In 2023, the population reached the mark of 8 billion people in the world, and projections indicate that this number will increase to 9.7 billion by 2050 [1]

BERNDT, A.

BRUNO, J. F.

CARVALHO, S. C. DOS S.

CHAMILETE, S. A. M.

FURTADO, A. J.

NASSU, R. T.

OLIVEIRA, P. P. A.

PERNA JUNIOR, F.

RODRIGUES, P. H. M.

English

Repository Open Access to Scientific Information from Embrapa

70th International Congress of Meat Science and Technology, Foz do Iguaçu August 18-23, 2024         86 70th International Congress of Meat Science and Technology, Foz do Iguaçu August 18-23, 2024307Enteric methane emissions expressed by carcass productivity of Nellore cattle raised in different pasture systems  Althieres José Furtado1*, Suelen Cristina dos Santos Carvalho2, Sophia Aparecida Morro Chamilete2, Jaqueline Fernandes Bruno1, Flavio Perna Junior¹, Alexandre Berndt3, Renata Tieko Nassu3, Patricia Perondi Anchão de Oliveira3, Paulo Henrique Mazza Rodrigues1 1Universidade de São Paulo, Pirassununga, SP, Brasil;  2Universidade Estadual Paulista Júlio de Mesquita Filho, São José do Rio Preto, SP, Brasil;  3Embrapa Pecuária Sudeste, São Carlos, SP, Brasil. *Corresponding author email: althieresjf@usp.br  I. INTRODUCTION  In 2023, the population reached the mark of 8 billion people in the world, and projections indicate that this number will increase to 9.7 billion by 2050 [1]. To meet the growing demand for food, it became necessary to intensify existing production systems while also, mitigating the environmental impacts caused by the increased exploitation of natural resources [2]. As a strategy to enhance productivity in pastures, the consortium of pigeon pea with tropical grasses can meet the nutritional requirements of animals, which showed better performance in terms of weight gain when compared to animals kept in extensive and poorly managed breeding systems. This consortium system can mitigate up to 70% of methane (CH4) emissions when expressed by average daily weight gain compared to treatment with degraded systems [3]. Therefore, the objective of this work was to evaluate hot carcass weight (HCW) and enteric CH4 emissions of Nellore cattle in an intercropped pasture system containing grasses and legumes.  II. MATERIALS AND METHODS  The study was approved and followed the guidelines of the Committee for the Use and Care of Institutional Animals (CEUA) of Embrapa (nº 05/2016) and the College of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science of the University of São Paulo (nº 6228200521). The experiment was carried out at Embrapa Pecuária Sudeste, São Carlos, SP, Brazil and included 27 Nellore steers, with a body weight of 221  7 kg and 15 months old, were randomly distributed into three treatments with three grazing replicates in a completely randomized design, totaling nine grazing units (11.7 ha in total): 1) Degraded pasture of Urochloa decumbens Stapf cv. Basilisk (DEG); 2) Recovered pasture established with a mixture of U. decumbens cv. Basilisk and U. brizantha (Hochst ex A. Rich) Stapf cv. Marandu (REC); and 3) Intercropped pasture, a mixture of U. decumbens cv. Basilisk and U. brizantha cv. Marandu intercropped with Cajanus cajan (L. Millsp.) cv. BRS Mandarim (MIX). The CH4 samples was carried out for two years (2021-2022) during the dry (June) and rainy (January) seasons. In the rainy season (October - March), all animals received mineral mixture supplementation, while in the dry season (April - September), animals from REC and DEG received protein-energy supplementation, and MIX, just a mineral mixture. Enteric CH4 emissions were determined using the sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) tracer gas technique. At the end of the experiment the animals were fasted for 16 hours, receiving only water ad libitum, and then weighted. In the same day they were transported to a federal inspected slaughterhouse. Immediately after slaughter, the carcasses were weighed to obtain hot carcass weight. The data were subjected to analysis of variance using SAS PROC MIXED and the means were compared by Fisher's test (5%).  III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION  Table 1 – Carcass production and enteric CH4 emissions of Nellore cattle under different pasture systems. 70th International Congress of Meat Science and Technology, Foz do Iguaçu August 18-23, 2024 70th International Congress of Meat Science and Technology, Foz do Iguaçu August 18-23, 2024         87307 307Variables Treatment  SEM  Statistical Probabilities (P value)* MIX  REC  DEG   HCW, kg 298.56A  282.22AB  264.50B  7.76  0.0191 CH4, kg/day 0.2596  0.2621  0.2573  0.0008  0.9146 CH4/HCW, kg/kg 0.6359B  0.6780AB  0.7101A  0.0280  0.0422 AB Capital letters differ (P<0.05) treatments by Fisher's test; * Significant at 5%; MIX, mixture of U. decumbens cv. Basilisk and U. brizantha cv. Marandu intercropped with Cajanus cajan (L. Millsp.) cv. BRS Mandarim; REC, mixture of U. decumbens cv. Basilisk and U. brizantha cv. Marandu fertilized with 200 kg of N-urea ha-1 year-1; DEG, degraded pasture of Urochloa decumbens cv. Basilisk; HCW, hot carcass weight; SEM, standard error of the mean.  In Table 1, the HCW of MIX was higher about DEG, and it is also possible to observe that although CH4 emissions did not show a significant difference between the grazing systems, MIX treatment was able to dilute carcass emissions. At the same time, DEG presented 12% more emissions per unit of product than MIX. As demonstrated by Furtado et al. [3], pigeon pea has high levels of nutrients, which increases the energy and protein density of the diet consumed by the animals. In addition, the greatest consumption of pigeon pea occurs during the dry season of the year, a period in which Urochloa spp. presents reduced digestibility and crude protein (CP) values, compromising rumen fermentation and causing non-supplemented animals to lose weight. Another advantage is the presence of condensed tannins in pigeon pea plants, a factor that helps ensure that CH4 emissions do not increase with the additional consumption of this forage. Meo-Filho et al., [4] when studying the effects of pasture intensification on Canchim breed steers, they found lower values of CH4 per carcass than those observed in this experiment, which can be justified by the choice of breed used, given that the Canchim is a breed crossed with taurine (precocious) animals, the time of experiment and slaughter weight were lower, which also reduced experiment emissions. Furthermore, supplementing the animals with the corn silage produced may also have influenced the lower emissions.  IV. CONCLUSION  The pigeon pea proved to be a great alternative for mitigating CH4, reducing the need for fertilization and the use of food supplements, producing more sustainable meat.  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS  This research was funded by São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP), grant numbers 2017/20084-5 and 2022/08165-8, Embrapa Pecuária Sudeste - São Carlos/SP, and by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - Brasil (CAPES).  REFERENCES 1. Nationen, V. (2022) World Population Prospects 2022: Summary of Results. United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN-DESA). 2. Monteiro, A.; Barreto-Mendes, L.; Fanchone, A.; Morgavi, D. P.; Pedreira, B. C.; Magalhães, C. A. S.; Abdalla, A. L.; Eugène, M. (2024) Crop-livestock-forestry systems as a strategy for mitigating greenhouse gas emissions and enhancing the sustainability of forage-based livestock systems in the Amazon biome. Science of The Total Environment 906: 167396. 3. Furtado, A. J.; Abdalla Filho, A. L.; Bruno, J. F.; Parquini Neto, R.; Lobo, A. A. G.; Silva, G. V.; Perna Junior, F.; Alves, T. C.; Berndt, A.; Pedroso, A. de F.; Medeiros, S. R.; Oliveira, P. P. A.; Rodrigues, P. H. M. (2023) Pigeon pea intercropped with tropical pasture as a mitigation strategy for enteric methane emissions of Nellore steers. Animals 13(8): 1323. 4. Meo-Filho, P; Berndt, A; Pezzopane, J. R. M.; Pedroso, A. F.; Bernard, A. C. C.; Rodrigues, P. H. M.; Bueno, I. C. S.; Corte, R. R.; Oliveira, P. P. A. Can intensified pasture systems reduce enteric methane emissions from beef cattle in the atlantic forest biome?. Agronomy 12: 2738. 

Enteric methane emissions expressed by carcass productivity of Nellore cattle raised in different pasture systems.

http://www.alice.cnptia.embrapa.br/bitstream/doc/1167617/1/EntericMethaneEmissions.pdf

Enteric methane emissions expressed by carcass productivity of Nellore cattle raised in different pasture systems.

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

Repository Open Access to Scientific Information from Embrapa