Harnessing the Energy Beneath Your Tires

[raja]

Re: Harnessing the Energy Beneath Your Tires

Simple answer quit eating beef.

I wonder how much of bovine flatulence is attributable to their diet ? ? ? ?

Feedlot cattle are fed lots of corn, as well as soybeans, and sometimes . . . I know it's hard to believe, but true . . . old newspapers and manure (yuk!). Yet, cows are designed by nature to eat grass.

All my animals are grass-fed . . . yet from time to time I hear loud noises coming from the fields that greatly amuse my young daughter. I don't have any grain-fed animals for comparison . . . maybe flatulence is unavoidable ???

[jimmygu3]

Re: Harnessing the Energy Beneath Your Tires

Well, this gentle Cow certainly agrees with that suggestion.

However unfortunately this methane gas issue pertains to dairy cattle as well as beef.

I would think a combination of cutting back on consumption of beef & dairy, combined with altering the cows' diets as in the article below, should make a good dent in the carbon problems.

I was frankly surprised to read that "Studies show that the production of one litre of milk produces the equivalent of 900g of CO2." That's almost an equal amount of carbon emissions to milk. As a reference point, a litre of gasoline produces 2.3kg of carbon emissions.

-Jimmy

Move to cut methane emissions by changing cows' diet -Guardian UK

Burping cows and sheep are being targeted by UK scientists to help bring down Britain's soaring levels of greenhouse gas pollution. Experts at the Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research in Aberystwyth say the diet of farmed animals can be changed to make them produce less methane, a more potent global warming gas than carbon dioxide. Farmed ruminant animals are thought to be responsible for up to a quarter of "man-made" methane emissions worldwide though, contrary to common belief, most gas emerges from their front, not rear, ends.


Mike Abberton, a scientist at the institute, said farmers could help tackle climate change by growing grass varieties bred to have high sugar levels, white clover and birdsfoot trefoil, a leafy legume, for their animals to eat. The altered diet changes the way that bacteria in the stomachs of the animals break down plant material into waste gas, he said. The institute has started a new government research programme, with the universities of Wales and Reading, to investigate how this process could be improved. A similar project in New Zealand suggested that dietary changes could reduce methane emissions from sheep by up to 50%.


Dr Abberton said: "It's very unlikely that we'll get that sort of reduction in the UK but it could still make a significant difference. Making the animals' diet more digestible can lower their methane emissions." A single cow can produce between 100 and 200 litres of methane every day. Farmers regularly re-sow their fields so Dr Abberton said the switch in diet could be relatively straightforward. Birdsfoot trefoil can be difficult to grow, he said, but part of the new project is to develop more suitable varieties.


As well as helping to reduce methane production, growing legumes such as clover could help replenish soil nitrogen levels because they naturally attract bacteria and fungi that fix it from the air. In a separate project, Giles Oldroyd, a plant scientist at the John Innes Centre in Norwich, is working on ways to genetically modify other plants such as wheat so they can mimic this nitrogen-fixing ability, an advance he called the holy grail of crop research because it would dramatically cut the use of synthetic fertilisers.


Scientists at the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart, Germany, announced this year that they had developed a pill to reduce methane emissions from cattle. The plant-based pill, combined with a special diet and strict feeding times, is meant to reduce the methane produced by cows by converting it to glucose.

[cobben]

Re: Harnessing the Energy Beneath Your Tires

This is old news, why aren't you all busy breeding kangaroos already?

Recall reading an interesting Swedish article some years ago, quite a lot of
kangaroo meat was being imported, but none was being sold anywhere. Did it
become beef, venison, or something else before being sold? never heard the
answer.

http://www.itulip.com/forums/showthr...04599#poststop

google "kangaroo farts" and ye shall be saved.

A major future export business for OZ?
They should have patented those roos in the US patent office before all this got started, probably too late now.

Kangaroo farts could ease global warming
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599...-29277,00.html

"AUSTRALIAN scientists are trying to give kangaroo-style stomachs to cattle and sheep in a bid to cut the emission of greenhouse gases blamed for global warming, researchers say.
. . . "

____________________________________


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7551125.stm

Switching from beef to kangaroo burgers could significantly help to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions, says an Australian scientist.
The methane gas produced by sheep and cows through belching and flatulence
is more potent than carbon dioxide in the damage it can cause to the
environment.

But kangaroos produce virtually no methane because their digestive systems
are different.