Intake, Energy Expenditure and Methane Emissions of Grazing Dairy Cows at Two Pre-Grazing Herbage Masses

Abstract Grazing systems perform multiple ecosystem services including food production, climate regulation, nutrient cycling, and erosion control. Ruminants can also express their natural behaviors on pasture, with recent research revealing that dairy cows were more motivated to go outside for grazing than stay indoors consuming fresh TMR offered immediately after the afternoon milking. In addition, consumers often associate grazing systems with “healthier and happier cows” and are willing to pay premiums for “grass-fed” dairy products. However, milk production and nutrient utilization generally decrease in pasture-based compared with confinement systems, which may reduce farm profitability depending on milk pay prices. It should be noted that there is limited research reporting milk N efficiency (milk N/N intake) or methane emissions in confined versus grazing dairy cows using data collected from the same experiments. Therefore, our overarching objective was to build data sets to compare nutrient utilization in dairy cows under confinement or grazing management where milk N efficiency or methane emissions or both were reported in the same study. Dietary strategies to mitigate methane emissions in grazing dairy systems such as the use of high-quality forages (e.g., brassicas, perennial ryegrass), concentrate and seaweed supplementation, and forage species and management will be explored. For instance, Jersey cows grazing forage canola offered at 40% of the total DM emitted 31% less methane than those kept indoors and fed TMR (419 vs. 289 g/d, respectively) in an experiment conducted at the University of New Hampshire. Methane yield and methane intensity also decreased (P < 0.001) by 29.3% and 23.4%, respectively, in the same study. Irish researchers reported that methane production (-37%), yield (-11.5%), and intensity (-13%) decreased significantly in Holstein-Friesian cows offered perennial ryegrass herbage versus TMR. Data from whole-farm models comparing confinement and grazing systems will be presented and discussed.

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The effects of supplementing grazing dairy cows with partial mixed ration on enteric methane emissions and milk production during mid to late lactation

Journal of Dairy Science ◽

10.3168/jds.2011-5257 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 95 (11) ◽

pp. 6582-6590 ◽

Cited By ~ 16

Author(s):

B.F. O’Neill ◽

M.H. Deighton ◽

B.M. O’Loughlin ◽

N. Galvin ◽

M. O’Donovan ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Dairy Cows ◽

Milk Production ◽

Methane Emissions ◽

Enteric Methane ◽

Grazing Dairy Cows ◽

Enteric Methane Emissions

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Effect of either soya or linseed oil supplementation of grazing dairy cows on milk production and methane emissions

Advances in Animal Biosciences ◽

10.1017/s2040470010001949 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 1 (1) ◽

pp. 51-51 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

J D Rowntree ◽

K M Pierce ◽

F Buckley ◽

K J Petrie ◽

J J Callan ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Dairy Cows ◽

Milk Production ◽

Linseed Oil ◽

Methane Emissions ◽

Grazing Dairy Cows

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Rapid Communication: Ranking dairy cows for methane emissions measured using respiration chamber or GreenFeed techniques during early, peak, and late lactation

Journal of Animal Science ◽

10.2527/jas2017.1530 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 95 (7) ◽

pp. 3154

Author(s):

J. Rischewski ◽

A. Bielak ◽

G. Nürnberg ◽

M. Derno ◽

B. Kuhla

Keyword(s):

Dairy Cows ◽

Methane Emissions ◽

Respiration Chamber ◽

Rapid Communication ◽

Early Peak

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Progressive inclusion of pearl millet herbage as a supplement for dairy cows fed mixed rations: Effects on methane emissions, dry matter intake, and milk production

Journal of Dairy Science ◽

10.3168/jds.2020-18894 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

M. Civiero ◽

R. Delagarde ◽

A. Berndt ◽

Jusiane Rosseto ◽

M.N. de Souza ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Dairy Cows ◽

Pearl Millet ◽

Milk Production ◽

Dry Matter ◽

Methane Emissions ◽

Dry Matter Intake ◽

Progressive Inclusion

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Identification of Genomic Regions Associated with Concentrations of Milk Fat, Protein, Urea and Efficiency of Crude Protein Utilization in Grazing Dairy Cows

Genes ◽

10.3390/genes12030456 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 (3) ◽

pp. 456

Author(s):

Hewa Bahithige Pavithra Chathurangi Ariyarathne ◽

Martin Correa-Luna ◽

Hugh Thomas Blair ◽

Dorian John Garrick ◽

Nicolas Lopez-Villalobos

Keyword(s):

Gene Ontology ◽

New Zealand ◽

Dairy Cows ◽

Candidate Genes ◽

Milk Fat ◽

Crude Protein ◽

Single Locus ◽

Protein Utilization ◽

Grazing Dairy Cows ◽

Genomic Regions

The objective of this study was to identify genomic regions associated with milk fat percentage (FP), crude protein percentage (CPP), urea concentration (MU) and efficiency of crude protein utilization (ECPU: ratio between crude protein yield in milk and dietary crude protein intake) using grazing, mixed-breed, dairy cows in New Zealand. Phenotypes from 634 Holstein Friesian, Jersey or crossbred cows were obtained from two herds at Massey University. A subset of 490 of these cows was genotyped using Bovine Illumina 50K SNP-chips. Two genome-wise association approaches were used, a single-locus model fitted to data from 490 cows and a single-step Bayes C model fitted to data from all 634 cows. The single-locus analysis was performed with the Efficient Mixed-Model Association eXpedited model as implemented in the SVS package. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) with genome-wide association p-values ≤ 1.11 × 10−6 were considered as putative quantitative trait loci (QTL). The Bayes C analysis was performed with the JWAS package and 1-Mb genomic windows containing SNPs that explained > 0.37% of the genetic variance were considered as putative QTL. Candidate genes within 100 kb from the identified SNPs in single-locus GWAS or the 1-Mb windows were identified using gene ontology, as implemented in the Ensembl Genome Browser. The genes detected in association with FP (MGST1, DGAT1, CEBPD, SLC52A2, GPAT4, and ACOX3) and CPP (DGAT1, CSN1S1, GOSR2, HERC6, and IGF1R) were identified as candidates. Gene ontology revealed six novel candidate genes (GMDS, E2F7, SIAH1, SLC24A4, LGMN, and ASS1) significantly associated with MU whose functions were in protein catabolism, urea cycle, ion transportation and N excretion. One novel candidate gene was identified in association with ECPU (MAP3K1) that is involved in post-transcriptional modification of proteins. The findings should be validated using a larger population of New Zealand grazing dairy cows.

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