Rhizosphere microbial community structure in high-producing, low-input switchgrass families.

Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.) is a native, low-input North American perennial crop primarily grown for bioenergy, livestock forage, and industrial fiber. To achieve no-input switchgrass production that meets biomass needs, several switchgrass genotypes have been identified that have a low or negative response to nitrogen fertilizer, i.

Symposium review: Uncertainties in enteric methane inventories, measurement techniques, and prediction models.

Ruminant production systems are important contributors to anthropogenic methane (CH) emissions, but there are large uncertainties in national and global livestock CH inventories. Sources of uncertainty in enteric CH emissions include animal inventories, feed dry matter intake (DMI), ingredient and chemical composition of the diets, and CH emission factors. There is also significant uncertainty associated with enteric CH measurements.

Lessons from the cow: what the ruminant animal can teach us about consolidated bioprocessing of cellulosic biomass.

Consolidated bioprocessing (CBP) of cellulosic biomass is a promising source of ethanol. This process uses anaerobic bacteria, their own cellulolytic enzymes and fermentation pathways that convert the products of cellulose hydrolysis to ethanol in a single reactor. However, the engineering and economics of the process remain questionable.

Seasonal diet affects ammonia emissions from tie-stall dairy barns.

Federal and state regulations are being promulgated under the Clean Air Act to reduce hazardous air emissions from livestock operations. Although much is known about air emissions from livestock operations in Europe, few data are available on emissions from livestock facilities in the United States and the management practices that may minimize these emissions. The objective of this study was to measure seasonal and diet effects on ammonia emissions from experimental tie-stall dairy barns located in central Wisconsin.