Non-interference measurement of CH4, N2O and NH3 emissions from cattle
Mei Bai A E , Jianlei Sun A , Kithsiri B. Dassanayake A , Marcelo A. Benvenutti A , Julian Hill B , Owen T. Denmead C , Thomas Flesch D and Deli Chen A E
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations
A Faculty of Veterinary and Agricultural Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Vic. 3121, Australia.
B Ternes Agricultural Consulting Pty Ltd, Upwey, Vic. 3158, Australia.
C CSIRO Land and Water, GPO Box 1666, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia.
D Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2R3, Canada.
E Corresponding authors. Email: mei.bai@unimelb.edu.au; delichen@unimelb.edu.au
Animal Production Science 56(9) 1496-1503 https://doi.org/10.1071/AN14992
Submitted: 7 December 2014 Accepted: 20 February 2015 Published: 27 April 2015
Abstract
A technique combining open-path Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy with an inverse-dispersion model was used to quantify methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O) and ammonia (NH3) emissions from an isolated cattle pen in south-eastern Australia. Twenty-eight Angus steers (1-year old, initial average liveweight 404 kg) were fed a 60% grain diet and kept in a pen (20 × 20 m) for 41 days. Gas concentrations were measured downwind of the pen using an open-path Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy with a path length of 100 m, having a detection sensitivity of 2, 0.3 and 0.4 ppb for CH4, N2O and NH3, respectively. Daily emission rates were 232, 14 and 192 g/cattle.day for CH4, N2O and NH3, respectively. The measured CH4 emissions were in agreement with predictions based on Australian National Inventory recommendations, however, measured N2O and NH3 emissions were much higher than the predicted values. Extrapolation of our measurements would mean that CH4 and N2O emissions from beef feedlot cattle contribute 3.1% and 5.9% of the Australian agricultural CH4 and N2O emissions, respectively.
Additional keywords: backward Lagrangian stochastic model, cattle pen, feedlot, greenhouse gas emissions, inverse-dispersion technique, OP-FTIR.
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