GREEN BAY, Wis. (WBAY) – Feeding dairy cows a diet including seaweed may reduce their emissions of the potent greenhouse gas, methane, by up to 20 percent, according to initial results from University of New Hampshire researchers.
But for Wisconsin farmers who oversee more than 6,000 milk dairy cow herds, switching to seaweed could pose major challenges: the grass can’t be found locally, and it could reduce milk production. In fact, seaweed would have to be brought in from the West Coast, roughly 2,000 miles away and it would have to be kept in refrigerated trucks, consuming high amounts of energy just for the logistics.
Andre Brito, an associate professor at the university’s Organic Dairy Research Farm, recently appeared on Wisconsin Public Radio to discuss the prospects of feeding seaweed to cattle amid global efforts to fight climate change.
The United Nations estimates methane is 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide. And cows emit a lot of the gas as part of their digestion. The average cow burps every 90 seconds, releasing about 264 pounds of methane annually, according to the organization World Animal Protection.
Brito said researchers are exploring how and if feeding seaweed to cows can reduce methane emissions, because the plant is known for having a complex set of bioactive compounds.
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