Location: Livestock Nutrient Management Research
Project Number: 3090-31630-005-000-D
Project Type: In-House Appropriated
Start Date: Aug 31, 2016
End Date: Aug 30, 2021
Objective:
Objective 1: Characterize and improve prediction of ammonia and greenhouse gas emissions from cattle production systems.
Subobjective 1A. Characterize methane (CH4) emissions from southern Great Plains grazing systems.
Subobjective 1B. Assess the impact of environmental conditions and management practices and their interactions on emissions of NH3 and GHG from open lot cattle production systems.
Subobjective 1C. Improve NH3 and GHG emissions measurements for feedyards and dairies.
Objective 2: Improve feed nutrient use in cattle to maintain animal productivity, reduce emissions of ammonia and greenhouse gases, and mitigate pathogens and antibiotic resistant bacteria.
Subobjective 2A. Determine effects of cattle diet on enteric CH4 production.
Subobjective 2B: Evaluate and improve models to predict enteric CH4 emissions from grazing and feedyard cattle.
Subobjective 2C. Identify and quantify sources of enteric nitrous oxide (N20) emissions from cattle in respiration calorimetry chambers.
(NEW 2019) Subobjective 2D: Develop alternative strategies that reduce methane emissions while maintaining production. Research Goal 2D.1: Quantifying the impact of supplements in animal diets, such as fungal based probiotics, seaweed and condensed tannins, on enteric methane emissions, and establishing the biochemical and/or physiological mechanisms responsible for emission reductions.
Research Goal 2D.2. Quantifying the impact of new technologies and animal management systems on enteric methane emissions.
Objective 3: Manage soil and manure reactive nitrogen, phosphorus and carbon to improve soil properties, reduce nutrient loss and mitigate pathogens and antibiotic resistant bacteria.
Subobjective 3A. Evaluate the effectiveness, practicality and economics of chemical inhibitors and manure amendments to reduce N20 and NH3 emissions from beef cattle feedyards, dairies, and manure-amended soils.
Subobjective 3B. Quantify field-scale emissions of N20 from manure-amended soils.
Subobjective 3C. Establish protocols for examining AR in agroecosystems.
Subobjective 3D. Characterize forms of P in manure-amended soils.
Subobjective 3E: Evaluate soil C/N change with land use on the southern High Plains.
Approach:
Beef and dairy cattle production provide vital human nutrition and important economic activity. Cattle production, like all human endeavors, also contains environmental risks. This multidisciplinary research will help us to better understand and mitigate the environmental risks from cattle production systems on the Southern Great Plains. We will quantify and improve predictions of emissions of ammonia (NH3) and greenhouse gases (GHG) from cattle production systems. The research will focus on the predominant agricultural GHG emissions of methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N20). Sources of these emissions include grazing animals (enteric emissions), emissions from cattle, pen and lagoon surfaces at beef feedyards and dairies, and emissions from soils following land application of manure. We will determine the effects of cattle diet on enteric GHG emissions on scales that range from single animal to whole pastures, feedyards or dairies. We will test potential mitigation methods to reduce emissions from manure surfaces and cropped fields using controlled laboratory experiments followed by pilot-scale and field-scale experiments. We will quantify the changes in soil carbon (C), nitrogen (N), and phosphorus (P) from application of manure or land use change. A collaboration of ARS laboratories will test methods to characterize antibiotic resistant (AR) bacteria and genes from manure-impacted soil. Research results will provide science-based information and technologies for livestock producers, extension specialists, and regulators to protect air quality, manage feedyard and dairy manure, enhance production efficiency, and improve sustainability of livestock production.
