New research is using a machine imported from America to analyse the methane emissions in cattle belches, with the goal of creating a low-gas diet.

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Listen Duration: 4 minutes 30 seconds 4 m 30 s University of Adelaide's Dr Michael Wilkes describes how the 'Green Feeder Machine' analyses methane emissions in cattle breath ( Danielle Grindlay ) Download 8.3 MB

The University of Adelaide project will develop feed supplements and region-specific diet regimes that should benefit both the environment and producers' profits.

Cattle emit a large amount of methane into the atmosphere and research officer Dr Michael Wilkes said concerns extended beyond the global warming effect, to animal performance.

"If animals are producing more methane, they are essentially losing energy which would otherwise be put into production," he said.

"They need a high fibre diet but [if it is] too high, it sort of slows things down and the methanogens establish and produce more methane."

University of Adelaide research officer Dr Michael Wilkes demonstrates how the Green Feeder Machine analyses cattle breath for methane emissions. ( Danielle Grindlay )

The $60,000 '"Green Feed Machine" developed in Dakota, entices cattle to put their head into a feeding box where they are fed small amounts of pellets over a five minute period.

A fan then draws up the animal's expired breath, measures the concentration of gases and attributes the data to the individual ear tag.

Dr Wilkes said about 98 per cent of gas emissions come from belches, meaning the contraption does not need to assess what comes out of "the other end".

"We have to undergo a training process to get them to realise that if they stick their head into the machine it's not going to hurt them and that they'll actually get a food reward," Dr Wilkes said.

"There's a chime that goes off when it reads their Radio Frequency Identification ear tag and then delivers them food, so they learn pretty quickly it's a good thing.

"We've got some really good photos of six or seven cattle lined up in a queue, waiting."

The machine is calibrated to a precise feeding routine, which means a greedy cow that pokes its head in too many times will be sorely disappointed.

"We've fit a raceway up to the machine to sort of channel them in and prevent bullying events," Dr Wilkes said.

"We control how much, when, and how often an individual animal eats, so once they've eaten their allocation they can't eat any more until we let them."

In early trials, Dr Wilkes' team developed a supplement pellet aimed at reducing methane emissions and fed it to pregnant heifers.

"The results from that started to show that we were getting a reduction in the methane output," he said.

Dr Wilkes conceded most cattle producers were not yet concerned about reducing methane emissions but he hopes to undergo further research that will show the financial incentives of reducing them.

"In terms of methane emissions, it's not unreasonable to think we can drop them by 20 to 25 per cent," he said.

"How that relates to production gains is very hard to put a number on; that's something we'll be looking to do, look at some of the economic impacts of it."