Changing diet may reduce cow methane

Cow flatulence - which produces millions of tonnes of damaging greenhouse gases every year - can be reduced by a simple change in the diet of the animals, a new study has found.
Scientists have found that changing the diet of cows across the world from one of grass, wheat and maize to one rich in concentrated foods such as sugar beet pulp, distillery grains and soya meal would remove as much heat-trapping methane from the environment as taking 19 million cars off the road.
Researchers at Scotland's Rural College (SRUC) found the dietary change led to an 8 per cent fall in methane emissions.

The findings are based on seven years of research calculating the emissions from a herd of 200 cows at the college's farm in Dumfries, 'The Times' reported.
Livestock generate an estimated 18 per cent of the world's greenhouse gases, more than cars, aeroplanes and all other forms of transport put together.
Methane, which is more than 20 times more powerful in terms of its global-warming potential than carbon dioxide, is a by-product of cows' digestive process.

The volume produced is related to the length of time that food is in the animals' first stomach compartment, where fermentation linked to much of the methane emissions occurs.

More easily digestible food remains in the compartment for less time.
The study was published in the journal Livestock Science.