Location: Dairy Forage Research
Project Number: 5090-31000-027-031-R
Project Type: Reimbursable Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Apr 1, 2023
End Date: Mar 31, 2024
Objective:
Objective 1.
1. Mitigate methane emissions through genomic selection
2. Mitigate methane emissions through dietary manipulations
3. Decipher how the rumen microbiome affects methane emissions.
Approach:
Six to eight feeding studies will be conducted to evaluate the effect of diet formulation on enteric methane emissions. Each study will use 48 to 64 cows and will evaluate the effects of alternative dietary manipulations, including alternative feedstuffs, lipid supplementation, phytochemicals, and nitro-oxy compounds on methane emission traits. To ensure overall sustainability, we will determine the impacts of these dietary manipulations on cow productivity and health. Cows will be fed common covariate diets for 2 weeks followed by an 8- to 10-week experiment evaluating the lactation performance of cows fed different diets. During the last week of each experiment, cows will either be placed in environmental chambers to measure gas emissions or utilize a commercial system designed to measure gas fluxes from individual animals to measure enteric methane emissions. Experimental design for each experiment will be a randomized completed block design.
