Abstract
Abstract Two trials were conducted to evaluate the effects of biochar (0, 0.8, or 3% of diet dry matter) on diet digestibility and methane production in growing and finishing cattle diets. The growing diet consisted of 21% brome hay, 20% wheat straw, 30% corn silage, 22% wet distillers grains plus solubles (WDGS), and 7% supplement. The finishing diet consisted of 53% dry rolled corn, 15% corn silage, 25% WDGS, and 7% supplement. Biochar replaced fine ground corn in the supplement. Growing diets were evaluated over 6 periods in a switchback design, followed by the finishing trial with 3 periods in a crossover design using 6 steers (529 kg initial BW). Digestibility measures were taken over 4 d after at least 8 d of adaptation to diets followed by 2 d of gas emission measurements using headbox calorimeters. Statistical analysis included treatment and period as fixed effects and steer as a random effect with PROC IML of SAS used to generate coefficients for orthogonal contrasts. In the growing study, OM and NDF digestibility increased quadratically (P = 0.10) while OM digestibility tended to linearly decrease (P = 0.13) and NDF digestibility was not affected (P ≥ 0.39) by biochar inclusion in the finishing diet. Methane production (g/d) tended to decrease quadratically (P = 0.14) in the growing study and was decreased 10.7% for the 0.8% biochar treatment relative to the control. There were no statistical differences in methane production (g/d) in the finishing study (P ≥ 0.32). Methane production (g/kg DMI) from the 0.8% biochar treatment relative to the control was numerically reduced 9.5% and 18.4% in the growing and finishing studies, respectively (P ≥ 0.13). Although biochar is not an FDA-approved feed for cattle, initial research shows potential as a methane mitigation strategy in both growing and finishing diets.
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