Cows expel a lot of gas. They burp and have flatulence often. There are so many cattle in the world that all that gas is causing real problems by being a significant contributor to climate change.

In fact, the 89 million cattle in the U.S. are responsible for 25% of the nation’s yearly methane emissions. That’s equivalent to the amount of greenhouse gases emitted by 650 million cars.

So, finding ways to reduce cow burps and flatulence is a serious issue.

Ad Crable, LNP’s outdoors columnist and a staff writer for the Chesapeake Bay Journal has written on the methane gas reducing efforts and was with us on The Spark Monday,"Even the media has kind of treated this problem as a joke for many years, but it's no longer a laughing matter. Methane gas coming from livestock is a major contributor to climate change in this country and has become the national environmental priority. The federal government is paying millions of dollars to Penn State, for example, to come up with some of the leading candidates for solutions to try to get feed cows, something where they would admit less methane.

Carbon dioxide gets most of the greenhouse gas attention, but Crable pointed out methane can be worse,"It's by far the most prevalent greenhouse gas out there (carbon dioxide). But methane, even though it lasts less in the environment, in the atmosphere, dissipates quicker. It's not as common as fossil fuels, carbon dioxide, but it's 20 to 25 times more potent in terms of heating the atmosphere. So it is a necessary target if we're going to meet our climate change goals, both national and state commitments to reducing greenhouse gases."

A little known fact: Crable said that 97% of methane gas from cows is through burps, not flatulence.

Crable indicated scientists seemed to have settled on two feed additives that have shown to reduce gas,"You would add that to the feed you give the cows, mix it in with their grain or corn, silage or whatever else they are eating. They both would be administered the same way. Now, the two leading candidates, one is a synthetic feed supplement that studies have shown can reduce methane emissions from each cow by 25 to 29%. The other finalist is a red seaweed found in tropical oceans around the world that can reduce methane by even more. But the problem with it is we can't raid the world's oceans. It would have to be done on a large scale by aquaculture. And some studies are also showing that the seaweed may cause dairy cows to eat less and produce less milk. And not insignificantly, it seems that the cows detest the taste of it."

The feed additive has been approved for us in 42 countries, but so far not in the United States. It's being studied.

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