Alfalfa-grass mixtures reduce greenhouse gas emissions and net global warming potential while maintaining yield advantages over monocultures.

Improving forage productivity with lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from limited grassland has been a hotspot of interest in global agricultural production. In this study, we analyzed the effects of grasses (tall fescue, smooth bromegrass), legume (alfalfa), and alfalfa-grass (alfalfa + smooth bromegrass and alfalfa + tall fescue) mixtures on GHG emissions, net global warming potential (Net GWP), yield-based greenhouse gas intensity (GHGI), soil chemical properties and forage productivity in cultivated grassland in northwest China during 2020-2021. Our results demonstrated that alfalfa-grass mixtures significantly improved forage productivity.

Appropriate N fertilizer addition mitigates NO emissions from forage crop fields.

Forage crops are widely cultivated as livestock feed to relieve grazing pressure in agro-pastoral regions with arid climates. However, gaseous losses of soil nitrogen (N) following N fertilizer application have been considerable in response to the pursuit of increased crop yield. A two-year experiment was carried out in a typical saline field under a temperate continental arid climate to investigate the effect of N application rate on NO emissions from barley (Hordeum vulgare L.

Selenium supplementation improves nutrient intake and digestibility, and mitigates CH emissions from sheep grazed on the mixed pasture of alfalfa and tall fescue.

Low selenium (Se) in soil and forage can adversely affect on the quality of animal-derived foods, and hence on human health. Lambs grazed on mixed pastures of alfalfa (Medicago sativa) and tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea) were supplemented with five levels of Se [0, 3, 6, 9 and 12 µg/kg body weight (BW)]. The intake of dry matter (DM) and organic matter (OM) varied with the level of Se supplementation, with a peak at 6 µg Se per kg BW (p ≤ 0.

Effects of Allium mongolicum Regel supplementation on the digestibility, methane production, and antioxidant capacity of Simmental calves in northwest China.

This study evaluated the effects of Allium mongolicum Regel (AM) supplementation on nitrogen (N) balance, ruminal fermentation, and antioxidant properties. Sixteen male calves were assigned randomly to four groups, and the four were added with 0 (CON), 200 mg/kg (body weight; BW) (Low AM; LA), 400 mg/kg (BW) (Middle AM; MA), or 800 mg/kg (BW) (High AM; HA) per day for each individual. AM was added on dry matter (DM) basis.

Optimizing alfalfa productivity and persistence versus greenhouse gases fluxes in a continental arid region.

Alfalfa in China is mostly planted in the semi-arid or arid Northwest inland regions due to its ability to take up water from deep in the soil and to fix atmospheric N2 which reduces N fertilizer application. However, perennial alfalfa may deplete soil water due to uptake and thus aggravate soil desiccation. The objectives of this study were (1) to determine the alfalfa forage yield, soil property (soil temperature (ST), soil water content (SWC), soil organic carbon (SOC) and soil total nitrogen (STN)) and greenhouse gas (GHG: methane (CH), nitrous oxide (NO), and carbon dioxide (CO)) emissions affected by alfalfa stand age and growing season, (2) to investigate the effects of soil property on GHG emissions, and (3) to optimize the alfalfa stand age by integrating the two standard criteria, the forage yield and water use efficiency, and the total GHG efflux (CO-eq).

Increasing roughage quality by using alfalfa hay as a substitute for concentrate mitigates CH emissions and urinary N and ammonia excretion from dry ewes.

Twelve Hu sheep × thin-tail Han crossbred dry ewes with an average body weight of 32.6 ± 0.68 kg and an age of 3 years were arranged in a 3 × 3 Latin square design, with each experimental period of 24 d to evaluate the effect of substituting alfalfa hay in a portion of concentrate on nutrient intake, digestibility, N utilisation efficiency and methane emissions.