display
Dummerstorf (dpa / mv) - Scientists at the Institute for Farm Animal Biology (FBN) in Dummerstorf near Rostock have developed a new method for the realistic estimation of methane emissions from dairy cows.
The methane emission can be calculated from the analysis of milk fatty acids in a milk sample and the daily amount of milk, said the head of the FBN Institute for Nutritional Physiology, Cornelia Metges, on Monday.
No additional devices are required for this, because this data is collected in many test laboratories in Germany.
A patent has been granted for the new method by the EU, the USA and Canada, it said.
Measuring the methane emitted directly is not possible in the stable or in the pasture, said Metges.
The background to the new method is that milk yield correlates with feed intake.
If this data is available to the dairy farmer, the methane emissions could now be calculated individually for each animal.
Then it would again be possible to achieve a reduction in methane emissions through appropriate feeding management.
As Metjes said, scientific studies have shown that methane emissions per cow vary between 400 and 700 liters a day.
Methane is one of the climate-damaging gases.
According to estimates by the Federal Environment Agency, methane emissions from dairy cows account for around 20 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions from German agriculture.
display
FBN Nutritional Physiology