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Cattle can convert sunlight into high quality foods via the process of microbial fermentation of plantstuffs in the rumen. Unfortunately, losses of carbon and energy associated with the fermentation of feedstuffs comes in the form of CO2 and CH4, which are greenhouse gases of increasing importance to global climate issues. The use of starch-containing cereal grains as a feedstuff improves the efficiency because these energy dense feedstuffs are more fermentable than forages and fermentation of starch generally results in a shift in volatile fatty acids (VFAs) and less greenhouse gases. Feeding ruminants cereal grains has profound impact on animal physiology as well as efficiency, and reducing the environmental footprint of ruminant animal production. In this chapter we discuss some of the avenues by which cereal grains impact the efficiency and improve the global impact of animal agriculture.
Price: £25.00
Publisher: Burleigh Dodds Science Publishing
Imprint: Burleigh Dodds Science Publishing
Series: Burleigh Dodds Series in Agricultural Science
Publication Date:
22 June 2020
ISBN: 9781786768094
Format: eBook
BISACs:
1 Introduction 2 Types of cereal grains fed to cattle 3 Cereal grain production 4 Dietary factors affecting methane production by ruminants 5 The role of starch and forage in methane formation 6 H2 sinks in the rumen and methane production 7 Using cereal grains to improve feed efficiency and reduce methane production 8 Microbiology of cereal grain fermentation 9 Bacteria and archaea involved in fermentation 10 Feed retention time 11 Acidosis and other negative feed effects 12 Summary 13 Where to look for further information 14 References