Determination of enteric methane emissions from cattle production by using Tier-2 method

Abstract

Livestock farms are known to be important greenhouse gas producers. Especially in the agriculture sector, the most important sourceof anthropogenic methane (CH4) emission is ruminant animals. In recent studies of dairy cattle, it is noted that most of the formation of CH4 gas occurs as a result of enteric fermentation. In this study, it was aimed to evaluate the CH4 emissions resulting from enteric fermentation of cattle during the 2004-2020 period in Turkey. The Tier-2 method adopted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was used adopted for data generation and calculation of emission factors for the calculation of CH4 emissions forenteric fermentation in cattle. Based on the study results, the required gross energy (GE) value and enteric fermentation emission factors (EF) were calculated according to cattle sub-categories. It has been observed that methane gas emission from cattle as a resultof enteric fermentation has followed a fluctuating course in the last 16 years in Turkey. Methane emissions of 541 kT to 907 kT CH4gas emissions were calculated. Methane emission can be suppressed by changes made in feed rations, added oil and various additivesto reduce methane emissions in the rumen. In addition, breeding high yielding species with low methane production is one of the strategies that can reduce methane formation.