SAES-422 Multistate Research Activity Accomplishments Report
Sections
Status: Approved
Basic Information
- Project No. and Title: NE1044 : Whole farm dairy and beef systems: gaseous emissions, P management, organic production, and pasture based production
- Period Covered: 10/01/2014 to 09/01/2015
- Date of Report: 05/28/2015
- Annual Meeting Dates: 04/13/2015 to 04/16/2015
Participants
<p>Present at meeting; Joe Harrison (Washington State Univ.); Stephen Herbert (Univ. Mass); Mark Powell (USDA-ARS, US Dairy Forage Res Center, Madison WI); Santiago Utsumi (Michigan State Univ.); Paul Greenway (Michigan State Univ.) <p>Via conference call; Rhonda Miller (Utah State Univ.); Vinicius Moreira (Louisiana State Univ.); Adel Shirmohammadi (Project Advisor, Maryland Agric. Exp. Station); Steve Smith (NIFA Program Leader)
Kellogg Biological Station
Hickory Corners, Michigan
April 14
Welcome and review of agenda by Santiago Utsumi
Tasks at hand by Joe Harrison (Chair NE1044)
Secretary for meeting: Mark Powell (filling in for Mike Westendorf)
Station reports
Powell
1) Feed-milk-manure N relationships in global dairy production systems
2) Feed and manure use in low-N-input and high-N-input dairy cattle production systems
3) Measures of nitrogen use efficiency and nitrogen loss from dairy production systems
4) Potential use of milk urea nitrogen to abate atmospheric N emissions from dairy farms
5) Transformation of N in dairy feed components into milk, manure and environmental N loss
6) Update on gaseous emission from barnyards
Utsumi
1) Feeding and grazing management (urine positive, negative effects on soil pH and N)
2) Rumination patterns and methane production by dairy cows in a pasture-based automatic milking system
3) Approaches to grazing and net feed efficiency
4) Production efficiency and impacts of dairy cows in pasture-based automatic milking system
5) Acoustics of bites and chew-bites by grazing cows
Vinicius Moreiria
1) Floating islands on wastewater treatment systems to abate GHG emissions
Joe Harrison
1) Effects of raw vs anaerobically digested manure, injected vs broadcast on corn silage – winter wheat
2) Effect of manure treatment on ammonia and GHG emissions following surface application
3) Effect of manure treatment on ammonia emissions during storage under ambient conditions
4) Feed nutrient management planning economics (under development)
April 15
Completion of Station Reports
Herbert
1) Cover crops, manure application and ammonia emissions
2) Education center
Visited Robotic Milking Center at Kellogg Biological Station
Discussions Related to Rewrite
Received documents from Rubie Mize (NERA, USDA-BARC) to guide Request to Write
See filename 'RequestToWriteInstructions (e-mail from Rubie Mize).pdf'
See filename 'NE1044RequestToWriteForm.pdf'
We worked on 'The Request to Write' addressing the following issues: the need, as indicated by stakeholders; the importance of the work, and what the consequences are if it is not done; the technical feasibility of the research; the advantages for doing the work as a multistate effort; and what the likely impacts will be from successfully completing the work.
We also had discussions related to ‘Who will move NE1044 forward? Who are the young players that will move this forward?’ Rewrite to cover the next 5 years, many people in the group have either retired recently or plan to retire within the next 2-3 years.
'The Request to Write' was finalized and submitted on-line.
Elections – Mike Westendorf as chair, Santiago Utsumi as secretary
Meeting location – to be hosted by Mike Westendorf - October 19-21 in Woodstown, NJ - Salem County, NJ
Meeting adjourned Wednesday 4:30pm
Accomplishments
Research to evaluate the comparative attributes of grazing, organic, and conventional management systems focused on profitability and stewardship.
Meadow fescue or tall fescue silage was fed in combination with alfalfa and corn silage to evaluate the effects on milk production and the potential to reduce sub-acute ruminal acidosis (SARA) in lactating dairy cows. This data indicates that high quality meadow and tall fescue silages can be fed to high producing dairy cows without a decrease in fat corrected milk production.
Another study examined the impact of grazing experiences early in life on grazing behavior and performance of lactating dairy heifers in a 3-year study. GPS units were utilized to monitor cow movement. Those with no previous grazing experience tended to move around very little when grazing. Milk production was lowest initially for cows with no previous grazing experience. Results indicate that previous grazing experience can impact behavior and milk production during the first 3 days on pasture. After this time, experienced and inexperienced cattle presented a similar grazing behaviors and performance.
We evaluated partially replacing alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) silage and corn (Zea mays L.) silage with tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea Schreb) silage, meadow fescue (Festuca pratensis Huds) silage, or wheat straw (Triticum aestivum) to test the hypothesis that the energy from non-fibrous carbohydrates can be partially replaced by the energy from digestible fiber without reducing DMI or milk production in total mixed rations (TMR) for dairy cows. Forty eight lactating dairy were fed one of four treatment diets in a 98 d study. The four treatment rations consisted of an alfalfa silage and corn silage-based TMR formulated for a low neutral detergent fiber (NDF) content 25%, and three TMRs formulated for 28% NDF where tall fescue silage, meadow fescue silage, or wheat straw partially replaced alfalfa and corn silages. The in vitro and in situ NDF digestibility of tall and meadow fescue silages were equal to or greater than the alfalfa silage and greater than the corn silage and wheat straw. The total tract NDF digestibility was highest for cows consuming the grass diets. Organic matter digestibility was higher when cows ate tall fescue than wheat straw or did not receive supplemental fiber. No differences in DMI (26.0 kg/d) or 3.5% fat-corrected milk production (41.9 kg/d) were found between treatment diets, although higher milk yield and lower milk fat (% and yield) were observed for cows that did not have supplemental fiber in their diets. These results indicate that highly digestible fiber from grass silages can partially replace non-fibrous carbohydrates without reducing DMI and FCM production.
A preliminary analysis of the current production system of the Meat Animal Research Center shows that the carbon footprint of the beef produced is 11 lb of carbon dioxide equivalent units per lb of live weight sold. This carbon footprint is a little lower than most previously published values. The energy required to produce that beef (energy footprint) is 11,150 Btu/lb of live weight sold. The total water required (water footprint) is 2,550 gallon/lb of live weight, and the water footprint excluding that obtained through precipitation is 340 gallon/lb of live weight sold. The simulated total cost of producing their beef was about $1.00/lb of live weight sold, which agrees with their production records. Simulations are being developed for 2005 and 1970 to determine if the environmental footprints have improved over time.
Nutrient transformation in manure was evaluated with anaerobic digestion and method of application of dairy manure. A three year agronomic plot study was completed that evaluated the nitrogen use efficiency of undigested and anaerobically digested dairy manure. AD and non-AD manure support equal grass production when applied at equal amounts of total N. Anaerobically digested dairy slurry was shown to provide adequate soil fertility and N availability for crop uptake and forage production over the three field seasons.
A three-year study was conducted to study the interactive effect of anaerobic digestion (AD), large particle solids, and a manure additive MTMTM on ammonia (NH3) and greenhouse gas (GHG; carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, and methane) emissions when manure/manure effluent was surface applied. The presence of large particle solids resulted in greater NH3 emissions due to the reduced infiltration of liquid manure into soil (P < 0.05).
Data collected on nutrient partitioning after liquid-solids separation indicates a range: in solids separation of 13 to 25 %, in N separation of 4.3 to 12.9 %, and in P separation of 9.2 to 21.5 %. The EYS screw system resulted in greater removal of solids, N and P, but was observed to require greater maintenance and had a lower liquid throughput rate. The overall observation of significance is that the majority (>75%) of solids and nutrients reside with the liquid fraction.
Feeding tannin extract and less crude protein (CP) to dairy cows may have synergistic impacts on reducing urinary N excretion and NH3 emissions from dairy barns and land applied manure. Holstein dairy cows were fed four levels (g kg-1) of dietary tannin extract (mixture from red quebracho and chestnut trees): 0 (0T), 4.5 (LT), 9.0 (MT) and 18.0 (HT); each fed at two levels (g kg-1) of dietary CP: 155 (LCP) and 168 (HCP). The addition of tannin extracts to the diets did not significantly impact animal performance but increased feed N use efficiency and decreased N excretion in urine. Reductions in NH3 emission from simulated barn floors due to tannin feeding were greatest when tannin was fed at LCP: the LCP-LT and LCP-HT treatments emitted 30.6% less NH3 than LCP-0T; and the HCP-LT and HCP-HT treatments emitted 16.3% less NH3 than HCP-0T. Feeding tannin extract decreased urease activity in feces resulting in 11.5% reduction in NH3 loss. The application of tannin directly to simulated barn floor also reduced NH3 emissions by 19.0%. Tannin did not significantly impact NH3 emissions from soils. But emissions from the HCP slurry were 1.53 to 2.57 times greater than from the LCP slurry. At trial’s end concentrations of soil inorganic N were greater in HCP slurry-amended soils than in LCP slurry-amended soils. Emissions from the sandy loam soil were 1.07 to 1.15 times greater than from silt loam soil, a result which decreased soil inorganic N in the sandy loam compared to the silt loam soil.
Outputs: Defined products
Cover crops utilize 40-50% more N if the cover crop is planted by Sept 1 vs Sept 15. This can be related to the GDD needed. The Cover Crop Planting tool is currently operational on the web as Cover Crop Planting DSS (Decision Support System) at http://aqua1.eco.umass.edu/cropDSS/cdss.html/ for Massachusetts.
Dairy Gas Emission Model (DairyGEM) calculates ammonia and hydrogen sulfide volatilization, GHG emissions, and carbon footprint. There are 100-150 types of VOCs from silage. Modeling of VOC Emissions, silage and manure are important sources of VOC emissions in dairy and beef production. A model for predicting silage emissions was revised and a new component model was developed to predict emissions from manure sources.
These new components were incorporated and tested in our Integrated Farm System Model (IFSM) and Dairy Gas Emission Model (DairyGEM) where they will be used to evaluate strategies for mitigating VOC production. Environmental Footprints of Beef Production Systems: The environmental footprints of the beef produced at the U.S. Meat Animal Research Center in Clay Center, Nebraska were determined through a simulation study.
The Feed Nutrient Management Planning Economics Tool (FNMP$) was refined to include the following: a) addition of dairy manure handling systems that include liquid-solids separation, sand bedding and sand separation; b) more accurate estimates of nutrient and solids flows and transformations in beef feedlot systems; c) feed management factors into tool function that can affect nutrient losses; d) added additional crops, nutrients, and revised nutrient estimates; e) updated equipment prices; and f) providing a version of the tool on-line for remote use.
Activities – NA
Milestones - NA
Impacts
- Outcomes from the past 5 years of this project have provided new insights into various aspects of forage utilization, feed management, manure and pathogens, green-house gas emission, and carbon footrprints. Specific examples are:
- A project examined the impact of manure pH and temperature treatment and the effect on pathogens (Salmonella Newport and E. Coli 157). Both pathogens can survive after manure excretion, and in soil for over 450 days. Under low pH (3.6 and 4.2) pathogens lived only about one week. Lived longer with a pH of 4.5 and higher. Unamended manure has a pH of 7.3. Newport died when the pH was increased to 11. At 42 degrees C both pathogens lived ~350 days, at 22 degrees C lived ~55 days.
- Carbon footprint of milk produced was similar for the pasture-based dairy and the confinement dairy. Carbon sequestration of the pasture-based system was slightly lower than that of the confinement dairy.
- A series of videos were developed for small livestock farms and nutrient mgt videos can be found at http://njaes.rugters.edu/animal-waste-management/videos.asp
- The environmental footprints of the beef produced at the U.S. Meat Animal Research Center in Clay Center, Nebraska were determined through a simulation study. Relevant information for their operation was gathered and used to establish parameters to represent their beef production system with IFSM. Model simulated predictions agreed well with actual records for feed production and use, energy use and production costs in 2011.
- A three year agronomic plot study was completed that evaluated the nitrogen use efficiency of undigested and anaerobically digested dairy manure. AD and non-AD manure support equal grass production when applied at equal amounts of total N. Anaerobically digested dairy slurry was shown to provide adequate soil fertility and N availability for crop uptake and forage production over the three field seasons.
- Experiments were conducted to evaluate possible mitigation strategies to reduce gaseous emissions from dairy farms. In trial 1 (Aguerre et al. 2010c; Aguerre et al. 2011a), increasing the proportion of forage in the diet from 47 to 68% while maintaining dietary CP, increased CH4 emission per unit of milk by 25% but did not alter NH3 emission or milk production. In a follow-up study (Trial 2; Aguerre et al. 2012a), the pattern of change in volatile C loss (CO2 and CH4,) and volatile N loss (NH3 and N2O) during a 77-day storage period was determined using the manure collected from cows in the companion study (Trial 1).
- Dietary treatments had no effect on emission rates. However when a crust formed after 28 days of storage, NH3 emission became negligible. In addition to its physical effects, the crust may have provided a growth environment for bacterial species that use NH3 and CH4 as substrate, reducing emission of these compounds, but promoting the production and emission of N2O and CO2, respectively.
- In trial 3 (Arndt et al. 2010ab), alfalfa silage (AS) and corn silage (CS) were fed at 20:80, 40:60, 60:40 and 80:20 ratio, in a 55:45 forage to concentrate ratio diet. Varying the AS:CS ratio had no effect on NH3 emission. Although greatest CH4 emission was observed at ratio of 40:60, primary forage did not affect CH4 emission per unit of milk. Feeding tannins at a level that does not compromise animal performance might be used to reduce urinary N and therefore NH3 emissions.
- Data from a lactation study (Trial 4; Aguerre et al., 2010ab) suggested that incorporating tannin in the diet at 1.8% DM at two dietary CP levels (15.5 vs. 16.8 %DM), did not alter manure N but increased fecal N and reduced urine N, with limited impact on animal performance. Manure from cows fed 1.8% tannin and 15.5 or 16.8% dietary CP, emitted 30.5 and 16.3% less NH3 than no tannin diet, respectively (Powell et al. 2011).
- On a follow up study (Trial 5; Aguerre et al., 2011b), our objective was to determine the effects of a tannin extract on lactating cow performance and emission of CH4 and NH3, and whether any responses were affected by dietary forage to concentrate ratio. Adding tannin to the diet at a 0.45% inclusion rate (DM basis) had negative effects on performance and increased CH4 emission per unit of ECM by 8% but had no effect on manure NH3 emission, regardless of the dietary content of forage.
- The objective of Trial 6 (Arndt et al., 2011) was to determine whether CH4 emission is lower for high feed efficient (kilograms of milk/kilograms of dry matter intake; HE) compared with low feed efficient (LE) lactating dairy cows. High compared to low feed efficiency was associated with lower CH4 emission (grams) per kilogram of milk (16.0 vs. 23.7 g/kg).
- The Cover Crop Planting tool is currently operational on the web as Cover Crop Planting DSS (Decision Support System) at http://aqua1.eco.umass.edu/cropDSS/cdss.html/ for Massachusetts
- The MARC farm, cow calf, and feedlot operations were each simulated over recent historical weather to evaluate performance, environmental impact, and economics. The current farm operation included 841 ha of alfalfa and 1,160 ha of corn to produce feed predominately for the beef herd of 5,500 cows, 1,180 replacement cattle, and 3,724 cattle finished per year. Spring and fall cow calf herds were fed on 9,713 ha of pastureland supplemented through the winter with hay and silage produced by the farm operation.
- Feedlot cattle were backgrounded for 3 mo on hay and silage with some grain and finished over 7 mo on a diet high in corn and wet distillers grain. For weather year 2011, simulated feed production and use, energy use, and production costs were within 1% of actual records. A 25-year simulation of their current production system gave an average annual carbon footprint of 10.9±0.6 kg of CO2 equivalent units per kg BW sold, and the energy required to produce that beef (energy footprint) was 26.5±4.5 MJ/kg BW.
- The annual water required (water footprint) was 21,300±5,600 liter/kg BW sold, and the water footprint excluding precipitation was 2,790±910 liter/kg BW. The simulated annual cost of producing their beef was $2.11±0.05/kg BW. Simulation of the production practices of 2005 indicated that the inclusion of distiller?s grain in animal diets has had a relatively small effect on environmental footprints except that reactive nitrogen loss has increased 10%.
- Compared to 1970, the carbon footprint of the beef produced has decreased 6% with no change in the energy footprint, a 3% reduction in the reactive nitrogen footprint, and a 6% reduction in the real cost of production. The water footprint, excluding precipitation, has increased 42% due to greater use of irrigated corn production. This proven methodology provides a means for developing the production data needed to support regional and national full life cycle assessments of the sustainability of beef.