Dairy cows excrete large amounts of urine, so barns are thought to emit large amounts of ammonia which can adversely impact the health of humans and natural ecosystems. We conducted three studies to determine if feeding more tannin and less crude protein (CP) to dairy cows would reduce urine excretion and ammonia emissions from dairy barns and soil. Relative reductions in ammonia emission from barn floors due to tannin feeding were greatest at the low CP diet due to lower amounts of urine nitrogen excreted and therefore applied. Tannins reduced ammonia emissions from barn floors by 30% at the low CP diet and 16% at the high CP diet. Tannins reduced ammonia emissions by 28 - 49% after slurry application to soils. Although results of the laboratory studies are encouraging, larger scale studies are required to ascertain effectiveness of tannin extracts in abating ammonia loss from commercial dairy farms.

Feeding tannins to dairy cows abates ammonia emissions from barns and soils

242nd National Meeting (2011)

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