The effects of red clover and grass silages on rumen metabolites, detected using nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, associated with methane emissions from growing cattle

摘要

A greater understanding of variation in rumen metabolites may provide new, less expensive and higher-throughput proxies for methane emissions.Ruminant methane production is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture. These emissions are produced by rumen archaea, either through utilisation of hydrogen and carbon dioxide (hydrogenotrophic pathway) or methyl compounds (methylotrophic pathway). Diet can have a large effect on these microbes, and thus alter emissions. Current methods to measure methane emissions are expensive and low throughput, so we are exploring alternative proxy methods, such as measurement of rumen metabolites. The aim of the present study was to compare methane emissions from grass silage and red clover silage and assess associated metabolites using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). We hypothesized that the metabolites associated with the methylotrophic pathways would be increased by the pectin content in red clover.