{"id":171107,"date":"2020-10-26T12:00:02","date_gmt":"2020-10-26T12:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=171107"},"modified":"2020-10-23T06:39:53","modified_gmt":"2020-10-23T05:39:53","slug":"belching-cows-and-endless-feedlots-fixing-cattles-climate-issues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2020\/10\/belching-cows-and-endless-feedlots-fixing-cattles-climate-issues\/","title":{"rendered":"Belching Cows and Endless Feedlots: Fixing Cattle\u2019s Climate Issues"},"content":{"rendered":"

The United States is home to 95 million cattle, and changing what they eat could have a significant effect on emissions of greenhouse gases like methane that are warming the world.<\/em><\/p>\n

Mr. Fountain and Mr. Steinmetz traveled to the Texas Panhandle to understand the nation\u2019s immense cattle feedlots.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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The New York Times<\/p><\/div>\n

21 Oct 2020 – <\/em>Randy Shields looked out at a sea of cattle at the sprawling Wrangler Feedyard \u2014 46,000 animals milling about in the dry Panhandle air as a feed truck swept by on its way to their pens.<\/p>\n

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Mr. Shields, who manages the yard for Cactus Feeders, knows that at its most basic, the business simply takes something that people can\u2019t eat, and converts it into something they can: beef. That\u2019s possible because cattle have a multichambered stomach where microbes ferment grass and other tough fibrous vegetation, making it digestible.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe way I look at it, I\u2019ve got 46,000 fermentation vats going out there,\u201d Mr. Shields said.<\/p>\n

But this process, called enteric fermentation, also produces methane, a potent planet-warming gas that the cattle mostly belch into the air. And with about 95 million cattle in the United States, including more than 25 million that are fattened for slaughter each year at feedlots, the methane adds up.<\/p>\n

Researchers within and outside the industry are working on ways to reduce emissions from fermentation, through feed supplements or dietary changes. Other efforts aim to lower emissions from the animals\u2019 waste \u2014 a source of methane as well as another powerful greenhouse gas, nitrous oxide \u2014 through improved manure storage and handling.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n