Abstract
Enteric methane arising due to fermentation of feeds in the rumen contributes substantially to the greenhouse gas emissions. Thus, like evaluation of chemical composition and nutritive values of feeds, methane production potential of each feed should be determined. This experiment was conducted to evaluate several feeds for methane production potential and rumen fermentation using in vitro gas production technique so that low methane producing feeds could be utilized to feed ruminants. Protein- and energy-rich concentrates (n=11), cereal and grass forages (n=11), and different straws and shrubs (n=12), which are commonly fed to ruminants in India, were collected from a number of locations. Gas production kinetics, methane production, degradability and rumen fermentation greatly varied (p<0.01) among feeds depending upon the chemical composition. Methane production (mL/g of degraded organic matter) was lower (p<0.01) for concentrate than forages, and straws and shrubs. Among shrubs and straws, methane production was lower (p<0.01) for shrubs than straws. Methane production was correlated (p<0.05) with concentrations of crude protein (CP), ether extract and non-fibrous carbohydrate (NFC) negatively, and with neutral detergent (NDF) and acid detergent fiber (ADF) positively. Potential gas production was negatively correlated (p=0.04) with ADF, but positively (p<0.01) with NFC content. Rate of gas production and ammonia concentration were influenced by CP content positively (p<0.05), but by NDF and ADF negatively (p<0.05). Total volatile fatty acid concentration and organic matter degradability were correlated (p<0.05) positively with CP and NFC content, but negatively with NDF and ADF content. The results suggest that incorporation of concentrates and shrubs replacing straws and forages in the diets of ruminants may decrease methane production.
Highlights
Enteric methane is normally produced during the fermentation of feeds mostly in the rumen by hydrogenotrophic methanogenic archaea, which results in the inefficient conversion of potential energy of feeds into methane that is not utilized by ruminants
The donor sheep were fed a maintenance diet based on cenchrus straw containing 70.6 g crude protein (CP), 714 g neutral detergent fiber (NDF) and 454 g acid detergent fiber (ADF) per kg dry matter (DM) and a concentrate mixture in a ratio of 60:40
Among the protein concentrate used in this study, CP concentration was highest in soybean meal and groundnut cake (GNC), and lowest in mahua cake (Table 1)
Summary
Enteric methane is normally produced during the fermentation of feeds mostly in the rumen by hydrogenotrophic methanogenic archaea, which results in the inefficient conversion of potential energy of feeds into methane that is not utilized by ruminants. Methane production from enteric fermentation is the largest source of greenhouse gases accounting 40% of agricultural greenhouse gas outputs (Tubiello et al, 2014). In India and developing countries, greenhouse gases from livestock increased due to growing population of livestock and expansion of agricultural outputs in the last few decades (Patra, 2012a, 2014a; Tubiello et al, 2014). Patra and Artabandhu Sahoo developing feeding strategies to decrease enteric methane production deserves research attention for long-term mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere and for short-term economic benefits
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