Prediction of enteric methane production, yield and intensity of beef cattle using an intercontinental database

Abstract

Enteric methane (CH 4 ) production attributable to beef cattle contributes to global greenhouse gas emissions. Reliably estimating this contribution requires extensive CH 4 emission data from beef cattle under different management conditions worldwide. The objectives were to: 1) predict CH 4 production (g d −1 animal −1 ), yield [g (kg dry matter intake; DMI)−1 ] and intensity [g (kg average daily gain) −1 ] using an intercontinental database (data from Europe, North America, Brazil, Australia and South Korea); 2) assess the impact of geographic region, and of higher-and lower-forage diets. Linear models were developed by incrementally adding covariates. A K-fold cross-validation indicated that a CH 4 production equation using only DMI that was fitted to all available data had a root mean square prediction error (RMSPE; % of observed mean) of 31.2%. Subsets containing data with

Effects of Three Herbs on Methane Emissions from Beef Cattle

“…The average yield of 15.2 ± 4.2 g of CH 4 /kg of DMI for diets low in forage (<18% forage) reported by these authors is similar to the CH 4 yields reported in Table 2. Similarly, the CH 4 yield factor from Experiment 2 ( Table 3) is similar to the 20.7 ± 4.7 g of CH 4 /kg of DMI reported by van Lingen et al [7] for beef cattle diets with more than 25% forage. The lower CH 4 yield observed in Experiment 1 for the CC and CB treatments in comparison with the CO treatment and the low total daily emissions observed in Experiment 2 suggest that these herbs reduced enteric CH 4 emissions in terms of CH 4 yield and daily emission in g/d, respectively.…”

“…The CH 4 yield values obtained with the CO diet in Experiment 1 were similar to those reported in the literature, for example, van Lingen et al [7] developed an intercontinental enteric CH 4 production database with 1021 individual animal records from beef cattle and calculated important variables such as the average daily emissions (g/d/animal) and CH 4 yield (g of CH 4 /kg of DMI). The average yield of 15.2 ± 4.2 g of CH 4 /kg of DMI for diets low in forage (<18% forage) reported by these authors is similar to the CH 4 yields reported in Table 2.…”

“…Results for the Ym factor in Experiment 1 seem to support this hypothesis because the observed Ym values are similar to those reported for diets with a high inclusion of concentrates. For example, van Lingen et al [7], reported an average Ym value of 4.5 ± 1.2 (n = 139) for diets low in forage (≤18% forage). Our Ym value for the CO treatment in Experiment 1 (Ym = 5.0) is within the range reported by these authors.…”

“…The United States is the largest producer of beef worldwide and, as a result, beef and dairy cattle contribute to approximately 48% of the US agricultural GHG emissions reported in 2015 [4,5]. Methane is produced in large volumes by cattle, e.g., up to 716 g/d for a dairy cow [6] and up to 372 g/d for beef cow [7]. This gas is 28 times more powerful than CO 2 in terms of its capacity to cause the greenhouse effect; however, its lifespan in the atmosphere ranges from only 9 to 15 years [2].…”

Methane and Carbon Dioxide Emission of Beef Heifers in Relation with Growth and Feed Efficiency

“…In ruminants, DMI and gross energy intake (GEI) are considered to be the predominant drivers of enteric methane production [33]. A meta-analysis of an international beef cattle database, used to determine a prediction equation for inventory purposes, actually showed that DMI was the most important predictor of CH 4 [34]. The studies used in this meta-analysis covered a wide range of regions, systems or diets and showed a large variability of CH 4 and DMI records: DMI = 8.13 ± 2.82 kg/d and CH 4 = 161 ± 70.5 kg/d, much larger than the individual variability observed in the current study.…”