In vitro Fermentation, Methane Emission and Global Warming

In vitro fermentation of available 36 feeds was performed to assess the quality by investigating the methane (CH4) production rate. For this purpose, a fermentation reactor was designed to capture the CH4 gas emitted and to collect liquor from the reactor during in vitro fermentation. The result showed that the CH4 production rate was greatly vary in different feed ingredients. The lowest CH4 producing feeds were corn gluten feed, brewer's grain and alfalfa straw among all energy, protein and forage feeds, respectively. Significant differences were found in CH4 emissions (p<0.01) in different feed ingredients during the 48 h of in vitro fermentation Finally, an economically viable and eco-friendly dairy ration was suggested that would be produced a much less CH4 than that of commercial dairy rations. Suggested dairy ration might be reduced CH4 emission as well as global warming.