Climate change is now a reality! As we know the GHGs (Methane, Co2 and NO2) responsible for the CC and Livestock production now a days is one of the important sector widely contribute to increase global production of greenhouse gases (GHG), mostly through their digestive fermentation. Moreover, emissions derived from livestock or dairy animals are estimated over 14% of the total anthropogenic GHG emissions to atmosphere. In addition, methane emitted from ruminal enteric fermentation is responsible for 25% of the total global methane
emissions, which turns livestock activity into a main promoter of the climate change
effect. However, some of the researcher told that these emissions may be diminished by modifying livestock/ruminants diets. So what are the simple technique that farmers, livestock owner and even Govt can easily adopt to reduce the GHGs from their livestock by alterning the diet / ration of livestock which must be economical, cost beneficial and esy to adopt/use.
This area this under explored and there are a lot of studies on the topic which evaluated different parameters in feed and ration which might have or have correlation to methane production in rumen. And there is yet no clear answer about how to deal with the problem. If you need a to get in contact with such studies just copy-paste your question heading as it is in your browser to get all the recent articles.
Moreover, methane production in rumen is just a nutrient diversion and waste to energy from an energy sink point of view. Any effort which can divert the electron energy flow from methanogenesis to something else and most probably to acetogenesis would promote better milk and meat production and reduced methane production. Strategies promoting acetogenic communities are of particular interest as key player in this respective scenario of methane mitigation from rumen.
Ulhas Shivaji Gaikwad
Recent evidence suggests that changes in microbial colonization of the rumen prior to weaning may imprint the rumen microbiome and impact phenotypes later in life. We investigated how dietary manipulation from birth influences growth, methane production, and gastrointestinal microbial ecology. At birth, 18 female Holstein and Montbéliarde calves were randomly assigned to either treatment or control (CONT). Treatment was 3-nitrooxypropanol (3-NOP), an investigational anti-methanogenic compound that was administered daily from birth until three weeks post-weaning (week 14). Samples of rumen fluid and faecal content were collected at weeks 1, 4, 11, 14, 23, and 60 of life. Calves were tested for methane emissions using the GreenFeed system during the post-weaning period (week 11–23 and week 56–60 of life). Calf physiological parameters (BW, ADG and individual VFA) were similar across groups throughout the trial. Treated calves showed a persistent reduction in methane emissions (g CH4/d) throughout the post-weaning period up to at least 1 year of life, despite treatment ceasing three weeks post-weaning. Similarly, despite variability in the abundance of individual taxa across weeks, the rumen bacterial, archaeal and fungal structure differed between CONT and 3-NOP calves across all weeks, as visualised using sparse-PLS-DA. Similar separation was also observed in the faecal bacterial community. Interestingly, despite modest modifications to the abundance of rumen microbes, the reductive effect of 3-NOP on methane production persisted following cessation of the treatment period, perhaps indicating a differentiation of the ruminal microbial ecosystem or a host response triggered by the treatment in the early development phase.
Refer to this paper for complete details
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-82084-9
A range of dietary supplements and feed alternatives is being trialled to assess whether they can reduce methane emissions from livestock. Supplements being considered include oils, fats, tannins, probiotics, nitrates, enzymes, marine algae and Australian native vegetation. For more information kindly check the following link:
https://www.agric.wa.gov.au/climate-change/reducing-livestock-greenhouse-gas-emissions
Well, in my opinion the problem of methane produced by domestic livestock has been overstated worldwide. Not only the methods for estimating the amount of gass produced are arguable (see https://www.jstor.org/stable/43735544) but also the experimental data have been obtained mostly in vitro, and these methods do not represent what really happens in vivo. Moreover, domestic animals (including high-yielding dairy cows) consume a high proportion of concentrates (up to 50% in dairy cows) which fermentation produces a great amount of propionate which in turn is a hydrogen aceptor (reducing the formation of methane). With respect to additives, in my experience they do not work in vivo. Only 3-nitrooxypropanol has been shown to decrease the population of methanogenic archaea but only with pure cultures, not in the animal.
I am sorry but methane reduction should focus the energy and transport sectors rather than livestock.
Organic charcoal can be added to the ruminant diet, as it contributes to the absorption of gases resulting from digestion and reduces methane gas accompanying the excreta.
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