Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Cattle Farming Operations
There are certain methods to reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Cattle Farming Operations.
In order to reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Livestock industry;
a) Reduce the number of animals with low-efficiency levels and develop merchantable hybrids well adapting to regional conditions.,
b) Production and use of silage feed should be encouraged and popularised, instead of dried and hard to digest feeds,
c) Training and education programs should be organized on the use and dissemination of easy digestible grain feed.
In Cattle Farming operations, disposable wastes, especially animal manure, release ammonia and carbon dioxide gasses at greatly varying rates depending on the method of storage adopted, until such time when they are disposed off to the farm field. It is possible, both by altering the storage conditions and by extracting biogas from the manure, to mitigate greenhouse gas releases.
The current practice widely spread across the country, deposits animal manure either a) inside the barn (indoors) as barnyard manure dumped in a pit, or b) outdoors, as farmyard manure. In either case, such gasses as ammonia, methane, carbon dioxide and sulphur-containing hydrogen are released to the atmosphere in high concentrations. “Batch Ageing” is the proposed alternative for the fermentation systems hitherto used widely across the country with the dual purpose to make manure more utilisable in soil and reduce emissions of greenhouse gasses.
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Batch Ageing
Batch Ageing is implemented in two different ways known as a) cold and b) heated ageing techniques, in practice. Both of these techniques release greenhouse gases and ammonia either at lower or reduced rates. In addition, these techniques increase the level of re-utilisation of organic manure in soil.
In cold ageing method, when the manure moved out of the cow shed and brought to the dunghill is compacted right after wetting, fermentation continues under completely anaerobic conditions and the heap temperature rises exponentially.
Conveyed in hot maturation to the dunghill, the manure is stocked in an approximately 75 cm high heap without compaction, wetted under anaerobic conditions for 1 day during summer, or, 2 days during winter, until the ambient temperature reaches at 65°C, and then compressed completely for reinstatement of anaerobic conditions. Cold and hot maturation methods are for storage of barnyard manure in an environmentally sound manner.
Among the beneficial aspects of the batch ageing method, notable is the potential use of animal manure and process wastes in biogas (manure gas) production plants, to obtain environmentally friendly, clean source of energy.
Means should be provided for developing environment-friendly stock breeding techniques which are not detrimental to human health and for nationwide implementation and popularisation of sustainable land management practices based on land usage plans, in order to ensure the ability of the livestock sector to adapt to changing climatic conditions and elimination of the impacts of the industry on climate change.
