Methane emission from dairy cattle production systems in San Luis Potosi Valley, Mexico [Emisión de metano en los sistemas de producción de leche bovina en el valle de San Luis Potosí, México]

Dairy cattle production systems cause global impacts because they emit greenhouse gases (GHG), such as CO2, CH4 and N2O, from respiration, enteric fermentation and manure management. The objective of this study was to characterize dairy cattle production systems in the San Luis Potosí Valley, Mexico, and identify the differences among them in terms of milk production, feed conversion efficiency and methane emissions. Fifteen of the 35 dairy cattle production units, with herds of 20 to 100 producing Holstein cows, were evaluated. Emissions of CH4 were determined on the basis of the guidelines published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate change (IPCC). The CH4 emission factor due to enteric fermentation from cows in lactation was 51.27±11.71 kg year-1 per cow, whereas that from manure management was 0.22±0.05 kg year-1 per cow. A Pearson correlation analysis of methane intensity and feed conversion efficiency (r = -0.92) indicated that feed conversion efficiency increases methane and emission intensity decreases.

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