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Productive, economic, and environmental effects of sunflower (Helianthus annuus) silage for dairy cows in small-scale systems in central Mexico

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Abstract

Small-scale dairy systems (SSDS) are important source of livelihood and socio-economic wellbeing for the rearers in general. The reduction of methane emissions with the inclusion of sunflower seed or seed-meal in rations for dairy cows has been reported in several studies. However, studies pertaining to the use of sunflower silage in dairy cattle feeding are lacking. The present study was conducted to assess the productive, economic, and environmental effects of the inclusion of graded levels of sunflower silage at 0%, 20%, 40%, and 60% (SFSL) along with maize silage (MZSL) on a dry matter basis. The silage was provided to eight Holstein cows in two 4×4 Latin-squares with 14-day periods. The study encompassed the productive performance of the cows, composition of feeds, besides the feeding costs, and enteric methane emissions estimated. The study indicated that inclusion of SFSL in the diet enhanced (P<0.001) the FCM by 3.5% and milk-fat content. SFSL increased feeding costs, but income/feeding costs ratios did not differ across the treatments. The higher inclusion of SFSL reduced methane emissions/kg of DM intake, / kg of milk, and in energy lost as methane. The inclusion of sunflower silage in feeding strategies for cows may be a viable alternative by increasing their milk yields and milk fat content and reducing methane emissions without affecting the income/feeding costs ratios.

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The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors express gratitude to the collaborating farmer who participated in this experiment, whose privacy and that of his family are respected by not disclosing their names. This work was undertaken thanks to funding by the Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México (grant UAEM 4577/2018CIP). Our gratitude also to the Mexican National Council for Science and Technology (Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología–CONACYT) for the postgraduate grant for Aurora Sainz-Ramírez and a postdoctoral grant for José Velarde-Guillén.

Funding

Autonomous University of the State of Mexico (Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México) through the grant UAEM 4577/2018CIP and Mexican National Council for Science and Technology (Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología-CONACYT) for the postgraduate grant for Aurora Sainz-Ramírez and the postdoctoral grant for José Velarde-Guillén.

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Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Contributions

Aurora Sainz-Ramírez (asainzr161@alumno.uaemex.mx): ORCID: 0000-0002-8566-8653. Contribution: investigation, laboratory analyses, writing—original draft.

José Velarde-Guillén (jvelardeg@uaemex.mx). ORCID: 0000-0003-0801-5226. Contribution: methodology, writing—review and editing.

Julieta Gertrudis Estrada-Flores (jgestradaf@uaemex.mx). ORCID: 0000-0002-3376-5128. Methodology, writing—review and editing.

Carlos Manuel Arriaga-Jordán (cmarriagaj@uaemex.mx), ORCID: 0000-0002-6140-0847. Contribution: conceptualization, resources, writing—review, editing and translation, supervision, funding acquisition.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Carlos Manuel Arriaga-Jordán.

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Ethics approval

Experimental procedures with dairy cows and work with collaborating farmers followed guidelines accepted by Instituto de Ciencias Agropecuarias y Rurales (ICAR) of Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México.

Consent to participate

Work herein reported was carried out by an on-farm experiment with a collaborating small-scale dairy farmer, who was aware of the objectives of the work, was duly informed, consulted and his decisions respected at all times, actively participated in the experiment, and his privacy and that of his family respected by not disclosing their names.

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

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Sainz-Ramírez, A., Velarde-Guillén, J., Estrada-Flores, J.G. et al. Productive, economic, and environmental effects of sunflower (Helianthus annuus) silage for dairy cows in small-scale systems in central Mexico. Trop Anim Health Prod 53, 256 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11250-021-02708-0

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