How can biochar in livestock feed reduce methane emissions
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farming and agriculture is an important
part of the cheshire economy
as well as the larger uk economy
dairy is an important part of that
in cheshire there are about 450 dairy
cows
which represents about 10 of the uk
dairy herd dairy is a significant part
of the operations of agricultural
businesses in the county
and as for the wider uk economy as well
society is increasingly interested in
alternatives to
dairy and to meat and interest becoming
increasingly interested in vegetarianism
veganism and the source and the
husbandry of their food
this has important consequences for the
uk agricultural sector
and how farmers respond to these
challenges is going to be of real
consequence to them
over the next 10 years cows such as
these that we have at reese heath
produce a lot of methane
which is normally belched from the cow’s
body they also produce a lot of slurry
slurry is an important nutrient and
fertilizer
which is spread back onto the land but
that in itself causes environmental
problems
for water courses and for green other
greenhouse gas emissions
the national farmers union has committed
itself to reducing
to net zero by 2040 greenhouse gas
emissions
and cows and cattle operations and
reducing methane from those
is an important part of achieving this
strategy
the work we’re trying to do at reese
heath is part of that story
at reese heath we’re looking at the
effects of feeding biochar
as part of the feed ration this material
that the cows are busy chomping away at
to try and reduce methane emissions from
the cows biochar is a
substance produced by the gasification
or pyrolysis
of biomass material usually something
like wood
but bracken and other biomass materials
woody materials have been used to
produce biochar
the biochar is crumbed and fed as part
of the
mixed with the ration and fed as part of
the feed to the cows
on a daily basis the biomass
is heated to about a thousand degrees
celsius
and that drives off the volatile
materials within the butter char
and in the absence of oxygen carbon
nearly pure carbon and minerals are all
that remain
most of us know biochar as charcoal
but to some it’s a black gold it’s got
some really interesting properties
the process of making biochar means that
it’s
full of micro pores which gives it a
massive
internal surface area for example 25
grams an
ounce of biochar has a surface
area the equivalent to a football pitch
the size of wembley
this micro porosity gives an ideal
environment
in which bacterial communities can
thrive
some work by colleagues at other
universities have shown that by feeding
biochar to cattle can reduce methane
emissions by between six
and fifteen percent reducing six to
fifteen percent of the methane that’s
belched by a cow is a
significant contribution to greenhouse
gas emissions
so the work we’re doing at reese heath
is taking as red
that the methane emissions are reduced
but what else is going to happen to the
cows if they are fed biochar
over a long term so our work is by
mixing with the feed that we’ve got here
and here that the cows are busy eating
mixing biochar with that and then
looking at how the performance of the
cow
varies by those that are being fed by a
chair
compared to those that aren’t receiving
biochar
so the work that’s been done at the
other universities to show that biochar
has an
impact by putting cows into bio chambers
for two or three days and measuring
everything that is going into the cow
and everything that’s coming out of the
cow and by doing that
the estimates of between six and fifteen
percent have been established
the work we’re doing at feet at reese
heath is feeding
our high yielding cows and some of our
calves with biochar
what we’re looking with the cows is how
the milk yield
and the milk quality is affected by
feeding
the cows with biochar it works on the
basis that a cow with a
more healthy gut is more efficient
so if we look at the yield of the cow
the milk yield of the cow
compared with those that are not fed
biochar do we get
more milk for the same input or can we
get the same amount of milk
for a lower input of food this obviously
has
improvements for the efficiency of the
farming enterprise
as well as improving or increasing the
yield of the cow
we’re measuring the quality of the milk
so we’re looking at butter fat we’re
looking at protein
we’re looking at back to scan and
somatic cell count
the bacterial activity within the milk
and seeing if that is improved
if it is that means that the farmer may
receive
a higher income for the every litre of
milk that is sold
the way we’re going to do this is that
some of our cows are going to be moved
on to our robotic milking system
which comes into operation in a short
while
there we’re going to be feeding them and
measuring accurately
all of the inputs and the outputs and
recording that data
and analyzing it over an extended period
of time
the thinking behind the increase in
yield is that the gut
the rumen of the cow is more efficient
if it’s more efficient then it could
well be that the cow is also
healthier a healthier cow will mean that
there are less interventions required
by the vets and also a lower input of
antibiotics and other medicines that the
cow might receive
this again a healthier cow will improve
the margin
and the operation of the farming
enterprise
as well as that we’re looking at the
happiness of a cow
some farmers who have been feeding their
cows with biochar
report that their cows are happier
nobody really understands how they’re
happier
and what metrics have been established
to make a happy cat
but working with colleagues from
university of chester we’re trying to
establish some metrics
which can show that cows indeed are
happier
possibly they’re smiling more but
actually they’re better
than those that aren’t fed biochar and
again this is helping to improve the
efficiency
and the operation of the farming
enterprise
we’ve now moved inside one of our
carving sheds
at reese heath we have about 200 calves
born
every year what we’re going to do is to
trial
feeding some of these lovely beauties
with biochar
and track them throughout their life in
the receipt herd
as they move from carving they’ll go out
to their carve pens
they’ll go out onto pasture and then
when they have their first carbs they’ll
be brought in
and be part of the reese’s third by
feeding biochar we think that we might
be able to track some long-term benefits
and long-term gains from feeding the
carbs biochar
so that’s it for what we do with feeding
the feeding trials of biochar we’re also
doing some work
around using biochar
that’s come out of the cow through the
slurry and what can we do with the
slurry
so that’s a summary of the work that
we’re doing at reese heath on feeding
trials
biochar is an inert material and
eventually passes straight through the
cow
as it’s gone through the cow’s stomach
the micro porosity
has become full of bacteria those
bacteria can be very
beneficial to soil health so with that
slurry that we’ve got from the cows
we’re undertaking a series of trials to
look at how that slurry
is better or is different in the way it
performs when it’s applied to land
we’re looking at indicators such as the
soil health
so how much bacterial activity is
supported
in soil that has been spread with
biochar enriched slurry compared with
normal slurry or no slurry and then
we’re also doing worm counts as well
as well as the soil health we’re looking
at can
slurry that has been enriched with
biochar
improve the way the soil holds water
this could have important impacts and
benefits for
communities at risk of flooding and then
finally we’re looking at the possibility
of that biochar that inert material
sequestering carbon and locking it up
into the soil and this will have
important benefits for the uk’s economy
and our global greenhouse gas mitigation
targets
the evidence space that we’re putting
together at reese heath
for the from the feeding trials and from
the slurry work
could have important consequences for
farmers with the new
agri-environment scheme that uk
government is planning to introduce
in 2023 the environment land
management scheme is intended to pay
farmers public money
for the delivery of public goods and
biochar could be part of that story
we don’t know and that’s why we’re doing
the research here
as well as working with farmers we’re
working with
suppliers involved in the whole value
chain right from feed merchants
through to the large supermarkets and
dairy operations
all of which are interested in reducing
their carbon footprint
and improving their environmental
sustainability
and the work that we’re doing here
contributes to that
it also helps our students understand
the importance of environmental and
sustainability
agenda and makes them ready to work in
industry and commerce biochar
is an important asset and it could be an
important part of the uk agricultural
sector
in the future