Dietary options to reduce the environmental impact of milk production
A range of options was explored to test the hypothesis that diets for dairy cows could be formulated to reduce the carbon footprint (CFP) of feed, increase efficiency of conversion of potentially human-edible feed into milk, increase nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) and reduce methane (CH4) emissions p...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
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Cambridge University Press
2017
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| Online Access: | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/39513/ |
| _version_ | 1848795854314405888 |
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| author | Wilkinson, J.M. Garnsworthy, P.C. |
| author_facet | Wilkinson, J.M. Garnsworthy, P.C. |
| author_sort | Wilkinson, J.M. |
| building | Nottingham Research Data Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | A range of options was explored to test the hypothesis that diets for dairy cows could be formulated to reduce the carbon footprint (CFP) of feed, increase efficiency of conversion of potentially human-edible feed into milk, increase nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) and reduce methane (CH4) emissions per kg milk. Diets based on grazed grass, grass silage, maize silage or straw, supplemented with raw material feeds, were formulated to meet requirements for metabolizable energy and metabolizable protein for a range of daily milk yields. At similar levels of milk yield, NUE, predicted CH4 emissions and diet CFP were generally higher for diets based on maize silage than for those based on grazed grass, grass silage or straw. Predicted CH4 emissions and human-edible proportion decreased, while NUE increased with the increasing level of milk yield. It is concluded that there is potential to reduce the environmental impact of milk production by altering diet formulation, but the extent to which this might occur is likely to depend on availability of raw material feeds with low CFPs. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T19:38:42Z |
| format | Article |
| id | nottingham-39513 |
| institution | University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T19:38:42Z |
| publishDate | 2017 |
| publisher | Cambridge University Press |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | nottingham-395132020-05-04T19:58:32Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/39513/ Dietary options to reduce the environmental impact of milk production Wilkinson, J.M. Garnsworthy, P.C. A range of options was explored to test the hypothesis that diets for dairy cows could be formulated to reduce the carbon footprint (CFP) of feed, increase efficiency of conversion of potentially human-edible feed into milk, increase nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) and reduce methane (CH4) emissions per kg milk. Diets based on grazed grass, grass silage, maize silage or straw, supplemented with raw material feeds, were formulated to meet requirements for metabolizable energy and metabolizable protein for a range of daily milk yields. At similar levels of milk yield, NUE, predicted CH4 emissions and diet CFP were generally higher for diets based on maize silage than for those based on grazed grass, grass silage or straw. Predicted CH4 emissions and human-edible proportion decreased, while NUE increased with the increasing level of milk yield. It is concluded that there is potential to reduce the environmental impact of milk production by altering diet formulation, but the extent to which this might occur is likely to depend on availability of raw material feeds with low CFPs. Cambridge University Press 2017-03 Article PeerReviewed Wilkinson, J.M. and Garnsworthy, P.C. (2017) Dietary options to reduce the environmental impact of milk production. Journal of Agricultural Science, 155 (2). pp. 334-347. ISSN 1469-5146 https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-agricultural-science/article/div-classtitledietary-options-to-reduce-the-environmental-impact-of-milk-productiondiv/EA2FD1C25C7671F1A57B1FC053E12D23 doi:10.1017/S0021859616000757 doi:10.1017/S0021859616000757 |
| spellingShingle | Wilkinson, J.M. Garnsworthy, P.C. Dietary options to reduce the environmental impact of milk production |
| title | Dietary options to reduce the environmental impact of milk production |
| title_full | Dietary options to reduce the environmental impact of milk production |
| title_fullStr | Dietary options to reduce the environmental impact of milk production |
| title_full_unstemmed | Dietary options to reduce the environmental impact of milk production |
| title_short | Dietary options to reduce the environmental impact of milk production |
| title_sort | dietary options to reduce the environmental impact of milk production |
| url | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/39513/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/39513/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/39513/ |