C-Lock Symposium advances global push for methane measurement in beef genetics

5 May 2026

6 minute read

By: Sarah Mikesell

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The inaugural C-Lock Symposium in Denver, Colorado, USA, brought together a focused group of researchers, geneticists, cattle farmers and ranchers, industry leaders and sustainability stakeholders from around the world to explore one of the livestock sector’s most pressing challenges: how to accurately measure, standardize and apply methane emissions data in beef production. 

Designed as a highly collaborative event, the focus was clearly set on the role genetics play in methane emissions and how the industry can move toward an index-based measurement system to help producers select their genetics and breed for low emission animals. Working groups and panel discussions reinforced this theme, creating space for participants to share how GreenFeed systems are being used in research and on-farm today. 

Presentations ranged from translating methane data into genetic prediction and understanding behavioral variation, to defining sustainability phenotypes and developing consistent testing protocols along with supply chain expectations and the role of methane data in sustainability reporting. 

Against this backdrop, a post-event interview with C-Lock’s president, Scott Zimmerman, and C-Lock research scientist Dr. Ligia Cavani, share their perspective on the symposium and lessons learned from the discussions.

Scott, let’s start by telling me about C-Lock, how you started and where you're at today. 

C-Lock is an innovation company. We have developed, designed and manufactured different products that are able to measure cattle performance, feed intake, body weight gain and water intake. 

Our most widely used product is a product called GreenFeed which measures metabolic gas emissions from cattle. Metabolic gas emissions can be highly correlated with animal efficiency, animal performance and animal health, and GreenFeed has been adopted as the industry standard for making these types of measurements. 

We've been measuring methane emissions for about 16 years and have a wide audience reach in our conference because it's used all over the world. Our products are used in about 47 countries worldwide. 

Tell me a little bit more about this incredible symposium you hosted recently in Denver. 

This symposium was designed and constructed around the work that people are doing to improve cattle genetics for feed efficiency and methane emissions. 

A number of people who have studied this and been involved, from producers to universities to industry partners, participated both to present their findings and research, but also to share ideas about how this facet of cattle genetics can be improved in the future. 

Dr. Cavani, what are some of the main highlights of the event from your perspective as a researcher? 

Our first symposium was a success. It brought different perspectives from scientists, industry and farmers and ranchers from different parts of the world who use different systems. 

There was recognition about the power of genetic selection to achieve sustainability in livestock systems, because we know the gains through genetic selection are permanent and cumulative. To achieve this, it's fundamental to collect good phenotypes. 

We discussed how important this step is and how this has been implemented in different countries and varied systems such as pastures versus feedlot and different breeds of animals too. 

We found that besides methane, production and feed-efficient data have to be collected and considered, because no one wants to have a negative impact in production when selecting for low methane.  Across the data, it was good to see consistent trends. For geneticists, we are really interested in selecting animals that are more feed-efficient and produce less methane at the same time. 

During the conference, some important questions were discussed about economic value for methane and how to consider a genetic selection index. It was interesting to discuss this from different points of view. These are questions we’re still looking to answer, and these discussions help us move the conversation forward.

What were some of the lessons learned from what you heard at the symposium that can be applied to your technology? How can C-Lock serve the needs of your clients?

The symposium was focused on beef cattle genetic selection. It was fantastic to see how the GreenFeed data were explored in going beyond phenotypes and understanding more about the biology of the animals. 

We looked at why animals in the same cohort – receiving the same diet, in the same environment with similar production, efficiency and weights have different methane levels. This was an important question and there are different reasons to explain that. 

We also looked at opportunities to use all the gas measures by GreenFeed and how it can be explored in different aspects. We had some examples such as using new feed efficiency traits such as residual heat production and CO₂ to predict the dry matter intake, and monitoring health indicators exploring O₂ data. 

The event brought up a great opportunity for collaboration to share and expand data for beef genetic evaluation. This is important because GreenFeed data can be directly compared across the world and for different systems too. 

Scott, is this symposium going to become an annual event? 

Yes, but it will be different each year. We’re considering alternating years between beef and dairy genetics. So, next year will feature dairy, then the year after would be beef. 

At this symposium, we did have some dairy experts attend and present, and we learned a lot from the research and the work they were doing that's applicable to beef – there's a lot of crossover in this area. 

Scott and Dr. Cavani, can you tell us about the roundtable discussions during the conference?

The roundtables were a great opportunity for people to share their knowledge and experience with others. Attendees shared ideas and really came to some understanding about what has been done and what will need to be done in the future to make progress. 

Participants really enjoyed this part of the event. We had a lot of good feedback in terms of interaction, not just listening to the great speakers, but the opportunity to interact with others and to bring the most important topics in the industry.

Speakers also offered a holistic view, looking at dairy and animal behavior and biology? 

I was excited about our industry participation. We had some producers who shared their experience and demonstrated how we can make improvements through genetic selection that not only will help sustainability with greenhouse gases but actually increase profit. 

When we're looking at implementing change, the most important criteria for people actually adopting it is looking at bottom-line profitability. It was really encouraging to see the active participation from the producers attending. 

I also enjoyed hearing the research digging into the biology part of why different animals produce different methane levels and explaining how it happens. Of course, it brought a lot of knowledge and good discussion. 

C-Lock has been involved in many peer-reviewed papers. Can you give us an overview of the involvement?

We’ve actually been involved in about 800 peer-reviewed papers. There are a lot of people who have used our equipment in different ways over the past 16 years. 

We’ve had new and exciting developments where we can measure these phenotypes and pinpoint which phenotypes are going to help producers become more profitable. And as a result, we'll be more sustainable. This technology is evolving to help producers increase profits. To see it adopted is so exciting.

Truly the end game is to be able to start genetically indexing methane emissions to allow producers to look at sires and dams from a phenotypic perspective? 

Yes, and this would provide insights that aren’t necessarily visible to producers. You can't look at an animal and see whether or not it's efficient or sustainable. Making measurements and comparisons is the only correct way to do it. We are working towards this.

The focus of the symposium was genetics. There is a responsibility to collect the phenotype for the first phase to implement genomic selection. We have a small population in terms of phenotype and genotype, so careful selection is very important. There's a famous phrase that they say in the genomic area, which is that “phenotype is king” and it's always going to be so we need to have good phenotypes and carefully select.