Download or read book Feed Efficiency Dynamics in Relation to Lactation and Methane Emissions in Dairy Cattle written by David John Seymour and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With continued global population growth, there is a need to develop more efficient, environmentally friendly food production to meet increasing nutritional demands. Dairy production provides an opportunity to address these nutritional needs by generating a high-quality protein, fat and energy source (milk) from plant matter that is indigestible by humans. However, low feed efficiency and greenhouse gas production are challenges that need to be addressed. The objectives of this thesis were to 1) critically review methods of determining feed intake in dairy cattle, 2) develop and evaluate different measures of feed efficiency, and examine the associations of feed efficiency with aspects of 3) the lactation curve and 4) methane emissions, with the end goal of the downstream incorporation of these traits into the Canadian dairy cattle breeding program. All experimental analyses were conducted on data collected from a sample of 40 primiparous Holstein heifers over the first 150 days of lactation. It was found that feed efficiency fluctuates on a daily basis regardless of measure used, though different measures generally followed the same trends of increasing or decreasing efficiency. Persistency of lactation was found to be positively associated with increased feed efficiency and decreased methane production and intensity. No significant associations were observed between feed efficiency and methane production, though feed efficiency was associated with lower methane intensity. These collective findings suggest feed efficiency and methane emissions can be improved by selecting for dairy cattle that are smaller and have increased persistency of lactation. Efficiency and methane emissions can be further improved by improved management of body condition score and by extending lactations beyond the conventional 305-day length. Future work should focus on reformulating the equations used in net energy models to reflect the genetic progress made in cattle over recent decades, as well as longitudinal studies to characterize the lifetime efficiency of dairy cattle.

Download or read book Quantifying Impact of Diet on Enteric Methane Emissions and Manure Nutrient Dynamics in Dairy Cattle written by Mutian Niu and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Global food demand is increasing with the greater population in the world, and people are at risk of hunger without climate change mitigation. Emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) have a significant impact on climate change globally, which poses a major and growing threat to global food security. The GHG emissions from livestock account for 14.5% of global anthropogenic emission, in which, enteric methane (CH4) emissions from ruminants (mainly from beef and dairy cattle production) are shown to be the major contributors (Gerber et al., 2013). In addition, production of CH4 and nitrous oxide from manure storage, grazing, and forage production. According to 2013 estimates, dairy cattle generated approximate 13% of agricultural GHG emission through enteric CH4 production and manure management along in U.S. (USDA, 2016). Furthermore, dairy production also contributes to the release of reactive nitrogen (N) into the environment, which can have negative impacts on water quality and alter the physical structure of ecosystems, which can have cascading effects in the environment (Pardo et al., 2015). Therefore, research is required to have a further understanding in this area, in order to take proper mitigation actions. In this context, the author approached such goals through five research studies including both animal or field experiments and statistical modeling projects. A brief description of each research experiment is given as follow. The objective of the first experiment was to determine the effect of dietary crude protein (CP) and forage contents on enteric CH4 emissions and N excretion from dairy cows simultaneously as described in Chapter 1. In particular, the interaction between dietary CP and energy on enteric CH4 emission and N excretion in lactating dairy cows fed a total mixed ration based on alfalfa hay was investigated. The experiment demonstrated no interactions between dietary CP and forage contents on enteric CH4 production of dairy cows, however, CH4 production and N excretions in lactating dairy cows can be independently reduced by reducing dietary forage and dietary CP contents, respectively. Following the in vivo experiment, fresh fecal samples were collected directly from dairy cows. The objective of the second experiment was to quantify the impacts of dietary forage and CP levels on the excretion and prevalence of Escherichia coli O157:H7 and Listeria spp. in dairy cattle feces as describe in Chapter 2. In addition, the concentration of different pathogens over the course of a day was characterized. The experiment demonstrated that dietary forage and CP content in animal feed have the potential to influence the fecal shedding of pathogens in dairy cattle. Carryover from the in vivo experiment, all available manure from the sample collection periods were stored using different manure storage methods for 6 months in the third experiment as stated in Chapter 3. The objective of the experiment was to evaluate the effects of dietary mitigation strategies to reduce both enteric CH4 production and N excretion on nutrient dynamics of manures stored in common western production practices. In addition, the short-term nutrient availability and update in soil amended with manures following storage, by barley, was evaluated. Furthermore, the overall system N use efficiencies of the dietary changes were determined. Turning manures during storage reduced the loss of both C and N, compared to both slurry and static piled manures, however, the availability of the N in the turned pile treatment was less than from the static pile and slurry treatments. In addition, feeding a lower CP diet increased the system N use efficiency when accounting for losses during excretion and storage in dairy farming system. The fourth project is outlined in Chapter 4. In this project, we collated a global database of enteric CH4 production containing more than 5,000 lactating dairy cow records from 15 countries around the world, consequently, developed both global and regional prediction equations for CH4 production (g/d per cow), CH4 yield (g/kg dry matter intake [DMI]), and CH4 intensity (g/kg energy corrected milk [ECM]) of different complexities. We aimed to identify key predictor variables for CH4 emissions and characterize their relationships to CH4 production, yield, and intensity were identified. In addition, the trade-off between model complexity and prediction accuracy of enteric CH4 production in dairy cows was assessed. Furthermore, robust enteric CH4 inventory and mitigation options for dairy farming system were provided through the prediction modeling outcomes. The study demonstrated an increasing trend of model predictive ability for enteric CH4 production of lactating dairy cows with increasing model complexity. For enteric CH4 production, DMI is the most important predictor variable, whereas its impact on CH4 yield and CH4 intensity is insignificant. In addition, results also indicated that the development of enteric CH4 prediction models should be made on regional basis. The fifth project was a follow-up modeling project of the previous study which is outlined in Chapter 5. The objective of this project is to develop regional enteric CH4 production prediction (g/d per cow) models of multiple complexities and study the trade-off between model complexity and their predictive ability using non-parametric statistical models and to characterize the potential nonlinear relationships between predictor variables and enteric CH4 production of lactating dairy cattle. The improvement on model predictive ability on enteric CH4 production was not observed by using generalized additive mixed model compared to linear mixed effect model approach.

Download or read book Biology of Domestic Animals written by Colin G. Scanes and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2017-09-01 with total page 509 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There is increasing interest in the biology of domestic animals ranging from genomics, transcriptomics, metabolomics, nutritional physiology, and systems biology. This book touches on all of these, with a particular focus on topics such as domestic animals as comparative models to humans, molecular regulation of growth, metabolic efficiency, reproduction, and the impact of stress on growth and development. The book concludes with a discussion on the current and future directions for researchers.

Download or read book Balanced Feeding for Improving Livestock Productivity written by M. R. Garg and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 30 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Mitigation of Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Livestock Production written by Pierre J. Gerber and published by Food & Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO). This book was released on 2013 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The current analysis was conducted to evaluate the potential of nutritional, manure and animal husbandry practices for mitigating methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) - i.e. non-carbon dioxide (CO2) - GHG emissions from livestock production. These practices were categorized into enteric CH4, manure management and animal husbandry mitigation practices. Emphasis was placed on enteric CH4 mitigation practices for ruminant animals (only in vivo studies were considered) and manure mitigation practices for both ruminant and monogastric species. Over 900 references were reviewed; simulation and life cycle assessment analyses were generally excluded

Download or read book Farm Animal Metabolism and Nutrition written by J. P. Felix D'Mello and published by CABI. This book was released on 2000 with total page 450 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents specially commissioned reviews of key topics in farm animal metabolism and nutrition, such as repartitioning agents, near infrared reflectance spectroscopy and digestibility and metabolisable energy assays, where major advances have recently been made or which continue to represent issues of significance for students and researchers. Authors include leading researchers from Europe, North America and Australia.

Download or read book Effect of Ruminal Acidosis Dietary Manipulation and Residual Feed Intake on Methane Emission in Lactating Dairy Cows written by Fei Sun and published by . This book was released on 2018 with total page 175 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This thesis comprises three experiments that aimed to study effect of ruminal acidosis, dietary manipulation, and residual feed intake on methane (CH4) emission in lactation dairy cows. The first experiment investigated the impact of subacute ruminal acidosis (SARA) challenge feeding on enteric CH4 emission from lactating dairy cows fed diets differing in forage level, thus to determine the potential of using enteric CH4 measurement as a non-invasive approach to identify cows with SARA. Results showed that daily mean ruminal pH was mostly affected by dry matter intake as well as concentrate feeding. However, weak negative correlation was found between ruminal pH and CH4 emission rate. Therefore, measuring CH4 emission from breath of the cows alone is not an effective, non-invasive SARA detection method. The second experiment evaluated the effects of readily rumen-available carbohydrate source (refined starch vs. dextrose) and its interaction with level of rumen degradable protein (RDP) on lactation performance, ruminal parameters, CH4 emission, nutrient digestibility, and N balance in lactating dairy cows. Results indicated that dietary treatments did not affect CH4 emission intensity (CH4 emission per unit of dry matter intake, or milk production), but daily CH4 emission was 7.0% lower for cows fed a diet of 28.1% starch and 4.6% water-soluble carbohydrate compared with diets of lower starch and higher water-soluble carbohydrate contents. Reducing the level of RDP from 11% to 9% in iso-nitrogenous diets resulted in more milk yield, had no effect on nutrient apparent total tract digestibility, manure excretion and composition, N balance, and CH4 emission. The third experiment studied if genotypic RFI was reliable to reflect feed conversion efficiency, and if differences in RFI may be explained in part by differences in CH4 emission, general behavior (including standing vs. laying down), feeding behavior (including meal frequency and pattern) and chewing behavior (including eating, chewing and rumination activity). These measurement were conducted for cows consuming dietary forage neutral detergent fiber (FNDF) content of 19.4 and 28.1% (diet DM basis). Results indicated that low-RFI cows tended to maintained higher feed efficiency regardless of dietary FNDF content. Most measured behavior responses were influenced by dietary FNDF content but none of them was influenced by cow RFI or dietary FNDF by cow RFI interaction. Results indicated that differences in RFI may not be explained by CH4 emission, feeding, or chewing behavior. Results from the experiments suggested that ruminal pH may have a lag effect on CH4 emission, cows fed a diet of 28.1% starch and 4.6% water-soluble carbohydrate emitted 7.0% less daily CH4 compared with cows fed diets of lower starch and higher water-soluble carbohydrate contents. Reducing the level of RDP from 11% to 9% in iso-nitrogenous diets had no effect on CH4 emission. In addition, difference in animal RFI did not result in difference in CH4 emission.

Download or read book Food Systems Evaluation Methods and Sustainability Assessment written by Bradley George Ridoutt and published by Frontiers Media SA. This book was released on 2024-03-08 with total page 159 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The food system is responsible for some of society’s most pressing sustainability challenges. Diets are currently unsustainable in many countries as evidenced by the growing burden of malnutrition, degradation of natural resources, contributions to climate change, and unaffordability of healthy diets. There is an urgent need to address the gaps in understanding of what a sustainable food system means across varying populations and geographies and how we can better measure these systems, while identifying how dietary choices impact on human health and the environment. However, decision makers and experts are questioning whether it is possible to meet environmental, social, and economic goals simultaneously, or whether trade-offs are necessary. Thus, the development of better measurements and indicators to clearly understand the benefits and considerations for healthy and sustainable food systems is needed.

Download or read book Tackling Climate Change Through Livestock written by Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and published by Food & Agriculture Org.. This book was released on 2013 with total page 139 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Greenhouse gas emissions by the livestock sector could be cut by as much as 30 percent through the wider use of existing best practices and technologies. FAO conducted a detailed analysis of GHG emissions at multiple stages of various livestock supply chains, including the production and transport of animal feed, on-farm energy use, emissions from animal digestion and manure decay, as well as the post-slaughter transport, refrigeration and packaging of animal products. This report represents the most comprehensive estimate made to-date of livestocks contribution to global warming as well as the sectors potential to help tackle the problem. This publication is aimed at professionals in food and agriculture as well as policy makers.

Download or read book Energy and Nitrogen Utilization in Dairy Cattle written by and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Three experiments were conducted to evaluate possible mitigation strategies to reduce enteric methane (CH4) and manure nitrogen (N) emissions from lactating dairy cows. The first experiment evaluated dietary effects of varying alfalfa silage to corn silage ratio (AS:CS) in the forage portion of the diet on performance and emissions using air-flow controlled chambers with four cows per chamber. Cow performance was similar among treatments but milk net energy for lactation (NEL, Mcal/d) was greatest when feeding about half AS and CS in the forage portion of the diet. Similar, emissions of CH4 and ammonia (NH3) were greatest when feeding about half AS and CS in the forage portion of the diet. However, CH4 per milk energy was similar among treatments but manure and manure N output increased with increasing AS:CS ratio in the forage portion of the diet. Thus, feeding reduced AS:CS in the forage portion may reduce N emissions of dairy cattle. The second experiment evaluated the use of air-flow controlled chambers with only one animal and variation between cows with contrasting gross feed efficiency (GFE, milk kg/kg dry matter intake, DMI) on emissions. Results implied that emission chambers could be used to measure emissions of one animal only and despite no difference in CH4 (g/d) and CH4/DMI (g/kg) between high and low GFE cows, lower CH4/NEL (g/Mcal) and g CH4/NELGM [NEL + NE for gain (NEG) + NE for maintenance (NEM), Mcal/d] combined were for high GFE compared to low GFE cows indicated possible differences in digestion process or energy metabolism between high and low GFE cows. However, the experiment was only conducted using 4 cows. Thus, the third experiment was conducted with 16 cows to confirm results from the second experiment but also to determine differences in energy partitioning, which may have led to the results observed during the second experiment. Results indicated that high GFE cows were also more energy efficient because of lower heat production, which caused more emissions per NEL and per NELGM. However, from this study there was no single reason that could be determined to have led to the greater heat production.

Download or read book Effects of Monensin on Gaseous Emissions Microbial Populations and Animal Performance of Lactating Dairy Cattle written by Sara Elisabeth Place and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The US dairy industry generates nutritional and economic value, but simultaneously causes undesirable environmental impacts including emissions of greenhouse gases (e.g. methane (CH4) and other air pollutants (e.g. volatile organic compounds (VOC) and ammonia (NH3)). The dairy industry's CH4 emissions largely occur from enteric fermentation processes within the rumen of cattle. Quantifying baseline emissions and testing emissions mitigation strategies requires proper measurement equipment to capture high quality data for estimation of emissions. Two ventilated hoods were developed and tested at University of California, Davis. The hood system can capture emissions that occur from rumen fermentation and respiration processes in cattle and has recovery rates ranging from 97.6 to 99.3%. One of the CH4 emission mitigation strategies for dairy cattle is to feed ionophores such as monensin, which has been fed to lactating dairy cattle in the US since 2004 primarily to improve feed efficiency. Its ability to reduce CH4 emissions has been demonstrated in beef and dairy cattle previously; however, there have been considerably variable effects with some studies showing no effect on CH4 emissions. No studies have examined if the dose of monensin affects CH4 emissions from dairy cattle; therefore, a study was conducted that compared a low (LOW), medium (MED), and high (HIGH) dose of monensin providing 175, 368, and 518 mg cow−1d−1 of monensin, respectively, to a control (CON) with 5 cows per treatment. The study had three periods: PRE, where all cows were fed the same basal total mixed ration (TMR) and CON top dress for at least 19 d; MON, where all cows were fed the same basal TMR and their assigned top dress for 21 d; and POST, where the cows were returned to the CON top dress and fed the same basal TMR for 21 d. Gas sampling was conducted on the last day of each period using the ventilated hood system. Rumen fluid samples were collected for volatile fatty acid (VFA), NH3-N, and pH analysis, in addition to quantification of total protozoa and methanogenic archaea with quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). Dry matter intake (DMI) and milk yield were monitored daily for each cow throughout the study, and milk composition was determined from a representative AM and PM milk sample for each period. Methane emissions, DMI, milk yield, milk composition, rumen VFA, NH3-N, pH, total protozoa, and methanogenic archaea were not different across treatments in the MON period. The VOCs, ethanol, methanol, and acetic acid, were detected, but below the limit of quantification for the gas analyzers. Comparing the change over time from the PRE to the MON period, the MED treatment cows had a lower change in CH4 emissions compared to those in the CON and LOW treatments. The change in milk yield and DMI were lower for the MED treatment cows compared to CON over the same time frame. None of the major VFA or NH3-N was found to have differences over time, and over time comparisons across treatments for total protozoa and methanogenic archaea could not be made due to the nature of the qPCR analysis. In summary, monensin dose responses "over time" were found, but they were not linear in nature and the results of the present study cannot be translated to a % change in emissions per cow. Capturing high quality data is essential for proper evaluation of emission mitigation strategies that can reduce the US dairy industry's environmental impact.

Download or read book Modelling Nutrient Digestion and Utilisation in Farm Animals written by D. Sauvant and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2011-05-02 with total page 418 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For more than 30 years, modelling has been an important method for integrating, in a flexible, comprehensive and widely applicable way, basic knowledge and biological concepts on digestion and metabolism in farm animals. The purpose of this book is to present the 'state of art' in this area. The chapters are written by leading teams and researchers in this field of study, mainly from Europe, North America and Australasia. Considerable progress has been made in topics dealing with: modelling methods, feeding behaviour, digestion and metabolic processes in ruminants and monogastric animals. This progress is clearly illustrated by the emergence of a new paradigm in animal nutrition, which has moved from the aim to cover the requirements of the animal to explaining and predicting the responses of the animals to diets (e.g., productivity and efficiency, impact on quality of products, environmental aspects, health and well-being). In this book several chapters illustrate that through empirical models, meta-analysis is an efficient tool to synthesize information gathered over recent decades. In addition, compared with other books on modelling farm animal nutrition, two new aspects received particular attention: expanding knowledge of the individual animal to understanding the functioning and management of herds, and the consideration of the environmental impact of animal production. This book is a valuable source of information for researchers, nutritionists, advisors, and graduate students who want to have up-to-date and concise information on mathematical modelling applied to farm animals.

Download or read book Book of Abstracts of the 74th Annual Meeting of the European Federation of Animal Science written by Scientific Committee and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2023-08-15 with total page 1091 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This Book of Abstracts is the main publication of the 74th Annual Meeting of the European Federation of Animal Science (EAAP). It contains abstracts of the invited papers and contributed presentations of the sessions of EAAP's eleven Commissions: Animal Genetics, Animal Nutrition, Animal Management and Health, Animal Physiology, Cattle Production, Sheep and Goat Production, Pig Production, Horse Production and Livestock Farming Systems, Insects and Precision Livestock Farming.

Download or read book INRA feeding system for ruminants written by INRA and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2023-11-27 with total page 639 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The INRA Feeding System for Ruminants has been renewed to better address emerging challenges for animal nutrition: prevision of productive responses, product quality, animal health and emissions to the environment, in a larger extent of breeding contexts. The new system is mainly built from meta-analyses of large data bases, and modelling. The dietary supply model accounts for digestive interactions and flows of individual nutrients, so that feed values depend on the final ration. Animal requirements account for variability in metabolic efficiency. Various productive and non-productive animal responses to diets are quantified. This book presents the whole system for dairy and meat, large and small ruminant production, including specificities for tropical and Mediterranean areas. The first two sections present biological concepts and equations (with their field of application and statistical accuracy) used to predict intake (including at grazing) and nutrient supply (Section 1), animal’s requirements and multiple responses to diets (Section 2). They apply to net energy, metabolisable protein and amino acids, water, minerals and vitamins. Section 3 presents the use of concepts and equations in rationing with two purposes: (1) diet calculation for a given performance objective; and (2) prediction of the multiple responses of animal to diet changes. Section 4 displays the tables of feed values, and their prevision. All the equations and concepts are embedded in the fifth version of INRAtion® software for practical use.

Download or read book The Impact of Diseases in Dairy Cows on Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Economic Performance written by and published by . This book was released on 2018 with total page 150 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Livestock Production written by Richard Baines and published by Burleigh Dodds Agricultural Sc. This book was released on 2020-09-29 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Short description: Cattle are a major source of non-CO2 greenhouse gas emissions. Part 1 reviews the genetics, measurement and modelling of methane emissions from cattle. Parts 2 and 3 look at mitigation strategies, from manure and grassland management to improved nutrition.

Download or read book Milk Production Greenhouse Gases written by Corina van Middelaar and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 182 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: