Effect of carbohydrate type in silages and concentrates on feed intake, enteric methane and milk yield from dairy cows

Dietary carbohydrate manipulation can be used to reduce enteric methane (CH4) emission. Silages and concentrates can be a carbohydrate source, but there is a lack of studies on the interaction between them. Understanding this interaction is necessary to take best advantage of CH4 mitigation feeding strategies using dietary carbohydrates. The aim of this study was to test the effect on enteric CH4 emission, feed intake and milk production response when cows were fed either grass-clover (GCS) or corn silage (COR) as the sole forage source (55% of dry matter, DM), in combination with either barley (BAR) or dried beet pulp (DBP) as a concentrate (21.5% of DM).