Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Hey you cattlemen

Especially those of you in the arid west. It's time to plow down the grass and plant seaweed. It helps keep the cows from farting so much and causing global warming. The article doesn't say how to bale under water, though.

FREEPORT, Maine (AP) -- Coastal Maine has a lot of seaweed, and a fair number of cows. A group of scientists and farmers think that pairing the two could help unlock a way to cope with a warming world.

The researchers -- from a marine science lab, an agriculture center and universities in northern New England -- are working on a plan to feed seaweed to cows to gauge whether that can help reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change.

About a quarter of the methane in the country comes from cattle, which produce the gas when they belch or flatulate.

The concept of feeding seaweed to cows has gained traction in recent years because of some studies that have shown its potential to cut back on methane. The reduction might be because the seaweed interrupts the process of production of the gas in the animals' guts.

One of the big questions is which kinds of seaweed offer the highest benefit to farmers looking to cut methane, and the researchers hope to find out, said Nichole Price, a senior research scientist at Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences in East Boothbay, Maine, and the project's leader.

"What on that list has the ability to do two things -- not just reduce methane emissions, but have some health benefits for the cow that have a cost savings or cost efficiency for the farmer?" Price said.

The researchers plan to conduct feeding trials with cows in Maine and New Hampshire in 2020 and 2021 to see whether seaweeds that can be used as cattle feed can cut the methane. They also intend to screen seaweeds for compounds that make them useful as cattle feed additives.

The lab work to determine whether the seaweeds succeed in reducing methane will take place at University of Vermont.

The research team has received a $3 million grant from the Shelby Cullom Davis Charitable Fund toward the work.

Studies involving some seaweeds have yielded results in cutting methane. Researchers from the University of California, Davis, found last year that methane emissions were reduced by 24% to 58% in a dozen cows that ate one variety of the Asparagopsis genus of seaweed.

There's no guarantee other kinds of seaweed would have the same effect, said Ermias Kebreab, a professor of animal science at UC Davis who is not involved in the New England work.

However, new kinds of seaweed feeds could still help improve cattle's diet on farms, he said.

"I think there is indeed good potential to use seaweed as cattle feed if it can replace high protein/energy sources such as corn, alfalfa and other ingredients commonly used in the industry," Kebreab said in an email.

One potential problem could lie in producing enough seaweed to feed to cows. But Dorn Cox, research director of Wolfe's Neck Center for Agriculture and the Environment in Freeport, Maine, said the growth of seaweed as cattle feed could potentially benefit dairy farmers, as well as aquaculturists. Wolfe's Neck will host some of the feeding trials.

Maine has a growing seaweed farming industry, and evidence that seaweed is good for cows' health would aid that growth, Cox said.

"That's why the research is so important," Cox said. "We have to make sure it's going to work and it's something we can grow regeneratively as part of the Maine coastal ecosystem."

Sounds fishy

According to 2018 statistics, there are approximately 93.7 million cows and their babies (calves) in the U.S. Total number of cattle and calves in the U.S., 2018

The United States is the third most populous country in the world, with an estimated population of 330,149,796 as of December 16, 2019 .
seems they ought to feed seaweed to people instead!
and I firmly believe that the most gas comes from Washington DC

There are already island states around the world where sheep forage on the ocean's shores. Foraging hours are linked to the tides as opposed to dawn/dusk hours.

Atmospheric methane: about 750 parts per "billion", and we're worried about it? Atmospheric CO² is about 412 parts per "million" or about 4% of its composition.

Methane and cow research link

There are no free rides. Anaerobic composting (decay of organic material) also produces methane. Under well stirred and aerobic conditions, the same process generates lots of CO².

I don't want my steak to taste like sushi. I'll pass.

I’ll believe it when I sea it.

Might cost a buck or two and a few gallons to truck that up here....

Do any of these academic wonders ever spend any time in the real world (outside momma's basement or their university cubicle)?

Why heck Dutch, start up an Idaho seaweed operation in them fish ponds of yours.

Geno

Dutch, these clowns are running the country....and spending our money doing it...

Maybe seaweed is good feed, I sure don't know. But they plainly have no concept of farm economics.

Well, another way to look at it is they are trying to head the anti beef true greenies off at the pass.

Be able to tell them..............."We're feeding the friggen cows seaweed now and cut the methane emissions 24-58% .....so quit eatin' beans and rice and producing your own methane".

Geno

Brother Geno, you are trying to apply reason to people who can't comprehend it......
When they are through eliminating cows they will eliminate you and me next....

maybe we can get them to outfit and train our cattle with snorkels so they can eat the hydrilla invading our waterways. win win

The only thing these yahoos are heading off at the pass is the grant money gravy train......

No two s#its given, cow or otherwise about anything else in that circle.

Well, I was a proponent of ZPG back in the 70's.

If that had worked, quite a few of these anti-cow, greeenie weenies would never have been born.

Problem is, too many of them dang hippies couldn't practice what they were preachin' and now their kids are haunting us before we be dead like Fred.

Geno

Used to feed sea weed to the chickens once in a while back on the island, mostly cause they went nuts for the scuds and other sea bugs. They'd eventually eat up the sea weed too. Eggs tasted fine. But that's just playing around I can't see sea weed as a viable feed way too costly compared to growing on site.

LOL

Well played.

The deer on Anticosti Island eat seaweed off the beach, best tasting venison I ever had!

Yeah, but did they fart? 😮

Silly, deer farts are harmless. Ain't you ever watched a Disney film?