Based on preliminary results, the seaweed could help dairy operations cut the level of methane emissions to meet California new standards. The state’s livestock sector — mostly the dairy sector — is responsible for an estimated 55 percent of methane emissions in the state, according to a report from the California Air Resources Board.
Methane is created in cattle production when cows pass gas, belch and defecate. While methane can be short-lived as a climate pollutant, it is considered at least 25 times more potent as a heat-trapping gas than carbon dioxide
“From the cows, half of the methane emissions is from the belching of the animal and the other half is from the manure,” said Ermias Kebreab, one of the researchers behind cows consuming seaweed and an animal-science professor at the University of California-Davis. “You can use additives such as seaweed to try to reduce the methane that’s belched out of the animal.”
Kebreab and his team are demonstrating the seaweed project this week and plan to publish preliminary findings in late June and begin further tests with additional cattle later this summer.
According to Kebreab, the project is supported by several non-profits, including Elm Innovations, an organization out of Stanford University. Another contributor is the 11th Hour Project — a program of the Schmidt Family Foundation, a private foundation created by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt.
“This is really the first trial on dairy cattle that’s been done ever in the world,” Kebreab said. “From what I’ve seen so far, it seems to work quite well. But there’s a lot of stuff we need to do before this can be a viable solution.”
A significant cut in gas, and the milk still flows
Based on preliminary findings, Kebreab said a touch of seaweed added to the cattle’s diet appears to reduce dairy cow’s gassiness by “well over 30 percent.”
Kebreab said the methane emissions could be lowered even more by increasing the seaweed concentration used from about 1 percent to 2 percent of the cow’s diet.
The researcher said cows usually consume about 50 pounds of feed per day, and the seaweed mixture represents only around half a pound of the animal’s diet. There’s been no drop in milk yields on the cows using the seaweed additive.
“You’re not changing the main diet of the animal,” he said. “It’s just a matter of mixing the additive to their diet and providing the seaweed.”
New standards to meet
The use of seaweed could help California dairy farmers as they face new standards to cut methane emissions.
In 2016, California set targets for cutting methane emissions as part of an effort to reduce statewide emissions of short-lived climate pollutants across industries, including the dairy sector. The goal is to cut the level of methane emissions 40 percent below 2013 levels by 2030, and the state believes 75 percent of that reduction should come from the dairy sector.
Dairy farmers fought against the tougher rules and argued at the time it would increase costs of doing business. The legislation was signed into law at a time when more dairy farmers were exiting the business or moving to other states.
“There are environmental costs of operating here and extremely high land costs and feeds need to be brought in,” said Ray Souza, a longtime dairy farmer in Turlock, California, who left the business in 2016 and now rents his dairy facility. “It just makes it more difficult for California to compete with the Midwest today.”
California is the leading dairy state and home to a herd of about 1.8 million milk cows, and it accounts for nearly 20 percent of the nation’s milk production. The state also has more than 5 million beef cattle.
“California is a huge producer of dairy, and so when you just add up all the methane emissions that you have there and the amount of production that’s happening, you can see how it can be a really significant contributor to those overall climate pollutants.,” said Marcia DeLonge, a senior scientist in the Food and Environment Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists, a Washington-based advocacy and research group.
Source: Yahoo Finance
