Cow burps help climate study
2008-07-09 09:25
Buenos Aires - Argentine scientists
are taking a novel approach to studying global warming -
strapping plastic tanks to the backs of cows to collect their
burps.
Researchers say the slow digestive system of cows makes
them a producer of methane, a potent greenhouse gas that gets
far less public attention than carbon dioxide in efforts to
fight global warming.
Scientists around the world are studying the amount of
methane in cow burps and Argentine researchers say they have
come up with a unique way.
Attaching a red plastic tank to a cow's back and connecting
it through a tube to the animal's stomach, scientists say they
can trap bovine burps and analyse them.
"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.
One of the world's biggest beef producers, Argentina has
some 55 million heads of cattle grazing on the famed Pampas
grasslands.
Yellow balloons
Berra said the researchers "never thought" a cow weighing
550kg could produce 800 to 1 000 litres of emissions each day.
At least 10 cows are being studied, Berra said, including
some in a corral whose burps are collected in yellow balloons
hanging from the roof.
Greenhouse gases are widely blamed for causing global
warming.
Methane, researchers say, is 23 times more potent than
carbon dioxide in trapping heat in the atmosphere and can be
found in animal waste, landfills, coal mines and leaking
natural gas pipes.
Scientists are 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%,"
said Silvia Valtorta of the National Council of Scientific and
Technical Investigations.