Differences in the nutrient concentrations, in vitro methanogenic potential and other fermentative traits of tropical grasses and legumes for beef production systems in northern Australia

Abstract

Differences in nutrient concentrations of tropical grasses and legumes may provide opportunities for productive grazing on these pastures, while offering some CH mitigation options in the context of northern Australian extensive beef farming systems. © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry.

Bodyweight performance, estimated carcass traits and methane emissions of beef-cattle categories grazing Andropogon gayanus, Melinis minutiflora and Stylosanthes capitata mixed swards and Brachiaria humidicola pasture

“…humidicola, cull cows emitted 7% less CH4 than steers (127.6 ± 2.26 g vs 136.8 ± 2.16 g, P < 0.01) across three years. Together, those apparent differential methanogenic values might be explained by the recent in vitro fermentative study of Durmic et al (2017a) who shows that irrespective of seasonal variations, amongst 23 tropical screened grasses, A. gayanus was one with the lowest CH4 production [millilitres/g DM incubated (DMi)] plants (28.7 mL/g DMi), while B. humidicola recorded higher levels (14%) of annual methanogenic potential. However, it does not rule out that some bioactive compounds in A. gayanus and/or the associated native and introduced plants in our experimental mixed-swards could potentially influence future CH4 emission profiles as described by Durmic et al (2017b).…”

“…More recently there has been greater interest on the nutritional and fermentative traits including the methanogenic ranking of tropical grasses and legumes for beef production systems in northern Australia (Durmic et al 2017a;Vandermeuleen 2017). However, although complementary field methane (CH4) emission measurement approaches have been explored (Ramírez-Restrepo et al 2011), the environmental impact of beef grazing production systems in terms of enteric CH4 emissions in the varied tropical rangelands remains largely elusive (Ramírez-Restrepo and Charmley 2015).…”

A Meta-analysis Describing the Effects of the Essential oils Blend Agolin Ruminant on Performance, Rumen Fermentation and Methane Emissions in Dairy Cows

“…The main active compounds of this product are food grade and chemically-defined plant extracts including coriander (Coriandrum sativum) seed oil (up to 10%), eugenol (up to 7%), geranyl acetate (up to 7%) and geraniol (up to 6%) along with some preservatives such as fumaric acid. Various authors have recently studied the effect of Agolin Ruminant on rumen fermentation in vitro [6][7][8] and in vivo [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16] showing positive but variable results. As the product is in the market, numerous on-farm studies with dairy cows have been conducted in different countries over recent years, although the results have not been generally published in peer reviewed journals.…”

In vitro assessment of the factors that determine the activity of the rumen microbiota for further applications as inoculum

“…The rumen microbiota has been used extensively as inoculum for in vitro fermentation techniques to evaluate the nutritional value of ruminant feeds and the effectiveness of feed additives . As a result, several recommendations have been provided with respect to the donor animal, microbial adaptation to the diet, type of rumen inoculum, sampling time or preservation method .…”

“…The rumen microbiota has been used extensively as inoculum for in vitro fermentation techniques to evaluate the nutritional value of ruminant feeds and the effectiveness of feed additives. 15 As a result, several recommendations have been provided with respect to the donor animal, microbial adaptation to the diet, type of rumen inoculum, sampling time or preservation method. 16,17 Although there are no standard protocols, fresh rumen liquid sampled before feeding from donor animals adapted to the same (or similar) diets as those used as fermentation substrate represents the inoculum most commonly used when the aim is to minimize inter-animal variation and allow comparisons to be made among in vitro studies.…”