Forage biomass of Tithonia diversifolia associated with different agro-industrial co-products in sheep feed: potential for reducing greenhouse gas emissions

• Grant number: 24/03777-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Effective date (Start): May 01, 2024
• Effective date (End): October 31, 2027
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Animal Husbandry - Animal Production
• Principal Investigator: Adibe Luiz Abdalla
• Grantee: Laura Bertolaso de Vecchi
• Host Institution: Centro de Energia Nuclear na Agricultura (CENA). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Piracicaba , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 21/10573-4 - Center for Carbon Research in Tropical Agriculture (CCARBON), AP.CEPID

Abstract

This research proposal aims to evaluate nutritional approaches to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by improving the quality of animal diets, using different biomass sources that do not depend excessively on fertilizers or irrigation, with a focus on sustainable tropical livestock systems. Different diet balances will be tested to improve animal performance and reduce the use of necessary inputs (carbon footprint), using locally suitable agro-industrial co-products not edible by humans for nitrogen and energy supplementation in herd feed. In this way, the forage Tithonia diversifolia (TD) will be evaluated, which has demonstrated a high capacity for biomass production, is a rich source of nitrogen, has potential to reduce enteric methane emissions and has a low demand for soil fertility. Therefore, this proposal is based on the use of non-conventional forages (e.g. TD) associated with agro-industrial co-products to: i) improve the protein and energy balance in sheep diets; (ii) reduce enteric methane production, (iii) reduce the contribution to GHG emissions of manure deposited on pastures. During the trials, manure and urine will be evaluated to observe the abundance of the stable isotope 15N in the feed, to estimate the GHG emission mitigation potential of each feeding strategy. In addition, techniques using tracers and markers will be applied to quantify enteric methane production (SF6 tracer) and diet/specific food intake (using iNDF and N-alkane markers). (AU)