Indirect Estimation of CH from Livestock Feeds through TOCs Evaluation

Thirty-five available feeds were fermented in vitro in order to investigate their soluble total organic carbon (TOCs) and methane (CH4) production rate. A fermentation reactor was designed to capture the CH4 gas emitted and to collect liquor from the reactor during in vitro fermentation. The results...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: M. J. Kim, J. S. Lee, S. Kumar, M. M. Rahman, J. S. Shin, C. S. Ra
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Asian-Australasian Association of Animal Production Societies 2012-04-01
Series:Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.ajas.info/upload/pdf/25-64.pdf
Description
Summary:Thirty-five available feeds were fermented in vitro in order to investigate their soluble total organic carbon (TOCs) and methane (CH4) production rate. A fermentation reactor was designed to capture the CH4 gas emitted and to collect liquor from the reactor during in vitro fermentation. The results showed that CH4 production rate greatly varied among feeds with different ingredients. The lowest CH4-producing feeds were corn gluten feed, brewer’s grain, and orchard grass among the energy, protein, and forage feed groups, respectively. Significant differences (p<0.05) were found in digestibility, soluble total organic carbon (TOCs), and CH4 emissions among feeds, during 48 h of in vitro fermentation. Digestibility and TOCs was not found to be related due to different fermentation pattern of each but TOCs production was directly proportional to CH4 production (y = 0.0076x, r2 = 0.83). From this in vitro study, TOCs production could be used as an indirect index for estimation of CH4 emission from feed ingredients.
ISSN:1011-2367
1976-5517