Simulating the number of spot-samples required to estimate the methane to carbon dioxide ratio in lambs and its relationship with methane yield.

Measuring the methane to carbon dioxide ratio (CH4/CO2) from animals could be useful to predict CH4 yield when dry matter intake (DMI) cannot be measured. The objectives were to (1) evaluate the relationship of CH4/CO2 with CH4 yield; (2) compare the CH4/CO2 of 10–60 simulated spot-samples with the CH4/CO2 calculated with data from 48-h of respiration chamber measurements. The DMI and CH4 and CO2 emissions measured every 5–6 min in respiration chambers from a previous experiment with 70 lambs fed ryegrass substituted with 0%, 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% of forage rape were retrieved. Emission data were used to perform simulations of 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 and 60 randomly selected spot-samples per lamb. The CH4/CO2 of 20 or more spot-samples was useful to predict CH4 yield and detect differences between dietary treatments, while the precision of the prediction increased when increasing the number of spot-samples up to 50 samples per lamb. Twenty spot-samples were sufficient to obtain accurate CH4/CO2 estimates; however, variance decreased (precision improved) with an increasing number of spot-samples per lamb up to 50 spot-samples. The CH4/CO2 of 10–60 simulated spot-samples explained 61% to 66% of variation in the 48-h measured CH4 yield. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]