Towards mitigation of greenhouse emissions from grazing and forage based ruminant production systems

Abstract

<p>Whilst the vast majority of enteric methane (CH₄) emissions globally derive from grazing ruminants, progress to abate emissions from these systems in the last decade has been incremental. Significant gains have been made in development of technologies with the potential to almost completely mitigate enteric CH₄ in confined animals fed total mixed rations using in-feed inhibitory compounds, but translation of such technologies to tropical grazing systems has been challenging, due to short periods of bioactive availability in the rumen, temporal mismatch of consumption of CH₄-inhibiting compounds with CH₄-producing biomass, delivery and voluntary consumption of in-feed inhibitors in nutritional supplements to extensively managed animals, among other obstacles.</p>