Effect of dietary nitrates and sulfates on enteric methane mitigation in finishing cattle

In this project, we studied the effect of dietary nitrate and sulfate on finishing cattle performance and methane emissions. 16S sequencing and metagenomics were used for better understanding of rumen microbiome composition and functionality. One hundred and thirty one day feeding trial was conducted using 24 head of cattle where the cattle received one of four treatments no supplementation (CT), 2.0% dietary nitrate (NT), 0.54% dietary sulfate (SF) or COMBO (SF+NT), with 6 steers per treatment. Rumen samples were collected and analyzed through amplicon sequencing targeting the 16S rDNA gene V4 bacterial and V6 archaeal regions and through shotgun metagenomics.