Effect of biochar or biochar and urea supplementation on feed intake, milk yield, feed conversion and methane production of dairy cows

Georg Terler, Manuel Winter, Michael Mandl, Joseph Sweeney and Andreas Steinwidder
Additional contact information
Georg Terler: Institute of Livestock Research, Agricultural Research and Education Centre Raumberg-Gumpenstein, Irdning-Donnersbachtal, Austria
Manuel Winter: Institute of Organic Farming and Farm Animal Biodiversity, Agricultural Research and Education Centre Raumberg-Gumpenstein, Irdning-Donnersbachtal, Austria
Michael Mandl: tbw research GmbH, Vienna, Austria
Joseph Sweeney: School of Biosystem Engineering, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
Andreas Steinwidder: Institute of Organic Farming and Farm Animal Biodiversity, Agricultural Research and Education Centre Raumberg-Gumpenstein, Irdning-Donnersbachtal, Austria

Czech Journal of Animal Science, 2023, vol. 68, issue 6, 245-254

Abstract: Feed additives belong to a number of climate change mitigation strategies being sought to reduce methane emissions in ruminants. In this study, the effect of biochar or biochar and urea supplementation on dairy cow performance and methane production was assessed. Eighteen cows were used in a 3 × 3 latin square design with three feeding groups: control with no supplementation (CO), biochar supplementation (BC, 200 g/day) and biochar and urea supplementation (BC + U, 200 g/day biochar and 90 g/day urea). All cows were fed a forage mixture ad libitum and 5 kg of concentrates per day on average. Methane emissions were measured in respiration chambers. Biochar as well as biochar and urea supplementation did not affect total dry matter, energy and utilisable protein intake. However, lignin intake was higher in the BC group and crude protein intake was higher in the BC + U group compared to the CO group. Supplementation of feed additives did not affect milk production and milk composition, except for the higher milk urea content in the BC + U group. Feed conversion, diet digestibility and methane production were not affected by feeding strategy. In conclusion, biochar supplementation does not reduce methane emissions, but it does not negatively affect dairy cow performance.

Keywords: feed additives; methane reduction; digestibility; cattle; efficiency (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://cjas.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/38/2023-CJAS.html (text/html)
http://cjas.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/38/2023-CJAS.pdf (application/pdf)
free of charge

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:caa:jnlcjs:v:68:y:2023:i:6:id:38-2023-cjas

DOI: 10.17221/38/2023-CJAS

Access Statistics for this article

Czech Journal of Animal Science is currently edited by Bc. Michaela Polcarová

More articles in Czech Journal of Animal Science from Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Ivo Andrle ().