Ammonia and Methane Emission Factors from Cattle Operations Expressed as Losses of Dietary Nutrients or Energy

Zifei Liu, Yang Liu, James P. Murphy and Ronaldo Maghirang
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Zifei Liu: Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 66056, USA
Yang Liu: Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 66056, USA
James P. Murphy: Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 66056, USA
Ronaldo Maghirang: Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 66056, USA

Agriculture, 2017, vol. 7, issue 3, 1-12

Abstract: The objective of this study was to conduct a systematic review of published literature on ammonia (NH 3 ) and enteric methane (CH 4 ) emissions from beef and dairy cattle operations to obtain statistically representative emission factors based on dietary intakes of nutrients or energy, and to identify major causes of emission variations. NH 3 emissions from lagoon or other manure storage facilities were not included in this review. The NH 3 and CH 4 emission rates, expressed as a percentage losses of dietary nutrients or energy, demonstrated much less variation compared with emission rates expressed in g/animal/day. Air temperature and dietary crude protein (CP) content were identified as two major factors that can affect NH 3 emission rates in addition to farm type. Feed digestibility and energy intake were identified as two major factors that can affect CH 4 emission rates expressed as a percentage losses of dietary energy. Generally, increasing productivity and feed efficiency represented the greatest opportunity for mitigating NH 3 or CH 4 emissions per unit of livestock product. Expressing CH 4 loss on a digestible energy basis rather than a gross energy intake basis can better represent the large variation among diets and the effects of varying dietary emission mitigation strategies.

Keywords: crude protein content; feeding efficiency; nitrogen; forage-to-concentrate ratio; digestibility; digestible energy; feed intake; NH 3 and enteric CH 4 emissions (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: 2017
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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