Hansen Tayler L, Li Manfei, Li Jinghui, Vankerhove Chris J, Sotirova Militsa A, Tricarico Juan M, Cabrera Victor E, Kebreab Ermias, Reed Kristan F
Department of Animal Science, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14850, USA.
Department of Animal and Dairy Sciences, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706, USA.
Animals (Basel). 2021 May 12;11(5):1373. doi: 10.3390/ani11051373.
Dairy production is an important source of nutrients in the global food supply, but environmental impacts are increasingly a concern of consumers, scientists, and policy-makers. Many decisions must be integrated to support sustainable production-which can be achieved using a simulation model. We provide an example of the Ruminant Farm Systems (RuFaS) model to assess changes in the dairy system related to altered animal feed efficiency. RuFaS is a whole-system farm simulation model that simulates the individual animal life cycle, production, and environmental impacts. We added a stochastic animal-level parameter to represent individual animal feed efficiency as a result of reduced residual feed intake and compared High (intake = 94% of expected) and Very High (intake = 88% of expected) efficiency levels with a Baseline scenario (intake = 100% of expected). As expected, the simulated total feed intake was reduced by 6 and 12% for the High and Very High efficiency scenarios, and the expected impact of these improved efficiencies on the greenhouse gas emissions from enteric methane and manure storage was a decrease of 4.6 and 9.3%, respectively.
乳制品生产是全球食物供应中营养物质的重要来源，但环境影响日益受到消费者、科学家和政策制定者的关注。必须综合考虑许多决策以支持可持续生产，这可以通过模拟模型来实现。我们提供了反刍动物养殖系统（RuFaS）模型的一个例子，以评估与动物饲料效率改变相关的乳制品系统变化。RuFaS是一个全系统农场模拟模型，可模拟个体动物的生命周期、生产和环境影响。由于残余饲料摄入量减少，我们添加了一个随机动物水平参数来表示个体动物饲料效率，并将高（摄入量=预期的94%）和非常高（摄入量=预期的88%）效率水平与基线情景（摄入量=预期的100%）进行比较。正如预期的那样，高和非常高的效率情景下模拟的总饲料摄入量分别减少了6%和12%，这些提高的效率对肠道甲烷和粪便储存产生的温室气体排放的预期影响分别降低了4.6%和9.3%。
