Effect of Cymbopogon citratus on Enteric Methane Emission, Nutrients Digestibility, and Energy Partition in Growing Beef Cattle

María Fernanda Vázquez-Carrillo, Reynaldo Zaragoza-Guerrero, Luis Corona-Gochi, Manuel González-Ronquillo, Epigmenio Castillo-Gallegos and Octavio Alonso Castelán-Ortega ()
Additional contact information
María Fernanda Vázquez-Carrillo: Laboratory for Research on Livestock, Environment and Renewable Energy of Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science, Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México, Toluca 50000, Mexico
Reynaldo Zaragoza-Guerrero: Laboratory for Research on Livestock, Environment and Renewable Energy of Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science, Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México, Toluca 50000, Mexico
Luis Corona-Gochi: Departament of Animal Nutrition, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City 04360, Mexico
Manuel González-Ronquillo: Laboratory for Research on Livestock, Environment and Renewable Energy of Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science, Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México, Toluca 50000, Mexico
Epigmenio Castillo-Gallegos: Centro de Enseñanza, Investigación y Extensión en Ganadería Tropical, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Veracruz 93600, Mexico
Octavio Alonso Castelán-Ortega: Laboratory for Research on Livestock, Environment and Renewable Energy of Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science, Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México, Toluca 50000, Mexico

Agriculture, 2023, vol. 13, issue 4, 1-15

Abstract: Methane production is a waste of energy for ruminants and contributes to greenhouse gas emissions. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the anti-methanogenic effect of increasing the supplementation levels of Cymbopogon citratus (CC) on the dry matter intake (DMI), digestibility, methane (CH 4 ) production, and partitioning of the gross energy intake in growing beef heifers fed with a diet high in forage (68.6% forage: 31.4% concentrate). An experiment was conducted using Holstein × Charolais heifers distributed in a 4 × 4 Latin square design. The experimental treatments were: (1) control diet (CO), (2) CO + 30 g CC DM/d, (3) CO + 60 g CC DM/d CC, and (4) CO + 90 g CC DM/d. A reduction of 22.4% in methane yield (CH 4 g/kg DMI) and a reduction of 21.2% in the Ym factor was observed with the 30 CC treatment ( p ≤ 0.05). However, no significant differences ( p > 0.05) were observed for the total daily CH 4 production, DMI, nutrient digestibility, and gross energy intake partitioning in the heifers. Therefore, we concluded that the supplementation of 30 g CC DM/d reduced the CH 4 yield without affecting the animal performance. However, the anti-methanogenic properties of Cymbopogon citratus deserve more investigation.

Keywords: Cymbopogon citratus; beef cattle; methane; mitigation; energy partitioning (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/13/4/745/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/13/4/745/ (text/html)

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:gam:jagris:v:13:y:2023:i:4:p:745-:d:1105342

Access Statistics for this article

Agriculture is currently edited by Ms. Leda Xuan

More articles in Agriculture from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().