MARIANNA, Fla. – Cows produce your milk and beef, but what these big animals belch up is a big contributor to climate change.
Researchers at the University of Florida are working to find a solution.
Nicolas DiLorenzo, Ph.D., has been researching cattle at UF’s North Florida Research and Education Center for the last 14 years.
“What we have here is one of our research pastures,” he said. “This is part of our herd.”
About 800 head of cattle call his pastures home, and they eat a lot.
“This is the whole plant – corn and sorghum,” he said as he sifted his hand through a trough of feed. “(It’s) chopped up and put in a bag to ferment, basically to pickle over a certain period of time, typically 60 days or more. Then, when it comes out, it has that smell that cows love.”
But traditional cow feed like this causes cows to burp, and that burp is full of methane, which is the second largest contributor to climate warming.
One molecule of methane traps 28-times more heat than a molecule of carbon dioxide, researchers said.
Satellite imaging from NASA showed how methane gas in the atmosphere has doubled over the last 200 years.
Researchers estimate about a third of methane emissions come from agriculture and livestock.
“The burps are very silent,” DiLorenzo said. “Right now, they are standing and they are burping, and sometimes while they’re eating. They are burping, and that’s how they’re releasing methane.”
“We see it everywhere, record-breaking heat waves from the United States to China,” President Joe Biden said in November 2023 at the United Nations as he repeated America’s commitment to reduce methane emissions by 30% by 2030.
“Last year, I signed into law in the United States the largest investment ever in the history of the world to combat the climate crisis and help move the global economy to a clean energy future,” he said.
Five million dollars of that investment has been granted to DiLorenzo and his team at the UF, which will work with other researchers at Auburn University and Clemson.
Together, they will create feed additives to reduce the amount of methane that cows produce and test that feed in North Florida.
They will then measure their progress in a lab.
DiLorenzo said some samples from cows’ stomachs will be tested in what he calls a “cow in a bottle.”
“These sensors send a wireless signal to our home base, and a computer will track gas production of this vessel. So, that would allow us to get the entire gas produced, all of that is collected into this bag,” DiLorenzo said, showing a beaker with a clear plastic bag attached.
DiLorenzo said his team is already on the right track, but they must figure out which additive works the best and doesn’t impact the taste of milk or beef.
He said he believes his research is part of the solution to rising methane gas emissions.
“Even though it’s a small percentage compared to other areas, I don’t think that we as scientists and people working in the agricultural field should avoid that responsibility,” he said.
