Silence the Cows and Save the Planet

Time ^ | 20 mar 2011 | Jeffrey Kluger

[mandaladon]

Flatulent cows are not a laughing matter. (Pause.) OK, they are a laughing matter. And flatulent sheep and goats are almost as funny — though not to the chickens and pigs in the pen next door. But pull-my-hoof livestock are a problem too.

The emissions produced by nature's woodwind section contain a nasty mix of many gasses, among them methane. Though carbon dioxide is the first gas that comes to mind when we think of greenhouse emissions, pound for pound, methane is more than 20 times more powerful in terms of its global warming potential. Methane doesn't linger in the atmosphere quite as long as CO2, and it's not produced industrially in anywhere near the same quantity, but it does its damage all the same — and livestock toots out a surprisingly large share of it.

According to one Danish study, the average cow produces enough methane per year to do the same greenhouse damage as four tons of CO2. The average car, by contrast, produces just 2.7 tons. Multiply that by the planet's 1.5 billion cattle and buffalo and 1.8 billion smaller ruminants and you have the methane equivalent of two billion tons of CO2 per year. According to the U.K. Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), livestock account for about 4.5% of all of the country's annual greenhouse gas emissions. Globally the figure is thought to be higher — about six percent.

[steelyourfaith]

Thanx for the ping Army Air Corps !

 

Beam me to Planet Gore !

[MIchaelTArchangel]

Hey, I’m doing my part. I am eating them as fast as I can.

[Roos_Girl]

Thank you, Peter, for saying that!

The corn plant (green parts) is a form of grass, but the corn ear, kernels, etc. is a grain, and as Peter said, cows were designed for grass eating, not grain eating.

[SteveH]

Must ... refrain ... from ... making ... Gloria ... Steinem ... joke ...

... NOW ...

:-)

[AnotherUnixGeek]

According to one Danish study, the average cow produces enough methane per year to do the same greenhouse damage as four tons of CO2. The average car, by contrast, produces just 2.7 tons. Multiply that by the planet's 1.5 billion cattle and buffalo and 1.8 billion smaller ruminants and you have the methane equivalent of two billion tons of CO2 per year.

The American plains were once just one vast herd of bison, covering what are now several states. There are estimated to have been between 60-100 million bison just in the mid-19th century and the number before the arrival of Europeans was certainly higher. The current US cattle population is about 90 million. There are certainly fewer large ruminants on the North American continent than there were in, say, 1400, and far fewer than there were in the Pliocene era. If methane emissions are a problem, it's a problem the Earth seems to have been dealing with successfully for thousands of years without the hysteria of the enviro-cultists.

[dps.inspect]

A good novel called “The Facade” by Mike Heiser is a sci-fi thriller which includes as part of its plot, cow flatulence. The book is based on real possibilities that the US government has been hiding UFO evidence and uses global warming as a ruse to hide its deeper secrets. The cow flatulence issue was hyped as a major cause for GW and as a pretense to enact other clandestine activities... an intriguing read.

[count-your-change]

“The Silence of The Cows”, coming to a field near you and sponsored by Beano!

[Mr. Lucky]

You know, the methane is formed by fermentation of the forage in the cow’s rumen (and is expelled by cow burps, not farts). Feed rations including substantial non-forage ingredients (such as grains, distillers spent grains, beet pulp, and the like) will reduce the methane production by both reducing the fermentation and shortening the3 animal’s life.

[newzjunkey]

The methane escapes from the cud chewing, not from the other end.

[itsahoot]

Flatulent cows are not a laughing matter.

Ronal Reagan was pilloried for saying this.

[itsahoot]

Where is this going to end?

We have an instruction manual, if we bother to read it. Has a very nice ending too.

[familyop]

"According to the U.K. Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), livestock account for about 4.5% of all of the country's annual greenhouse gas emissions."

I had a grandmother who farted so much, she squeaked when she walked. She also identified herself as being very British. Maybe the Brits should have a look at their grandmothers and stop obsessing on cattle. Hmmm...though, there might be a reason for that after all.

[CynicalBear]

>> Cows eat grass whether its alive or dead. If they do that they will not fart.<<

You didn’t grow up on a dairy or beef farm did you.

[McKayopectate]

Okay, noted. But, who cares that they fart anyway?

[Roos_Girl]

Well, from a global warming stand point, not I; one of the craziest damn things I’ve heard from the glo-bull warming crazies and there have been some lulus. However, cow farts from eating grains means that what they’re eating is hard for them to digest, so from that standpoint I guess it matters if you care your cows have tummy aches. :)

[Roos_Girl]

Just curious if the dairy/beef farm you grew up on strictly grass fed?

[Marty62]

There are no shortage of Commie/Fascist/Socialist/Progressive/Islamofascist in the U.N.

[CynicalBear]

Most all of them are grass fed until they go into the feed lots to be fattened. A cow is a ruminant. The process produces gas. Cows that are put out on a new pasture especially would have gas like you wouldn’t believe. If they were allowed on that new pasture for too long each day until they were used to it they would produce so much gas that they would have to be treated for it. It was called bloat. A tube would be put down into their stomach to release the gas.

[Roos_Girl]

Hmmm, there are some strictly grass-fed beef/dairy farmers that rotate their cattle to new pasture every day; guys like Joel Salatin and Dennis Stoltzfoos.

I realize that the conventional farmers raise their cattle on grass until they go to the feed lots. They can get bloat on grain as well.

[CynicalBear]

>> Hmmm, there are some strictly grass-fed beef/dairy farmers that rotate their cattle to new pasture every day; guys like Joel Salatin and Dennis Stoltzfoos.<<

A controlled rotation of established pasture yes. I was talking a new pasture that has not been grazed before where the grass will be rather tall because of letting it go to seed first to establish the pasture better.