Association of the chemical composition and nutritional value of forage resources in Colombia with methane emissions by enteric fermentation

Tropical Animal Health and Production (2023) 55:84 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11250-023-03458-x REGULAR ARTICLES Association of the chemical composition and nutritional value of forage resources in Colombia with methane emissions by enteric fermentation Yiniva Camargo Caicedo1 · Angélica P. Garrido Galindo1 · Inés Meriño Fuentes1 · Eliana Vergara Vásquez1 Received: 29 April 2022 / Accepted: 4 January 2023 © The Author(s) 2023 Abstract In the livestock sector, strategies are available to mitigate gas emissions, such as methane, one of the alternatives that have shown potential correspondence to changes in the composition of the diet. The main aim of this study was to analyze the influence of methane emissions with data on enteric fermentation obtained from the Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval (EDGAR) database and based on forecasts of methane emissions by enteric fermentation with an autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) model and the application of statistical tests to identify the association between methane emissions from enteric fermentation and the variables of the chemical composition and nutritional value of forage resources in Colombia. The results reported positive correlations between methane emissions and the variables ash content, ethereal extract, neutral detergent fiber (NDF), and acid detergent fiber (ADF) and negative correlations between methane emissions and the variables percentage of unstructured carbohydrates, total digestible nutrients (TDN), digestibility of dry matter, metabolizable energy (MERuminants), net maintenance energy (NEm), net energy gain (NEg), and net lactation energy (NEI). The variables with the most significant influence on the reduction of methane emissions by enteric fermentation are the percentage of unstructured carbohydrates and the percentage of starch. In conclusion, the analysis of variance and the correlations between the chemical composition and the nutritive value of forage resources in Colombia help to understand the influence of diet variables on methane emissions of a particular family and with it in the application of strategies of mitigation. Keywords Mitigation strategies · ARIMA · Livestock diet · Climate change · Livestock diet composition · Gramineous specie Introduction The nitrous oxide and methane emitted by ruminants constitute greenhouse gases with a significant impact on the environment and a significant influence on the sustainability of production systems in this sector (Jaurena et al., 2019; Tigmasa Paredes, 2022). Methane emissions in terms of energy constitute a loss (Bai et al., 2021), and in environmental terms, they contribute to global warming and consequently to climate change (Tigmasa Paredes, 2022). The effects occur directly through * Angélica P. Garrido Galindo 1 Research Group On Environmental Systems Modelling, Universidad del Magdalena, Carrera 32 N° 22 – 08, Postal Code 470004 Santa Marta, Colombia their interaction with infrared energy and indirectly through atmospheric oxidation reactions (Carmona et al., 2005). About 17% of the gross energy consumed by a cow is transformed into methane and is eliminated through the respiratory tract (Tigmasa Paredes, 2022). In the livestock sector, the enteric fermentation and microbial degradation of feces make essential contributions to methane and nitrous oxide emissions (Huhtanen et al., 2021). Ruminant animals, such as cattle, buffalo, sheep, goats, and camels, produce methane from digestive processes that occur under anaerobic conditions through the action of microbiota such as methanogenic archaea that live in the rumen and use carbon dioxide (CO2) and hydrogen (H2) to form methane (CH4) (Wang et al., 2022). In the digestive process of cattle under anaerobic conditions, bacteria degrade ingested cellulose to glucose. Through the fermentation process, these bacteria transform cellulose into acetic acid and reduce carbon dioxide, generating methane during the process (Carmona et al., 2005). 13 Vol.:(0123456789) 84 Page 2 of 8 Methane production in ruminants is influenced by different factors, such as diet composition, feed consumption, previous feed processing, nutrient digestibility, and feeding frequency (Dai et al., 2022; Ribeiro da Silva et al., 2020). Livestock production contributes to anthropogenic emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), methane ( CH4), and nitrous oxide (N2O) to the atmosphere (Costantini et al., 2018; Ribeiro da Silva et al., 2020; Tigmasa Paredes, 2022). Methane is emitted in smaller quantities; however, it has a much higher global warming potential (Tigmasa Paredes, 2022), 28 times that of C O2 for a horizon of 100 years, according to an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report in 2014 (IPCC-Grupo Intergubernamental de expertos sobre el cambio climático, 2014). It is estimated that the livestock sector worldwide is responsible for 17% of methane (Carrillo-Hernández et al., 2021; Pámanes-Carrasco et al., 2020). Latin American countries are characterized by low production of meat and milk of animal origin. They have a high production of methane emissions, about 69%. In this context, the tendency is marked to own many unproductive animals instead of keeping a few animals with high production (Yunga Alava, 2022). According to a report by Ribeiro da Silva et al. (2020), in Latin America, on average, a bovine emits 56 kg/animal/ year of enteric methane. In this context, the production of beef generates emissions with values close to 300 kg C O2 eq/kg protein, followed by the production of meat from small ruminants, with a value of 165 kg CO2 eq/kg protein, and milk production by small ruminants, with a value of 112 kg CO2 eq/kg protein (Durango et al., 2017). Different alternatives have been proposed as mitigation strategies for methane emissions, such as reducing the number of ruminant animals, increasing the number of nonruminant animals, genetic manipulation of methanogenic ruminal microorganisms, dietary-nutritional manipulation, capture mechanisms for critical compounds, and supplementation practices with nitrogen sources (Alayón-Gamboa et al., 2018; Liu et al., 2022; Ribeiro da Silva et al., 2020; Tigmasa Paredes, 2022). According to different publications, the diet influences greenhouse gas emissions. The rate of ruminal emissions is related to the composition of the diet, types of carbohydrates, proteins, and lipid value (Arango et al., 2016; Wang et al., 2022). The results of advanced studies suggest that an increase in lipids in diets can reduce methane emissions in ruminants (Dai et al., 2022), in the same way, forages with high starch content in the diet of ruminants reduce the production of enteric methane (Wang et al., 2022). Concerning to an increase in rumen undegradable protein, analyses performed show a reduction in methane production per kg of digested organic matter (Ribeiro da Silva et al., 2020). On the other hand, an increase in complex 13 Tropic (...truncated)