Cow Burps Could Teach Us About Climate Change
Researchers in Argentina claim to have come up with a unique new way to study the rumored affects of methane producing cow burps.
The researchers are strapping plastic tanks to the backs of cows in order to collect their burps through a tube to the animal’s stomach. Scientists say they can trap the burps and take them to a lab where the gases can be analyzed.
Scientists across the globe have been working on ways to gauge the amount of methane in cow burps. Experts believe that cows’ slow digestive systems make them a producer of the potent greenhouse gas that gets less attention than carbon dioxide in efforts to fight global warming.
Nevertheless, researchers say that methane is 23 times more potent than carbon dioxide in trapping heat in the atmosphere. The dangerous gas can be found in animal waste, landfills, coal mines and leaking natural gas pipes.
"When we got the first results, we were surprised. Thirty percent of Argentina’s (total greenhouse) emissions could be generated by cows," said Guillermo Berra, a researcher at the National Institute of Agricultural Technology.
Berra was surprised at the results, which showed that a cow weighing 1,210 lb could produce 800 to 1,000 liters (28 to 35 cubic feet) of emissions each day.
There are currently as many as 10 cows being studied in Argentina through the tank method, and some are being studied through a method that collects their burps in yellow balloons hanging from the roof of a corral.
Scientists are also working to develop new diets for cows that could make it easier for them to digest food, moving them away from grains to plants like alfalfa and clover.
"We have done a preliminary study and have found that by using tannins, you can reduce methane emissions by 25 percent," said Silvia Valtorta of the National Council of Scientific and Technical Investigations.
With some 55 million heads of cattle, Argentina is home to one of the world’s largest beef producers: the Pampas grasslands.
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