GAINESVILLE, Fla. – With all the concerns about Climate Change, you’ve probably heard that cows are major cud-tributors to the problem.
According to UC Davis research, cattle are udderly the worst when it comes to greenhouse gases worldwide.
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Did you know one cow belches 220 pounds of methane every year? That makes them the No. 1 agricultural source of greenhouse gases.
Cow methane might moo-ve on faster than carbon dioxide, but it’s 28 times more potent in warming the atmosphere.
But researchers at the University of Florida are steak-ing their reputations on a solution: A way to make the burps and farts of our bovine beauties cause less damage to the climate.
And that’s only “calf” of it.
When cows’ stomachs make methane, they lose valuable energy that could otherwise be used to make milk or meat.
So it’s bad for them and for us.
The university said reducing these emissions could make dairy farming more environmentally friendly and sustainable.
To make it happen, researchers, led by Antonio Faciola, are testing a new type of cattle feed.
The cow-culation is that changing what goes in will change what comes out.
The new feed would help dairy cows release less methane gas from burps and farts and use the nutrients they’re eating more efficiently.
That means researchers could help the cows produce more milk while also chasing climate goals.
“It’s a win-win situation. Every time we reduce methane, we keep that energy in the cow’s body,” said Faciola, associate professor at UF’s Department of Animal Sciences.
The new feed is made of flaxseed and pea protein, according to the study published this month in the Journal of Dairy Science.
