Greater human populations require greater animal food inputs but not without cost. The environmental impact of intensive farming can be devastating, so ensuring a cleaner environment is of paramount importance as we strive to increase animal performance. An example of what has happened in Europe may well spread to other key global markets. Many parts of Europe are now Nitrate Vulnerable Zones (NVZ) and phosphorus pollution has been well documented with blue-green algae rendering water un-usable. Ruminants are inefficient animals, excreting large amounts of minerals and nitrogen in their waste. Furthermore, ensiling feeds leads to effluent losses and this highly concentrated contaminant is often free to drain into watercourses.
Heavy metal contamination of land
Throughout the world legislative bodies have proposed the reduction of acceptable minerals levels in the diets of several production animal species. It is feared that excessive amounts of copper and other heavy metals will make soil and water untenable for agriculture in as little as 30 years. The goal is to reduce the habit of overformulation. The key is absorption. Minerals fed as sulphates or oxides typically are poorly absorbed because, as weakly charged transitional elements, they interact with other minerals present in the digestive tract.
Recent research indicates that with minerals bound to amino acids and peptides, less interaction occurs and more mineral is absorbed. Therefore, less supplemental mineral is needed in the diet to provide effectively the amount needed by production animals. The promise of chelated minerals such as these is the reduction of mineral pollution and the ability to meet or surpass production goals previously seen with oxides and sulphates.
Effluent issues from silages
Managing the loss of silage effluent is an ongoing challenge. Silage effluent is undesirable as it is a major source of pollution of watercourses if it escapes into rivers and also because it represents a loss of nutrients during ensiling. By using strategies to reduce dry matter losses in the crop during the ensiling process, the amount of effluent produced can be significantly reduced. One such strategy is to ensure that there is a dominant lactic acid rather than acetic acid fermentation. This will retain more of the feeding value of the ensiled forage as this type of fermentation is more energy efficient and produces less wasteful byproducts.
Reducing nitrogen and ammonia excretion
To achieve maximum returns, producers must encourage animals to eat and absorb as much feed as possible, to make milk or meat. Continued high intakes, however, mean that more and more waste is produced. Ammonia and hydrogen sulphide are the two most common gases emitted from ruminant waste. These gases are not only a nuisance because of their strong odor, they can also be damaging to the animal’s respiratory system and appetite, and can cause high milk urea nitrogen (MUN) and blood urea nitrogen (BUN) levels. Natural products such as plant extracts have been proven to reduce ammonia and hydrogen sulphide emissions in animal waste, and also to stabilize BUN and MUN levels.