feed plays a major role in the carbon footprint of meat, eggs and dairy products because the process of growing, processing and transporting feed contributes significantly to GHG emissions. However, feed quality and digestibility are just as important. A diet may appear environmentally sustainable on paper, but if the animal cannot consume and digest it efficiently, it can lead to performance losses and higher nitrogen levels in manure, increasing the environmental impact.
The role of animal nutritionists is becoming increasingly complex. In the past, decisions were often based on least-cost or best-cost formulations. Now, efficiency, both on animal and farm level, must be balanced with the carbon footprint and global warming potential*l of feed choices. This multi-dimensional challenge requires accurate data on the carbon footprint of feed ingredients and by-products. But how do micro ingredients, such as organic trace minerals, play a role in reducing carbon emissions?
Quantifying the Impact of Organic Trace Minerals
While organic trace minerals are used in small amounts in animal diets, their impact on reducing carbon emissions can be significant by improving key performance indicators. At Zinpro, we have quantified the environmental benefits of our products and solutions. Since different greenhouse gases have varying warming effects, we use CO₂ equivalent (CO₂e) as a standardized unit in our calculations. Some of the exciting new data we can release include:
Dairy Cows:
- 9.2% improvement in feed efficiency, leading to an 8% reduction in CO₂e per unit of milk, which is equivalent to 120 kg CO₂e per 1,000 kg of milk produced.
- 30% increase in heifer survivability, resulting in a 1.5% reduction in CO₂e needed to maintain herd size, saving 143 kg CO₂e per heifer that remains in the milking herd.
Swine & Poultry:
- 1% improvement in nursery pig livability, along with enhanced production and efficiency, leading to a reduction of CO₂e output by about 3% on a finishing pig basis.
- A 2-point improvement in feed conversion in broilers, equating to about +105g in live weight, resulting in a 3.67% reduction in CO₂e output per unit of broiler meat produced.
- 5.2% increase in egg production in layers, leading to a 5.42% reduction in CO₂e output per unit of egg mass produced.
Marine Fish:
- 7% reduction in feed inputs, driven by 6.8% higher protein retention and 13.2% improved phosphorus retention, cutting emissions by 182 g CO₂e per kg of edible meat.
Driving Change and Innovation in Animal Production
Animal production practices, including nutrition, are facing increasing scrutiny regarding their impact on animal health, welfare and the environment. There is a growing demand for transparency, with standardized methodologies, such as Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methods and database values, being used to measure environmental impacts at the farm level.
At Zinpro, we are committed to driving positive change by demonstrating how nutrition can support carbon reduction goals in animal production. The measurable improvements achieved through our products and solutions underscore the vital role of micro ingredients like organic trace minerals in enhancing efficiency and sustainability across livestock and aquaculture production.
*The Global Warming Potential (GWP) to allow comparisons of the global warming impacts of different gases. Specifically, the GWP is a measure of how much energy the emission of 1 ton of a gas will absorb over a given period of time, relative to the emission of 1 ton of carbon dioxide (CO2). The larger the GWP, the more that a given gas warms the Earth compared to CO2 over that time period. The time period usually used for GWPs is 100 years.
