Cover page Abstract

Introduction
As 16 % of the greenhouse gas emission in Denmark contributes to agricultural origin, out of which 23% consist out of Methane and are caused by the enteric fermentation of cattle, finding ways to reduce the Methane emission of cattle is getting more and more important. In the agricultural research Center of the University Aarhus, located in Foulum, an experiment regarding the emission of cows according to their feed ration is taking place. To improve the nutrient sufficiency and the Methane emission in relation to feed intake and milk yield, data are collected from dairy cows being fed with different feed rations. In this study case it is focused on two different rations for four dairy cows and the aim is to calculate differences in Methane emissions that they show according to their ration and their milk yield.

Materials and Methods

In this experiment four Holstein dairy cows take part. Two are fed with a ration contenting rolled rye and two cows are fed with a ration that contents NaOH treated rye instead. The methane emission of the cows is measured in Plexiglas chambers where the cows are held in. Picture of chamber with cow (Michal?) The cows are placed in the chambers in calendar week 33 to get them settled in, but the collection of the data starts on the 10th of September and ends on the 20th of September. In this time the feed intake, milk yield and weight is recorded. Also the cows are supplied with 20g chromic oxide per day as an indigestible marker, so an estimation of faeces excretion can be made out of taking grab samples of faeces instead of a total faeces sampling, which is needed for the calculation of digestibility. Both, feed and faeces are sampled on the 20th of September, dried with 60C and are analysed for neutral detergent fiber and ash, to calculate the digestibility of the ration and refer it to the methane production of the cow. The NDF analysis means, that after this procedure only neutral detergent fibre will be left like Cellulose, Lignin etc. after boiling with a soap solution. For the NDF analysis feed and faeces are dried and grounded and then weighed out into crucibles with filter sand. Sodium Sulphite is added and put in the machine Fibertec 2010 Foss (image 2).

Here hot NDF solution is added and also amylase is added while boiling. After one hour of boiling the samples are dried with 100C overnight, cooled down and weighed.

The digestibility of a certain matter is the subtraction of input and output of that matter divided by the input. The methane excretion of every cow is recorded and used to calculate the daily methane production per cow referring to digestibility, milk yield and fee ration.

Results
Cow Treatment 6302 6246 6021 Rolled Rolled NaOH rye rye rye Intake 2232 NaoH rye

Feed, weighted out[kg/day] 40 36 50 leftovers [kg/day] 6,2 4,8 8,5 Dry matter, feed [g/kg] 522 522 511 Dry matter intake [kg/day] 17,64 16,29 21,21 Production Weight [kg] 519 619 701 Milk yield [kg] 32,9 15,9 31,9 Energy intake Gross energy feed [MJ/kg DM] 18,60 18,60 18,11 Gross energy intake [MJ/day] 328,15 302,91 384,13 Methane production CH4 [l/day] 351 408 626 CH4 [MJ/day] 13,90 16,16 24,79 CH4 [L/kg DM] 19,89 25,05 29,52 CH4 [L/kg milk yield] 10,67 25,66 19,62 CH4/GE [%] 4,24 5,33 6,45 Digestibility (Exercise October) Intake of marker [g/day] 20 20 20 Intake of marker [g/kg DM feed] 1,13 1,23 0,94 Excretion of marker [g/kg DM faeces] 4,6 5,4 4,3 Excretion of faeces [kg DM/day] 4,35 3,70 4,65 Dry matter digestibility [%] 75 77 78 NDF content feed [g/kg DM] 246,9 246,9 238,8 NDF intake [kg /day] 4,36 4,02 5,06

53,5 4,5 511 25,04 624 29,2

18,11 453,56 613 24,27 24,48 20,99 5,35 20 0,80 4 5,00 80 238,8 5,98

NDF content faeces [g/kg DM] NDF digestibility [%] CH4 [L/kg digested DM]
table 1: results

429 57,18 26,40

267,4 75,37 32,43

292,7 73,12 37,81

325,5 72,78 30,59

Table 1 shows the results of the experiments measurements and calculations. It shows that the cows fed with the rolled rye are excreting less Methane than the ones fed with NaOH treated rye. But putting the methane measurements in relation to intake feed in kg dry matter, the rolled rye fed cows differ a lot from each other. One cow from the NaOH fed ration has a very high methane excretion per kg dry matter intake and the other nearly the same as one of the rolled rye fed cows. Also the numbers differ very much from each other looking at methane production per kg milk yield. In the rolled rye ration, number 6302 is very low with 10,7 liters, number 6246 very high with 25,66 liters per kg milk yield. The other two are nearly the same with around 20 liters methane production per kg milk. Looking at the digestibility the percentage of all cows is around 75%, but one cow only shows a fiber digestibility of 57%.

Discussion
Looking at the results of this experiment, at the first look there does not seem to be a significant difference between the two rations. The results for methane excretion per kg dry matter look better or nearly the same for the rolled rye fed cows, but referring it to the milk yield, one cow fed with rolled rye is ending up with a worse result than one from the other ration. But here it is important to see that 3 cows nearly produce the same amount of milk, around 30kg, and this one cow only produces 16kg milk per day, which makes the methane production per kg milk ending up so high. What one can say in general is that as higher the milk yield per cow, the less methane per produced kg milk is produced. The NDF digestibility seems to be quite similar in both rations, but cow 6302 seems to have a very low digestibility of NDF with 57% in comparison to the other three with around 75%. But exactly this cow, number 6302, does have the lowest methane emission in all cows, which does not fit together with a low digestibility. So there might be a mistake in the analysis of the excretion of the marker or in other taken analyzes and measurements. Also it is hard to compare the two rations with only two cows in each group, as this way the individual characteristics of the cows take a big influence in the results. It might be considered to take further measurements regarding these two feed rations, to get more data from different cows and to prevent a big influence of measurement mistakes and individual performances of the cows in the overall results.

Conclusion
After this test we can conclude that the food content and amount of it has a big impact over the milk yield and over methane emission. A big portion of food does not always end up with a big milk production but it always end up a big emission

of CH4. A cow that eat 17,64 kg Rolled rye/day has produced 32,9 l milk/day and 351 CH4 L/day, while a second one that eat 25,04 kg NaOH rye/day produced 29,2 l milk/day and 613 l CH4/day. A better management of cows feed that includes cow requirements, production expectations (milk, meat) food proprieties and energy equivalent can improve significantly the economy and the protection of environment, in our case reduction of green gas emissions.