Enteric methane mitigation strategies in ruminants: a review

Pereira, Luis Gustavo Ribeiro; Machado, F. S.; Campos, M. M.; Júnior, R. Guimarães; Tomich, T. R.; Reis, Larissa Gomes dos; Coombs, Cassius E.O.

doi:10.17533/udea.rccp.v28n2a02

Cited by 19 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 81 publications

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“…Mature animals present lower muscle growth rates, since the total weight gain of the animal, in its majority, is composed of adipose tissue, which is directly relevant to the meat and carcass quality. Better productive results can be achieved with the efficient use of forage in production systems associated with other management factors, including sanitary, reproductive, and environmental factors, particularly GHG emissions (Pereira et al, 2015).…”

Section: Animal Performancementioning

confidence: 99%

Pasture intensification in beef cattle production can affect methane emission intensity

Sakamoto

Berndt

Pedroso

et al. 2020

Journal of Animal Science

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Increasing greenhouse gas emissions from anthropogenic activities have contributed to global warming and consequently, to climate change. Among all sources of emissions, the agricultural sector accounts for just under a quarter, mainly because of the intensification of food production systems necessary to supply the growing demand of the population. As ruminal fermentation is the largest source of methane emission in the livestock industry, emission by cattle has become the focus of studies. The aim of this study was to evaluate enteric methane emission and emission intensities of Nellore cattle at different ages submitted to levels of intensification of the grazing system. Twenty-four animals per cycle (age of 21.8 and 13.1 months in cycles 1 and 2, respectively) were randomly distributed across different grazing systems: irrigated pasture with a high stocking rate (IHS), dry land pasture with a high stocking rate (DHS), recovering dry land pasture with a moderate stocking rate (DMS), and degraded pasture (DP). Methane emission was measured using the sulfur hexafluoride technique in each season of the cycle. Intensive systems provided higher yields of good-quality forage, as well as superior animal performance when compared to DP. Methane yields were different between seasons and cycles. CH4 emissions per average daily weight gain and dry matter digestible intake were difference between treatments. Differences in the results were observed when they were analyzed per hectare, with the highest gain yield (P = 0.0134), stocking rate, weight gain, carcass production, and total methane emission (P < 0.0001) being found for the intensive systems. There were no differences in emissions per weight gain or carcass production between production systems, while a difference was observed between cycles (P = 0.0189 and P = 0.0255, respectively), resulting in lower emission intensities for younger animals. We conclude that more intensive systems resulted in a higher kg production of carcass per hectare; however, animals at 19 months of age raised in the IHS and DMS systems had a lower emission intensity in kg of CO2-eq. per kg of carcass. Moderate intensification (DMS) using animals at about 19 months of age might be an effective strategy to mitigate GHG emissions from Brazilian tropical pastures. Further studies are needed to understand the relationship between increasing productivity and decreasing environmental impacts, especially methane emission from ruminants.

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Section: Animal Performancementioning

confidence: 99%

Pasture intensification in beef cattle production can affect methane emission intensity

Sakamoto

Berndt

Pedroso

et al. 2020

Journal of Animal Science

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“…Therefore, methane production is essential for obtaining a high-performing rumen ecosystem, because H 2 accumulation is avoided, which could then inhibit dehydrogenase activity in later re-oxidation cofactors. An efficient H 2 capture in the rumen contributes to increase the rate of fermentation by the lack of its inhibitory effect on the microbial degradation of vegetative material [8,9]. Hence, thermodynamically methane synthesis is favored.…”

Section: Methanogens Can Be Found In Freshwater and Marine Environmenmentioning

confidence: 99%

Climate Change Mitigation in Livestock Production: Nonconventional Feedstuffs and Alternative Additives

Gerardo¹,

Herrera-Torres²,

Manuel³

et al. 2020

Livestock Health and Farming

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Livestock production has widely contributed to increase global production of greenhouse gases (GHG), mostly through digestive fermentation in ruminants. Moreover, emissions derived from livestock are estimated over 14% of the total anthropogenic GHG emissions to atmosphere. In addition, methane emitted from ruminal enteric fermentation is responsible for 25% of the total global methane emissions, which turns livestock activity into a main promoter of the climate change effect. However, these emissions may be diminished by modifying livestock diets through alterations in forage-concentrate ratios, the supplementation of feed additives, and the inclusion of alternative feedstuffs not commonly used as forage and protein sources in farm animal feeding. Additionally, the use of nonconventional feedstuffs is highly recommended since their production does not compete with human feeding and may provide metabolites used as methanogenesis suppressors. Likewise, agricultural by-products should be considered as potential feedstuffs for animal production by increasing the livestock efficiency and reducing the energy losses due to methane synthesis.

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“…Animal performance is related to efficient forage use associated with good nutrition management allowing to combine increased animal production with CH 4 reduction measures (Pereira et al, 2015). In the last decades, a large number of studies have been conducted related to the effects of forages (grass, legumes, or mixture) on N excretion and N 2 0 emissions, and to the effects of grassland management on C fluxes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, the different options diverge in terms of viability, costs, and acceptance by the producers. To be adopted, these strategies should provide similar or increased animal performance and economic viability while reducing CH 4 intensity (emission per unit of milk or meat), but also other sources of GHG, such as N 2 O from crop fertilizers/manure and CO 2 from feed production and C sequestration (Gerber et al, 2013;Pereira et al, 2015). This article aims to review the forage GHG mitigating options from individual studies and review articles from the literature that are the most documented and promising.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Methane mitigating options with forages fed to ruminants

Eugène

Klumpp

Sauvant

2021

Grass and Forage Science

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Nutritional strategies, including feed management measures, are promising methods for CH4 and overall GHG reduction. Evidence from literature is reviewed in this article in relation to the effects of forage quality (digestible organic matter, DOM) and forage type (grasses vs. legumes, and maize). The major determinants of forage quality are botanical composition and phenological stage, i.e., at advanced growth stages of plants, the fibre content increases while DOM decreases. Methane yield (g/kg DMI) decreases with increased digestibility of forages in both dairy cattle and sheep, and also CH4 intensity (g/kg milk) decreases with increased digestibility of forages for dairy cattle. Using forage legumes in ruminant feeding systems can reduce overall GHG emissions due to decreased N fertilizer use and related emissions. Recommended dietary mitigation measures are often related to a reduction in N excretion such as better matching of dietary protein to animal needs, shifting N excretion from urine to faeces (by tannin inclusion at low levels) and reducing the amount of excreted fermentable organic matter. Methane decreases with increasing intake of forage legumes rich in tannins and there is a shift of N partition from urinary N towards faecal N. Reduced CH4 emissions from ruminants fed on forage‐based diets will decrease the carbon footprint of livestock and agriculture and improve the efficiency of productive ruminants in both developing and developed countries. Likewise, estimations of net CH4 output should account for enteric CH4 emissions and soil carbon (C) sequestration of land used for feed production (i.e., grasslands and croplands).

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Enteric methane mitigation strategies in ruminants: a review

Cited by 19 publications

References 81 publications

Pasture intensification in beef cattle production can affect methane emission intensity

Pasture intensification in beef cattle production can affect methane emission intensity

Climate Change Mitigation in Livestock Production: Nonconventional Feedstuffs and Alternative Additives

Methane mitigating options with forages fed to ruminants

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