Methanogenesis from forages fed to sheep

Abstract

<jats:p>Methane production has been measured from lambs fed contrasting forages. This work has been driven by the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture and to determine energy losses to methane from contrasting diets. Young ram lambs were fed either fresh ryegrass/white clover pasture, lucerne (also pelleted lucerne), sulla, chicory, red clover, Lotus pedunculatus (lotus) and mixtures of sulla and lucerne, sulla and chicory and chicory with red clover. The effects of condensed tannin (CT) in lotus on methane production were also measured. The trials were carried out indoors with sheep held in metabolism crates to enable an accurate measurement of intake and digestibility as well as methane production. Principal findings were a two-fold range in emissions from 11.5g CH4/kg dry matter intake (DMI) with lotus to 25.7g CH4/kg DMI with pasture and a 16% reduction in methane production due to the CT in lotus. This range in emissions from good quality forages represents a loss of about 7-11% of metabolisable energy and presents a clear direction for future research to better utilise the feeding value of pastures and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from agriculture. High quality perennial forages should be used where practical, and researchers need to identify plant parameters responsible for the variation in methane emissions. Research must focus on rapid passage of digesta through the rumen of grazing animals and will involve manipulation of the fibre content of grasses. Introduction of CT into diets is a likely target to reduce methane production. Improving the rapidly digestible constituents of forages is another opportunity, but difficult to target. Keywords: condensed tannins, forage quality, forages, greenhouse gases, methane emissions, sheep</jats:p>

Difference in the nature of tannins on in vitro ruminal methane and volatile fatty acid production and on methanogenic archaea and protozoal populations

“…In an earlier study, we showed that in vitro incubations with tamarind (Tamarindus indica) seed husk (containing approximately 140 g of CT/kg of DM), had lower gas production compared with incubations that had the added tannin-binder PEG (Bhatta et al, 2001). Waghorn et al (2002) reported that in vitro incubation of Lotus pedunculatus (containing tannin) had lower CH 4 production compared with L. pedunculatus treated with PEG. In the same study, sheep fed L. pedunculatus produced 17% less CH 4 compared with sheep fed L. pedunculatus plus PEG.…”

“…Although tannins are generally regarded as antinutritional, certain tannins at low concentrations alter ruminal fermentation (Bhatta et al, 2002) and microbial protein synthesis (Bhatta et al, 2001). Tannins also reduce ruminal CH 4 production when included either as temperate legumes (Waghorn et al, 2002) or as purified tannin extracts (Roth et al, 2002). However, there are no reports on potential differences in the activities of HT and CT on CH 4 production and on methanogenic archaeal and ciliated protozoal populations.…”

Valeur alimentaire pour les ruminants des légumineuses contenant des tannins condensés en milieux tempérés

“…A même stade de végétation, la teneur en NDF du sainfoin est plus faible, ou similaire à celle de la luzerne (Aufrère et al 2008, Theodoridou et al 2011a. Une particularité des fourrages contenant des TC est leur richesse en glucides solubles (tableau 1) dont la teneur est beaucoup plus élevée que celle des légumineuses classiques (luzerne, trèfle) (Waghorn et al 2002, Minneé et al 2002, ce qui favorise leur aptitude à la conservation en ensilage.…”

Effects of condensed tannins supplementation level on weight gain and in vitro and in vivo bloat precursors in steers grazing winter wheat1

“…This is consistent with McMahon et al (1999), who reported that methane production was decreased linearly with increasing CT-containing forage (sainfoin; Onobrychis viccifoli; 11.3% CT) supplementation compared with nonCT-containing forage alfalfa (Medicago sativa). It has been reported in vivo that animals fed CT-containing forages reduced methane gas production in goats (Puchala et al, 2005), sheep (Waghorn et al, 2002), and dairy cows (Woodward et al, 2002). Evidence in support of the inhibitory effect of CT was provided by Tavendale et al (2005), who demonstrated that the accumulated methane production at 12 h incubation for Lotus pedunculatus (100 g of CT/kg of DM) was lower (8.8 vs. 12.5 mL) than alfalfa (2 g of CT/kg of DM).…”