Cattle farming is under significant scrutiny due to its substantial environmental impact, primarily from greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions produced through enteric fermentation and the management and storage of manure. Several strategies are being developed to reduce cattle emissions to achieve the net-zero goals set by the dairy cattle industry in the USA. These strategies include 1) using feed additives to reduce enteric emissions from cattle and 2) genetic selection for cows with naturally lower methane emissions. However, the limited infrastructure and resources needed to develop these solutions may slow their implementation and adoption. Therefore, there is a need for accessible technologies that help dairy farmers monitor local GHG emissions in their production systems and apply timely mitigation strategies.

Our study aims to study the effect of common cattle diseases on the sustainable production of animal protein by modifying individual cattle emissions. The specific objectives for this study are: 1) to produce preliminary data on estimates of the impact of common cattle diseases (e.g., bovine respiratory disease and diarrhea) on their individual methane emissions, 2) to validate proprietary GHG low-cost sensor using the gold standard respiration chambers facilities at Cornell, 3) to develop a methodology to measure emissions from small and medium size dairy farms using proprietary GHG low-cost sensor, and 4) to study farmers' willingness to adopt these low-cost sensor nodes.