Methane production from weaned dairy heifer calves

Extract

Agriculture is one of the major sources of methane in the UK and the major contribution is that from the ruminant animal. Most current inventories include emissions from growing and adult cattle and it has been assumed that the young calf contributes little to the methane flux. There is a dearth of information for young cattle (65-110 kg liveweight) and the objective here was to provide methane data for this group of ruminants to assist in improving the UK inventories for methane.