Adjusting feed formulas can reduce dairy cows’ greenhouse gas emissions without affecting the amount of milk produced, the Taiwan Livestock Research Institute said on Thursday last week.
The annual carbon dioxide equivalent produced by lactating dairy cows feeding on a new formula was 4.5 percent lower, falling from 6,259kg to 5,975kg, it said.
The reduction was calculated using methods specified by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 2006, it said.
Photo courtesy of the institute via CNA
The institute adjusted the ratio of corn and soybean oil meal in the feed — without changing the proportions of herbage, agricultural processing by-products and the concentration of the general feed — and gradually reduced the protein content of the feed from 18 percent to 15 percent, the institute said.
Reducing protein intake decreases the discharge of undigested nitrogen and cuts the production of nitrous oxide — also a greenhouse gas — as the cattle dung is fermented into compost, it said.
The change also lowered cows’ blood urea nitrogen levels and improved their health, it added.
Using agricultural by-products in cattle feed, such as brewer’s grains, pineapple skins and lemon peels, allows agricultural waste to be circulated and reused, it said.
In vitro experiments showed that the amount of methane produced by the cows’ rumens decreased when the proportion of the agricultural by-products was raised, it said.
The rumen is one of the cow’s stomachs. It produces methane — the second-most important greenhouse gas contributor to climate change — in the process of feed fermentation.
Earlier this year, the Ministry of Economic Affairs revised the national standard of formula feeds for livestock and poultry with the goal of reducing carbon emissions in livestock farming.
By adding maximum and minimum amounts of crude protein used in chicken and pig feed, the new standards were found to effectively reduce annual carbon emissions for each chicken and pig by 0.025kg and 7.24kg respectively, without affecting their growth, the institute said.
Japanese footwear brand Onitsuka Tiger today issued a public apology and said it has suspended an employee amid allegations that the staff member discriminated against a Vietnamese customer at its Taipei 101 store. Posting on the social media platform Threads yesterday, a user said that an employee at the store said that “those shoes are very expensive” when her friend, who is a migrant worker from Vietnam, asked for assistance. The employee then ignored her until she asked again, to which she replied: "We don't have a size 37." The post had amassed nearly 26,000 likes and 916 comments as of this
US President Donald Trump said "it’s up to" Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) what China does on Taiwan, but that he would be "very unhappy" with a change in the "status quo," the New York Times said in an interview published yesterday. Xi "considers it to be a part of China, and that’s up to him what he’s going to be doing," Trump told the newspaper on Wednesday. "But I’ve expressed to him that I would be very unhappy if he did that, and I don’t think he’ll do that," he added. "I hope he doesn’t do that." Trump made the comments in
Tourism in Kenting fell to a historic low for the second consecutive year last year, impacting hotels and other local businesses that rely on a steady stream of domestic tourists, the latest data showed. A total of 2.139 million tourists visited Kenting last year, down slightly from 2.14 million in 2024, the data showed. The number of tourists who visited the national park on the Hengchun Peninsula peaked in 2015 at 8.37 million people. That number has been below 2.2 million for two years, although there was a spike in October last year due to multiple long weekends. The occupancy rate for hotels
A cold surge advisory was today issued for 18 cities and counties across Taiwan, with temperatures of below 10°C forecast during the day and into tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. New Taipei City, Taipei, Taoyuan and Hsinchu, Miaoli and Yilan counties are expected to experience sustained temperatures of 10°C or lower, the CWA said. Temperatures are likely to temporarily drop below 10°C in most other areas, except Taitung, Pingtung, Penghu and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties, CWA data showed. The cold weather is being caused by a strong continental cold air mass, combined with radiative cooling, a process in which heat escapes from
RSS