Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-4hhp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-27T20:19:40.162Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Prediction of methane production by sheep from a range of grass silage based diets

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2017

Angela R Moss
Affiliation:
Feed Evaluation Unit, ADAS Dairy Research Centre, Drayton, Stratford upon Avon, CV37 9RQ, UK
D I Givens
Affiliation:
Feed Evaluation Unit, ADAS Dairy Research Centre, Drayton, Stratford upon Avon, CV37 9RQ, UK
Get access

Extract

Methane production by ruminant animals is an important anthropogenic source of methane to the atmosphere and is considered an important source to more accurately estimate and to control. Large variations in methane production by ruminants have been reported. However very few of these data were obtained using contemporary diets used in the UK, ie grass silage based diets and were also limited to sheep fed at maintenance (M). This has limited the understanding of the dietary factors which may be used to predict methane production. Attempts to predict methane production from either diet chemical composition or digestibility have not been successful (Moss and Givens, 1990; Johnson et al., 1991). Accordingly, different concentrates were used to supplement grass silage at different rates (forage.concentrate, (F:C) ratios) at differing planes of nutrition to study the effects of diet composition on methane production.

Type
Ruminant Nutrition
Copyright
Copyright © The British Society of Animal Science 1995

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Honing Y., van der (1994). 45th Annual Meeting EAAP. Edinburgh. 5-8 September 1994.Google Scholar
Johnson, D. E.. Hill, T. M. Carmean, B. R. Branine, M. E. Lodman, D. W. and Ward, G. M. (1991). 12th Symposium on Energy Metabolism of Farm Animals. Karlause Ittingen.Google Scholar
Moss, A. R. and Givens, D. I. (1990). Anim. Prod. 50: 552 (Abs).Google Scholar