Effects of forage types on digestibility, methane emissions, and nitrogen utilization efficiency in two genotypes of hill ewes.

Thirty-six nonpregnant hill ewes (18 pure Scottish Blackface and 18 Swaledale × Scottish Blackface) aged 18 mo and weighing 48 ± 4.8 kg were allocated to 3 forage treatments balanced for genotype and BW. Each genotype was offered 3 forages (pelleted ryegrass, fresh lowland grass, and fresh hill grass) ad libitum with 6 ewes for each of the 6 genotype × diet combination treatments. Pelleted ryegrass was sourced from a commercial supplier (Drygrass South Western Ltd, Burrington, UK). Fresh lowland grass was harvested daily in the morning from a third regrowth perennial ryegrass () sward. Fresh hill grass was harvested from a seminatural hill grassland every 2 d and stored in plastic bags at 4 to 5°C until offered. The animals were individually housed in pens and offered experimental diets for 14 d before being transferred to 6 individual respiration chambers for a further 4 d, during which feed intake, fecal and urine outputs, and CH emissions were measured. There was no interaction between genotype and forage types on any variable measured. In a comparison of effects of the 3 forages, pelleted ryegrass had the greatest ( < 0.001) values in DMI, GE intake, CH emissions, N intake (NI), and fecal N (FN), urine N (UN), and manure N (MN) outputs, whereas hill grass had the lowest ( < 0.001) values in DMI, energy (GE, DE, and ME) intake, CH emissions, NI, UN, and MN. However, pelleted ryegrass had the lowest ratio in CH emissions per unit DMI ( = 0.022) or GE intake ( = 0.026) or UN excretion as a proportion of NI or MN ( < 0.001). Lowland grass had a greater ( < 0.001) digestibility of DM, OM, CP, NDF, ADF, and GE and a greater ( < 0.001) ME:GE ratio or retained N:NI ratio than pelleted ryegrass and hill grass. Genotypes of sheep had no effect on any variable in feed intake, digestibility, CH emissions, or N utilization. The CH conversion factors (CH energy/GE) for pelleted ryegrass, lowland grass, and hill grass were 4.4, 5.7, and 5.6%, respectively. All data were then pooled to develop regression equations between CH and DMI or between N excretions (FN, UN, and MN) and NI. Methane emissions and N excretions were positively related to DMI and NI ( < 0.001), respectively. However, increasing DMI could reduce CH emissions per kilogram DMI. These equations add new information in predicting enteric CH emissions and N utilization efficiency and can be used to quantify the environmental footprint of hill sheep production systems.