The effect of dietary addition of nitrate or increase in lipid concentrations, alone or in combination, on performance and methane emissions of beef cattle

Autor: DW Ross, John Rooke, J. J. Hyslop, Shane M. Troy, Rainer Roehe, Carol-Anne Duthie
Rok vydání: 2018
Předmět:
Zdroj: Animal, Vol 12, Iss 2, Pp 280-287 (2018)
ISSN: 1751-7311
DOI: 10.1017/s175173111700146x
Popis: Adding nitrate to or increasing the concentration of lipid in the diet are established strategies for reducing enteric methane (CH4) emissions, but their effectiveness when used in combination has been largely unexplored. This study investigated the effect of dietary nitrate and increased lipid included alone or together on CH4 emissions and performance traits of finishing beef cattle. The experiment was a 2×4 factorial design comprising two breeds (cross-bred Aberdeen Angus (AAx) and cross-bred Limousin (LIMx) steers) and four dietary treatments (each based on 550 g forage : 450 g concentrate/kg dry matter (DM)). The four dietary treatments were assigned according to a 2×2 factorial design where the control treatment contained rapeseed meal as the main protein source, which was replaced either with nitrate (21.5 g nitrate/kg DM); maize distillers dark grains (MDDG, which increased diet ether extract from 24 to 37 g/kg DM) or both nitrate and MDDG. Steers (n=20/dietary treatment) were allocated to each of the four treatments in equal numbers of each breed with feed offered ad libitum. After 28 days adaptation to dietary treatments, individual animal intake, performance and feed efficiency were recorded for 56 days. Thereafter, CH4 emissions were measured over 13 weeks (six steers/week). Increasing dietary lipid did not adversely affect animal performance and showed no interactions with dietary nitrate. In contrast, addition of nitrate to diets resulted in poorer live-weight gain (P
Databáze: OpenAIRE