Reducing Livestock Emissions:
Putting a Bung in your Gunga
While farmers protest the FART tax, do they have a leg to stand on? Belching emits most of the gases produced by livestock. Why does the government tax farmers for research when the cure for gaseous emissions has been know for more than 50 years?
The great paradigm of New Zealand farming is the legume culture. Pastures are considered poor unless there is a good amount of clover in the sward. Clover provides free nitrogen to improve grass growth and animals performance. However, the problem is that what is good for the pasture seldom is good for the animal. While most New Zealand pastures consist of 15%-30% protein, the rumen can only handle 13-14% protein at any one time – hence the problem with excess nitrogen.
The reason why animals belch so much is simple. Every farmer knows the causes of bloat; too much clover or feed high in nitrates (NO3). Excess nitrogen is the biggest problem in the livestock industry. It is caused by over application of nitrogen based fertilisers and little understanding about the link between animal, plant, and soil health. Excess nitrogen in the grass plant often results from high nitrates, the ingredients for building proteins. Once ingested and fermented in the rumen nitrate converts readily to ammonia gas (NH3) that is rapidly absorbed into the bloodstream or belched.
Farmers are told to drench with vinegar or bloat oil to neutralise the rumen froth but these do not address the ammonia problem. Ammonia is a toxic substance. Farmers are lead to believe that ammonia is simply excreted from the body as urea. However the limited capacity of the liver to breakdown ammonia to urea does not prevent ammonia levels rising in the blood. Furthermore, it takes energy to remove the urea, energy that would be better directed toward animal performance.
Extremely high blood ammonia levels turn the blood to a chocolate colour and kills animals by suffocation. However, at lower rates ammonia reduces conception rates and compensatory liveweight gain, as well as increases susceptibility to many diseases. If the body is busy dealing with an excess of ammonia in the blood, how can the animal possibly be performing to its optimum?
The focus of grazing planning is on energy as a measure of intake. This view masks the whole nutritional issue. Proteins and carbohydrates have the same energy value but consist of different substances. Problems arise when there is too much protein and not enough oxygen to balance the nitrogen. This is often seen as loose, dark dung representing unburnt fuel passing through the animal.
Conversely, excess methane is the result of too much carbohydrate in the feed. When dung piles high in a tower, the animal need a protein supplement. This is due to the excess oxygen in the diet (oxygen from the gut is used by the body for different things than oxygen from the lungs). Excess oxygen dries out the mucosa membranes lining the respiratory and digestive tracts. This is why many animals suffer from pneumonia after a drought because the protective mucus has dried up.
Many professionals scoff at the suggestion that animals do know what is good for them. Yet if given the opportunity, grazing animals will balance their diet and cure themselves of almost any aliment. Providing straw for growing animals over the summer makes noticeable differences in performance because it allows animals to balance protein and energy in their own diet. When this is done, there is less gas, if any, building up in the rumen. In fact, balancing proteins and carbohydrates is the key to reducing the majority of animal health bills.
Furthermore, research into excess gaseous emissions is unlikely to benefit farmers, more likely the pharmaceutical companies. Instead of focusing on farmer education about balancing animal diets, products like drenches and chemicals will swamp rural mailboxes leading to increasing farmer dependency on such technologies, higher production costs, and lower flexibility to be profitable.
While farmers now scramble to protect their business from another tax, had they spent as much effort on balancing plant, animal, and soil nutrition, they could be demanding rate rebates and tax breaks for maintaining air and water quality. Such practices enhance community quality of life by reducing health hazards, compliance costs, while producing foods of better nutritional quality.
John King from Succession coaches farming families to make decisions that are profitable, regenerative, and bring enjoyment to land stewardship. Contact him at succession@clear.net.nz or 025 6737 885 or AH (03) 547 6347.