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

<p dir="ltr">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.</p><p dir="ltr">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.</p>