Adjusting feed formulas can reduce dairy cows’ greenhouse gas emissions without affecting the amount of milk produced, the Taiwan Livestock Research Institute said on Thursday last week.
The annual carbon dioxide equivalent produced by lactating dairy cows feeding on a new formula was 4.5 percent lower, falling from 6,259kg to 5,975kg, it said.
The reduction was calculated using methods specified by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 2006, it said.
Photo courtesy of the institute via CNA
The institute adjusted the ratio of corn and soybean oil meal in the feed — without changing the proportions of herbage, agricultural processing by-products and the concentration of the general feed — and gradually reduced the protein content of the feed from 18 percent to 15 percent, the institute said.
Reducing protein intake decreases the discharge of undigested nitrogen and cuts the production of nitrous oxide — also a greenhouse gas — as the cattle dung is fermented into compost, it said.
The change also lowered cows’ blood urea nitrogen levels and improved their health, it added.
Using agricultural by-products in cattle feed, such as brewer’s grains, pineapple skins and lemon peels, allows agricultural waste to be circulated and reused, it said.
In vitro experiments showed that the amount of methane produced by the cows’ rumens decreased when the proportion of the agricultural by-products was raised, it said.
The rumen is one of the cow’s stomachs. It produces methane — the second-most important greenhouse gas contributor to climate change — in the process of feed fermentation.
Earlier this year, the Ministry of Economic Affairs revised the national standard of formula feeds for livestock and poultry with the goal of reducing carbon emissions in livestock farming.
By adding maximum and minimum amounts of crude protein used in chicken and pig feed, the new standards were found to effectively reduce annual carbon emissions for each chicken and pig by 0.025kg and 7.24kg respectively, without affecting their growth, the institute said.
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