Feed strategies could slash cattle emissions by up to 60%
Dairy Dairy Impactful Of Areas From To Emissions Has Progress Nutrition In Welfare, Emerged All Has And Particularly Significant Research, Genetics As Health Been While Science Made To Reduce A Area Animal
New nutrition strategies could potentially slash livestock methane emissions by a staggering 60% in the coming years, according to a new review paper published in the .
Methane (both as a result of rumen fermentation and methane from manure) is the critical greenhouse gas that makes up most of the dairy industry’s environmental footprint.
While significant progress has been made in all areas of dairy science research, from genetics to animal health and welfare, dairy nutrition has emerged as a particularly impactful area for emission reduction.
The review considers the latest findings on diet reformulation, including adjusting concentrate feeds, feeding corn versus grass and legume silage, and using alternative forages such as sorghum or plantain.
The article cites a best-case scenario in the literature in which a 20% to 30% reduction by a feed additive could be paired with another 10% to 20% reduction from a second feed additive, plus, perhaps, another 5% to 10% from improvements in forage quality and diet manipulation, adding up to a substantial overall impact in lowering methane.
However, its author, Alexander Hristov, PhD, PAS, Distinguished Professor of Dairy Nutrition, Department of Animal Science, The Pennsylvania State University, and recipient of the 2024 Journal of Dairy Science Highly Cited Award, warned there is no 'one-size-fits-all' approach.
However, this approach is less practical in intensive dairy production systems, where nutritional professionals formulate the diets and producers have efficiency dialled in. In those dairy systems, Dr Hristov notes: “It may be difficult to find specific feeds that can have a substantial and measurable impact on methane emissions.”
That leaves feed additives, new ingredients supplemented in small amounts to a dairy cow’s existing diet, to reduce methane produced during digestion, with two of the most promising additives based on seaweeds and 3-nitrooxypropanol (3-NOP).
Dr Hristov's paper also highlights two areas that could benefit from more research as the dairy sector works to move the sustainability needle forward: reducing methane emissions from cow manure and studying whether nutrition strategies can be paired together synergistically.
“In theory, practices with different modes of reducing methanogens could work together to boost overall mitigation," he said. “If currently available mitigation practices prove to deliver consistent results and novel, potent, and safe strategies are discovered, nutrition alone can deliver up to a 60% reduction in enteric methane emissions and pave the way for a more sustainable dairy sector.”
