Table 3.
Effect of pine-sourced biochar addition at 0.8% of dietary DM on performance and gas emissions of growing steers
| Treatments | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Control | Biochar | SEM | P-value | |
| Performance | ||||
| Initial BW, kg | 363 | 363 | 0.91 | 0.96 |
| Ending BW, kg | 477 | 479 | 2.04 | 0.50 |
| DMI, kg/d | 8.57 | 8.45 | 0.08 | 0.23 |
| ADG, kg | 1.45 | 1.47 | 0.023 | 0.46 |
| Gain:Feed | 0.170 | 0.175 | 0.003 | 0.25 |
| Gas emissions | ||||
| DMI, kg/steera | 9.6 | 9.7 | 0.11 | 0.52 |
| CH4, g/steer | 196.2 | 203.8 | 6.62 | 0.45 |
| CH4, g/kg of DMI | 20.5 | 20.9 | 0.66 | 0.60 |
| CO2, g/steer | 5,725 | 5,982 | 143.1 | 0.25 |
| CO2, g/kg of DMI | 561.3 | 581.4 | 10.8 | 0.24 |
a Dry matter intake (DMI) was used to unitize reported emissions and was averaged from the weekly intakes of each treatment during rotation through the respective emission chambers.