Animal feed as a lever to reduce methane emissions: a microeconometric approach applied to French dairy farms[L'alimentation animale comme levier de réduction des émissions de méthane : Une approche micro-économétrique appliquée aux exploitations laitières françaises]

The objective of this study is to simulate a payment for environmental services scheme to reduce enteric methane emissions per litre of milk by incentivizing farmers to modify the diet of dairy cows. We estimated a milk yield function by distinguishing between types of fodder and concentrate feeds. Methane emissions were calculated from the technical relationship between different feed sources and milk productivity. The heterogeneity of the production conditions faced by the farmers was identified from a mixture model estimated by the EM algorithm. The results show that farmers who benefit from good production conditions, as reflected in quality fodder, are more inclined to reduce their methane emissions per litre of milk.