Particular Seaweed Fed to Cows Nearly Eliminates Methane
November 20th, 2016Via: CBC News:
The agricultural scientist, then at Dalhousie University, helped test Dorgan’s seaweed mix, and discovered it reduced the methane in the cows’ burps and farts by about 20 per cent.
Kinley knew he was on to something, so he did further testing with 30 to 40 other seaweeds. That led him to a red seaweed Asparagopsis taxiformis he says reduces methane in cows burps and farts to almost nothing.
…
“I was testing one day a series of samples when all of a sudden it looked like my instruments were having problems, and I wasn’t able to see emissions from one particular sample,” he said. “So I did it over and over again and lo and behold the methane emissions were eliminated.
Very cool, I’m interested to see the chemistry behind why it works.
In the Midwest, manure seems to be the biological control article of choice. The EPA/USDA have stations setup at the entry points to the great lakes to monitor phosphorus runoff. Animal producers are concerned this will eventually mean they will be limited to certain production criteria based on their runoff. This also affects grain and corn producers, there are new restrictions in place preventing them from spreading manure in the winter, etc.
While this doesn’t sound terrible on paper, this gives even more of a foot in the door for the EPA. They’ll be able to shut producers down at will, for doing what they’ve done for 80-200 years.