Effect of measurement duration in respiration chambers on methane traits of beef cattle
P. F. Arthur A E , K. A. Donoghue B , T. Bird-Gardiner B , R. M. Herd C and R. S. Hegarty DA NSW Department of Primary Industries, Elizabeth Macarthur Agricultural Institute, Menangle, NSW 2568, Australia.
B NSW Department of Primary Industries, Agricultural Research Centre, Trangie, NSW 2823, Australia.
C NSW Department of Primary Industries, Beef Industry Centre, Armidale, NSW 2351, Australia.
D Environmental and Rural Science, University of New England, Armidale, NSW 2351, Australia.
E Corresponding author. Email: paul.arthur@dpi.nsw.gov.au
Animal Production Science 58(6) 1006-1010 https://doi.org/10.1071/AN15425
Submitted: 6 August 2015 Accepted: 7 January 2016 Published: 5 April 2016
Abstract
Records on 1043 young Angus heifer and bull progeny from 73 sires, measured for methane production in respiration chambers, were used to evaluate the accuracy of a 1-day measurement relative to 2-day measurement duration. The traits assessed were dry matter intake (DMI, kg/day), methane-production rate (MPR, g/day), methane yield (MY, MPR per unit DMI) and four residual methane (RMP, g/day) traits. The RMP traits were computed as actual MPR minus expected MPR, where the expected MPR were calculated from three widely used equations. The expected MPR for the fourth RMP trait was computed by regressing MPR on DMI, using the data from the study. Variance components, heritability, phenotypic and genetic correlations, and the efficiency of selection using 1-day compared with 2-day measurement were used as assessment criteria. The environmental variance for the 2-day measurement was slightly lower than that of the 1-day measurement for all the traits studied, indicating that the addition of an extra day of data was effective in reducing the amount of unexplained variation in each trait. However, these minor reductions did not have a major impact on accuracy; hence, very high phenotypic (rp of 0.91–0.99) and genetic (rg of 0.99 for each trait) correlations were obtained between the two measurement durations. The very high genetic correlation between the two durations of measurement indicated that, at the genetic level, the 1-day duration is measuring the same trait as the 2-day measurement duration. Any enteric-methane emission-abatement strategy that seeks to reduce MPR per se, may have a detrimental impact on ruminant productivity through a correlated reduction in feed intake; hence, MY and the RMP traits are likely to be the traits of interest for genetic improvement. Efficiency of selection for MY and the RMP traits ranged from 0.96 to 0.99, which implies that there would be less than 5% loss in efficiency by adopting a 1-day relative to a 2-day methane-measurement duration. While the throughput of the respiration-chamber facility can be increased by adopting a 1-day measurement duration, additional resources, such as holding pens, would be required to take advantage of the extra day.
Additional keywords: greenhouse gas, residual methane, ruminants.
References
Arthur PF, Archer JA, Johnston DJ, Herd RM, Richardson EC, Parnell PF (2001) Genetic and phenotypic variance and covariance components for feed intake, feed efficiency, and other postweaning traits in Angus cattle. Journal of Animal Science 79, 2805–2811.Bickell SL, Revel DK, Toovey AF, Vercoe PE (2014) Feed intake of sheep when allowed ad libitum access to feed in methane respiration chambers. Journal of Animal Science 92, 2259–2264.
| Feed intake of sheep when allowed ad libitum access to feed in methane respiration chambers.Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | 1:CAS:528:DC%2BC2cXot12itbo%3D&md5=af06f4c91c3a49c321d24779415f81b9CAS | 24663203PubMed |
Blaxter KL, Clapperton JL (1965) Prediction of the amount of methane produced by ruminants. British Journal of Nutrition 19, 511–522.
| Prediction of the amount of methane produced by ruminants.Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | 1:CAS:528:DyaF28XitFKktg%3D%3D&md5=6cde6902b771bbb1af70db2dca0760aaCAS | 5852118PubMed |
Donoghue KA, Bird-Gardiner TL, Arthur PF, Herd RM, Hegarty RS (2015) Genetic parameters for methane production and relationships with production traits in Australian beef cattle. In ‘Proceedings of the 21st Association for the Advancement of Animal Breeding and Genetics, 28–30 September 2015, Lorne, Australia’. pp. 114–117.
Falconer DS, Mackay TFC (1996) ‘Introduction to quantitative genetics.’ 4th edn. (Longman: Harlow, Essex, UK)
Gerber PJ, Steinfeld H, Henderson B, Mottet A, Opio C, Dijkman J, Falcucci A, Tempio G (2013) ‘Tackling climate change through livestock: a global assessment of emissions and mitigation opportunities.’ (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO): Rome)
Gilmour AR, Gogel BJ, Cullis BR, Welham SJ, Thompson R (2014) ‘ASReml user guide release 4.0.’ (VSN International: Hemel Hempstead, UK) Available at www.vsni.co.uk [Verified 19 January 2016]
Hegarty R, Bird S, Woodgate R (2014) Cattle respiration facility, Armidale, New South Wales, Australia. In ‘Technical manual on respiration chamber designs’. (Eds C Pinares, G Waghorn) pp. 29–41. (New Zealand Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry: Wellington, New Zealand) Available at http://www.globalresearchalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/GRA-MAN-Facility-BestPract-2012-FINAL.pdf [Verified at 24 August 2015]
Herd RM, Arthur PF, Donoghue KA, Bird SH, Bird-Gardiner T, Hegarty RS (2014) Measures of methane production and their phenotypic relationships with dry matter intake, growth and body composition traits in beef cattle. Journal of Animal Science 92, 5267–5274.
| Measures of methane production and their phenotypic relationships with dry matter intake, growth and body composition traits in beef cattle.Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | 1:CAS:528:DC%2BC2MXitlartw%3D%3D&md5=c17a1cb11bffd89430e7403c5b06ec85CAS | 25349368PubMed |
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) (2006) Emissions from livestock and manure management. Chapter 10. In ‘IPCC guidelines for national greenhouse gas inventories, vol. 4. Agriculture, forestry and other land use’. (Eds S Eggleston, L Buendia, K Miwa, T Ngara, K Tanabe) pp. 10.1–10.89. (Institute for Global Environmental Strategies: Hayama, Japan)
Johnson KA, Johnson DE (1995) Methane emissions from cattle. Journal of Animal Science 73, 2483–2492.
Johnson DE, Hill TM, Ward GM, Johnson KA, Branine ME, Carmean BR, Lowman DW (1995) Ruminants and other animals. In ‘Atmospheric methane: sources, sinks and role in global change’. (Ed. MAK Khalil) pp. 199–229. (Springer-Verlag: New York)
Koots KR, Gibson JP, Wilton JW (1994) Analyses of published genetic parameter estimates for beef production traits. 2. Phenotypic and genetic correlations. Animal Breeding Abstracts 62, 826–853.
Lancaster PA, Carstens GE, Crews DH, Welsh TH Lancaster PA, Carstens GE, Crews DH, Welsh TH (2009) Phenotypic and genetic relationships of residual feed intake with performance and ultrasound carcass traits in Brangus heifers. Journal of Animal Science 87, 3887–3896.
| Phenotypic and genetic relationships of residual feed intake with performance and ultrasound carcass traits in Brangus heifers.Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | 1:CAS:528:DC%2BD1MXhsVOhs7nK&md5=e19ddf9551e1a46ffd9c67a1a731980cCAS | 19717782PubMed |
NHMRC (2013) ‘Australian code for the care and use of animals for scientific purposes.’ 8th edn. (National Health and Medical Research Council: Canberra)
Pelchen A, Peters KJ (1998) Methane emissions from sheep. Small Ruminant Research 27, 137–150.
| Methane emissions from sheep.Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Pickering NK, de Haas Y, Basarab J, Cammack K, Hayes B, Hegarty RS, Lassen J, McEwan JC, Miller S, Pinares-Patiño CS, Shackell G, Vercoe P, Oddy VH (2013) ‘Consensus methods for breeding low methane emitting animals.’ A White Paper prepared by the Animal Selection, Genetics and Genomics Network of the Livestock Research Group of Global Research Alliance for reducing greenhouse gases from agriculture. Available at http://www.asggn.org/publications,listing,95,mpwg-white-paper.html [Verified 28 July 2015]
Pinares-Patiño CS, Hickey SM, Young EA, Dodds KG, MacLean S, Molano G, Sandoval E, Kjestrup H, Harland R, Hunt C, Pickering NK, McEwan JC (2013) Heritability estimates of methane emissions from Sheep. Animal 7, 316–321.
| Heritability estimates of methane emissions from Sheep.Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | 23739473PubMed |
Standing Committee for Agriculture (SCA) (2000) ‘Feeding Standards for Australian Livestock. Ruminants.’ (CSIRO Publishing: Melbourne)
