Interaction of nitrogen application rates and harvest stages on enteric methane emission potential of selected pasture species

These data sets provide a comprehensive overview of forage growth characteristics, nutritional value, digestibility, and environmental impact potential through enteric methane emissions. The data categories include growth parameters (plant height, leaf number, leaf-to-stem ratio and shoot-to-root ratio), nutritional analyses (crude protein, neutral detergent fiber, acid detergent fiber, acid detergent lignin %), in-vitro methane (mL CH₄ g^-1 DM), in-vitro gas production (mL gas g^-1 DM) and in-vitro organic matter digestibility (%). These data sets serve as a resource for farmers, researchers, and environmental agencies, for enhancing forage use in sustainable agriculture.

This study investigated the effects of nitrogen (N) fertilisation and harvest stages on forage yield, quality, and enteric CH₄ emissions for five forage species: oats (Avena sativa), Italian ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum), Japanese radish (Raphanus sativus), sorghum (Sorghum bicolor), and cowpea (Vigna unguiculata). The experiment used a factorial design with three N fertilisation levels (15, 30, and 60 kg N ha⁻¹) and two harvest stages (boot and mature) represented by early and late harvest respectively, replicated five times. The study concludes that early harvest improves forage quality and reduces in-vitro CH₄ emissions. This emphasizes the importance of harvest stage and N fertilisation in forage production, forage quality, and potentially minimising enteric CH₄ production once consumed by ruminants automatically resulting in environmental sustainability.