Digital Commons Network^™

Effects Of Incremental Dietary Levels Of Ground Flaxseed On Milk Production, Ruminal Metabolism, And Enteric Methane Emissions In Organic Dairy Cows, Katie Velez

Honors Theses and Capstones

Ground Flaxseed (Linum uitatissimum) is a lipid supplement that is commonly fed to dairy cows. It is believed that supplemental lipid can change the Fatty Acid (FA) composition in the milk, and decrease methane production. Twenty lactating organic Jersey cows, housed at the UNH Organic Dairy Research Farm (ODRF), were randomly assigned to five replicated 4 × 4 Latin squares to investigate the effects of increasing dietary levels of ground flaxseed (0, 5, 10, or 15% of the diet dry matter) on animal fperformance (e.g., dry matter intake, milk production, milk composition), ruminal metabolism, and enteric methane emissions. Each …

Bioaugmentation For Recovery Of Anaerobic Digesters Subjected To Organic Overload, Vaibhav Panjabrao Tale

Dissertations (1934 -)

Anaerobic digester upset due to organic overload is common and methods to reduce recovery time would be beneficial. One potential method is bioaugmentation, the addition of an external culture for performance improvement. Methanogenic community structure differs from digester to digester and there may exist a relation between specific methanogenic activity (SMA) and microbial community composition. The research presented herein tested whether there is a relationship between SMA and community structure. Also, the effectiveness of bioaugmentation was tested by hypothesizing that bioaugmenting with a methanogenic, propionate-degrading culture acclimated to small oxygen doses will help rapid recovery of organically overloaded digesters.

Fourteen …