Comparison of Tier 1 and 2 methodologies for estimating intake and enteric methane emission factors from smallholder sheep systems in Africa: A case study from Ethiopia

These datasets include enteric methane emission factors derived using the Common Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (‘CSIRO’) and Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Tier 2 methods. The activity data collected includes the live weight (LW) measurements of small ruminants in smallholder farms from different agro-ecological zones collected between February 2020 to January 2021 i.e., five LW measurements at months 0, 3, 6, 9, 12, live weight change for different periods, body condition scoring and physiological status referred here as "Activity data". The animal performance data together with feed quality data were used to predict the energy requirements of the animals.
Estimation of daily methane production (DMP) was performed by programming the equations for ‘CSIRO’ and IPCC Tier 2 methods in Microsoft Excel. The estimations for individuals were made on a seasonal basis. The weighted average of seasonal DMPs was multiplied by 365 to obtain the annual emission factor of enteric methane production.
Feed basket and digestibility file contain information on feedstuffs available and their contribution to feed baskets per agroecological zones in North Shewa. It also shows the average dry matter digestibility for each season.