Effects of Adding Corn Dried Distiller Grains with Solubles (DDGS) to the Dairy Cow Diet and Effects of Bedding in Dairy Cow Slurry on Fugitive Methane Emissions.

Daniel Massé,Guillaume Jarret,Chaouki Benchaar,Fadi Hassanat

doi:10.3390/ani4040767

Daniel Massé, Guillaume Jarret + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/ani4040767

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Abstract

Simple SummaryThe objectives of this experiment were to investigate the effects of adding corn DDGS to the dairy cow diet as well as the bedding types (wood shavings, straw or peat moss) on manure fugitive CH4 emissions. The incorporation of DDGS in the diet has increased manure methane emission by 15% and the use of peat moss as bedding has increased manure methane emission by 27%.The specific objectives of this experiment were to investigate the effects of adding 10% or 30% corn dried distillers grains with solubles (DDGS) to the dairy cow diet and the effects of bedding type (wood shavings, straw or peat moss) in dairy slurry on fugitive CH4 emissions. The addition of DDGS10 to the dairy cow diet significantly increased (29%) the daily amount of fat excreted in slurry compared to the control diet. The inclusion of DDGS30 in the diet increased the daily amounts of excreted DM, volatile solids (VS), fat, neutral detergent fiber (NDF), acid detergent fiber (ADF) and hemicellulose by 18%, 18%, 70%, 30%, 15% and 53%, respectively, compared to the control diet. During the storage experiment, daily fugitive CH4 emissions showed a significant increase of 15% (p < 0.05) for the slurry resulting from the corn DDGS30 diet. The addition of wood shavings and straw did not have a significant effect on daily fugitive CH4 emissions relative to the control diet, whereas the addition of peat moss caused a significant increase of 27% (p < 0.05) in fugitive CH4 emissions.

Highlights

Manure generated by livestock operations contributes to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions
The inclusion of corn dried distillers grains with solubles (DDGS) had no effect on urine production, dairy cows fed DDGS30 showed a significant increase in the amount of fresh feces and fresh slurry excreted, with increases of
The inclusion of 10% corn DDGS was associated with a significant increase of 29% (p < 0.05) in the daily amount of fat excreted in slurry compared to the control diet

Summary

Introduction

Manure generated by livestock operations contributes to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The extent of the degradability of DDGS fats, proteins and fibers in the animal rumen and gut will have an impact on the excreta composition and might result in a decrease or increase of fugitive methane emission levels from manure storage structures [16]. This experiment used an integrated approach to assess enteric CH4 and manure CH4 emissions related to dairy diets. Due to the low availability of wood shavings and the high cost of straw, some producers are showing an interest in peat moss

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