Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/1959.11/9005
Title: Nutritional and flock management options to reduce methane output and methane per unit product from sheep enterprises
Contributor(s): Hegarty, Roger  (author); Alcock, D (author); Robinson, Dorothy L  (author); Goopy, John Patrick  (author); Vercoe, PE (author)
Publication Date: 2010
DOI: 10.1071/AN10104
Handle Link: https://hdl.handle.net/1959.11/9005
Abstract: The daily methane output of sheep is strongly affected by the quantity and digestibility of feed consumed. There are few widely applicable technologies that reduce the methane output of grazing ruminants without limiting feed intake per head or animal numbers. In contrast, there are many opportunities to increase the amount of animal product generated per unit of feed eaten. These include improving growth and reproductive rates of livestock and will reduce methane emission per unit of product (called emissions intensity) for individual animals. Producer responses to such improvements through changes to stocking rate and total area grazed will have a major effect on the total emission and profitability of the enterprise. First mating of ewes as lambs (~7 months of age) rather than as hoggets (~19 months of age) reduces the emissions intensity of self-replacing flocks but not that of flocks for which replacement ewes are purchased. Selection of sheep for improved residual feed intake reduces emissions intensity at the individual animal level as well as at the enterprise level. At present, emissions policies that motivate farm managers to consider generating fewer emissions rather than more profit or product are lacking.
Publication Type: Journal Article
Source of Publication: Animal Production Science, 50(12), p. 1026-1033
Publisher: CSIRO Publishing
Place of Publication: Australia
ISSN: 1836-5787
1836-0939
Fields of Research (FoR) 2008: 070204 Animal Nutrition
Socio-Economic Objective (SEO) 2008: 830311 Sheep - Wool
830310 Sheep - Meat
Peer Reviewed: Yes
HERDC Category Description: C1 Refereed Article in a Scholarly Journal
Appears in Collections:Journal Article

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