Diet effects on urine composition of cattle and N2O emissions.
TLDR
Major dietary strategies to mitigating N2O emission from cattle operations include reducing dietary N content or increasing energy content, and increasing dietary mineral content to increase urine volume.Abstract:
Ruminant production contributes to emissions of nitrogen (N) to the environment, principally ammonia (NH3), nitrous oxide (N2O) and di-nitrogen (N2) to air, nitrate (NO3 -) to groundwater and particulate N to surface waters. Variation in dietary N intake will particularly affect excretion of urinary N, which is much more vulnerable to losses than is faecal N. Our objective is to review dietary effects on the level and form of N excreted in cattle urine, as well as its consequences for emissions of N2O. The quantity of N excreted in urine varies widely. Urinary N excretion, in particular that of urea N, is decreased upon reduction of dietary N intake or an increase in the supply of energy to the rumen microorganisms and to the host animal itself. Most of the N in urine (from 50% to well over 90%) is present in the form of urea. Other nitrogenous components include purine derivatives (PD), hippuric acid, creatine and creatinine. Excretion of PD is related to rumen microbial protein synthesis, and that of hippuric acid to dietary concentration of degradable phenolic acids. The N concentration of cattle urine ranges from 3 to 20 g/l. High-dietary mineral levels increase urine volume and lead to reduced urinary N concentration as well as reduced urea concentration in plasma and milk. In lactating dairy cattle, variation in urine volume affects the relationship between milk urea and urinary N excretion, which hampers the use of milk urea as an accurate indicator of urinary N excretion. Following its deposition in pastures or in animal houses, ubiquitous microorganisms in soil and waters transform urinary N components into ammonium (NH4 +), and thereafter into NO3 - and ultimately in N2 accompanied with the release of N2O. Urinary hippuric acid, creatine and creatinine decompose more slowly than urea. Hippuric acid may act as a natural inhibitor of N2O emissions, but inhibition conditions have not been defined properly yet. Environmental and soil conditions at the site of urine deposition or manure application strongly influence N2O release. Major dietary strategies to mitigating N2O emission from cattle operations include reducing dietary N content or increasing energy content, and increasing dietary mineral content to increase urine volume. For further reduction of N2O emission, an integrated animal nutrition and excreta management approach is required.read more
Citations
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Book ChapterDOI
Chapter Four - the challenge of the urine patch for managing nitrogen in grazed pasture systems.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors focus on three key areas: urine patch characteristics and N cycling processes; implications for N cycling at the farm and paddock scale; and strategies available to mitigate N losses from the urine patch.
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The contribution of cattle urine and dung to nitrous oxide emissions: Quantification of country specific emission factors and implications for national inventories.
David R. Chadwick,Laura M. Cardenas,M. S. Dhanoa,N. Donovan,Tom Misselbrook,John R. Williams,Rachel E. Thorman,K.L. McGeough,Cathy J. Watson,M. J. Bell,Steven G. Anthony,Robert M. Rees +11 more
TL;DR: Regression analysis suggests that urine N2O EFs were controlled more by composition than was the case for dung, whilst dung N2 o emission factors were more related to soil and environmental factors.
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Invited review: Nitrogen in ruminant nutrition: A review of measurement techniques.
Alexander N. Hristov,André Bannink,Les A. Crompton,Pekka Huhtanen,Michael Kreuzer,Mark McGee,Pierre Noziere,Christopher K. Reynolds,Ali R. Bayat,David R. Yáñez-Ruiz,Jan Dijkstra,Ermias Kebreab,Angela Schwarm,K. J. Shingfield,Zhongtang Yu +14 more
TL;DR: Methods to study ruminant N metabolism have been developed over 150 yr of animal nutrition research, but many of them are laborious and impractical for application on a large number of animals and results can be variable, especially the methods based on measurements of digesta or blood flow.
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Potential of Molecular Weight and Structure of Tannins to Reduce Methane Emissions from Ruminants: A Review.
TL;DR: In vivo studies are needed to determine the effects of tannins, characterized by MW and structural composition, on reducing CH4 emissions and improving animal performance in ruminants.
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