The greenhouse gas emission factor of dairy cows in Hubei Province, China

Abstract

The methodology 1 provided by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) guidelines is widely used for estimating CH4 and N2O production by cattle, but the reference value is only distinguished between developed and developing countries, with large uncertainties. The objective of this study was to calculate the CH4 and N2O emissions factor by dairy and beef cattle, and the emissions in the Hubei province according to the recommendations of IPCC (2006) using regional farm management data. CH4 emission factors from enteric fermentation in Hubei province was 81.560 kg CH4/head/year for dairy cattle with CH4 emissions of 930.844 kg. CH4 and N2O emission factors from manure management were 0.408 kg/head/year and 1.307 kg/head/year for dairy cattle. The greenhouse gas emissions from breeding cows in Hubei Province in 2012 was 950.418 kg. In general, CH4 emission estimates using Tier 2 (IPCC, 2006) were slightly lower than those from Tier 1, mainly due to use of lower emission factors, especially for CH4 emitted from manure management The main CH4 emission source was enteric fermentation, being 99.512% of livestock CH4 emissions. Direct emission was the largest component of total N2O emission (56.695%).