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Trial for the effect of feed strategy on manure quality and emissions

Gepubliceerd op
15 november 2019

The formation of greenhouse gases (GHG) on dairy farms is strongly related to the nutritional management on a farm. This autumn, a study was started in the practice barn on Dairy Campus to investigate the effect of exchanging grass silage with silage maize on the methane emission of dairy cows. And what the effect of this feeding strategy has on the quality of the slurry and the associated methane emissions.

Exchanging grass silage with silage maize is already a well-known effective feed strategy to reduce methane emissions from dairy cows. On the other hand, we do not know to what extent this feeding strategy has an effect on the quality of slurry and the associated emissions, in particular methane. In this research a link is therefore made between feed strategy, manure quality and emissions from both cow and manure.
This research in the emission stable on Dairy Campus is part of the KennisOnline research project CEDERS, which is funded by the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality. Researchers from Wageningen Livestock Research, animal nutrition and livestock farming & environment departments, are trying to create more clarity in this project about the effect of nutritional management on methane emissions from dairy cows and slurry. Although the quality of the manure and the associated emissions (methane and nitrous oxide) can be estimated on the basis of feed intake and digestibility of nutrients, it is currently not clear to what extent we can actually improve the quality of manure and the associated emissions via feed strategies.

Research in emission barn on Dairy Campus

Measurements in the emission barn at Dairy Campus
Measurements in the emission barn at Dairy Campus

Exchanging grass silage with silage maize is already a well-known effective feed strategy to reduce methane emissions from dairy cows. On the other hand, we do not know to what extent this feeding strategy has an effect on the quality of slurry and the associated emissions, in particular methane. In this research a link is therefore made between feed strategy, manure quality and emissions from both cow and manure.
This research in the emission stable on Dairy Campus is part of the KennisOnline research project CEDERS, which is funded by the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality. Researchers from Wageningen Livestock Research, animal nutrition and livestock farming & environment departments, are trying to create more clarity in this project about the effect of nutritional management on methane emissions from dairy cows and slurry. Although the quality of the manure and the associated emissions (methane and nitrous oxide) can be estimated on the basis of feed intake and digestibility of nutrients, it is currently not clear to what extent we can actually improve the quality of manure and the associated emissions via feed strategies.

Background Ceders project

The expected findings at Dairy Campus can contribute to mapping out the situation for Dutch dairy farming. To improve this, a refinement of the calculation methods for GHG emissions is needed. It is important to gain insight into the international differences in the GHG calculation methods used and to take note of the national backgrounds. Food management and production conditions differ strongly between countries, but there is currently a lack of transparent approach in mapping these GHG emissions. This project contributes to this in the following areas:

  1. Developing databases and tracing relationships for the effect of nutrition on digestion, excretion, fertilizer composition and related GHG emissions;

  2. Closing important gaps in knowledge surrounding these relationships by applying experimental research;

  3. Evaluating the consequences of nutrition and operational management on GHG with the most detailed process models, and mirroring this against the models obtained from the databases, the experimental research and current GHG calculation methods;

  4. Improving GHG calculation methods at both company level and national scale;

  5. Transferring information to end users of GHG calculation methods on a national scale (dairy farming, industry, consultants / intermediaries, governments) and international scale (selection of organizations and the EU).