Bovine loos a good moo-ve to save planet
Training cows to use a bovine lavatory could help reduce greenhouse gas emissions, scientists say. Experts from the Research Institute for Farm Animal Biology in France attempted to potty-train 16 calves using a “Mooloo” contraption of their own design. They successfully trained 11 of them to regularly use a latrine, which captures their waste and disposes of it before it turns into nitrous oxide, the third most important greenhouse gas behind methane and carbon dioxide.
TRAINING cows to use a bovine lavatory could help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and save the planet, scientists say.
Experts from the Research Institute for Farm Animal Biology in France attempted to potty-train 16 calves using a “Mooloo” contraption of their own design.
They successfully trained 11 of them to regularly use a latrine, which captures their waste and disposes of it before it turns into nitrous oxide, the third most important greenhouse gas behind methane and carbon dioxide.
Co-author Jan Langbein, an animal psychologist at the Research Institute for Farm Animal Biology in Germany, said: “It’s usually assumed that cattle are not capable of controlling defecation or urination. Cattle, like many other animals or farm animals, are quite clever and they can learn a lot. Why shouldn’t they be able to learn how to use a lavatory?”
Cows are notorious for their gassy stomachs and their flatulence is a major source of global methane emissions.
But the environmental impact of cattle farming goes beyond potent burps, as the amount of land and energy needed to produce both cattle feed and land for grazing creates huge amounts of carbon dioxide.
It has previously been estimated that cattle agriculture accounts for almost 15 per cent of all greenhouse gas emissions worldwide.
But while methane and carbon dioxide are the two most troublesome gases, cows are also indirectly responsible for producing the third most troublesome gas – nitrous oxide.
Faeces and urine produced by cows mix together and turn into ammonia, and when this seeps into the soil, specialist bacteria turn it into nitrous oxide.
To potty-train the calves, researchers started off by rewarding them when they urinated in a latrine, and then allowed them access to the latrine even when they were grazing outside.
Dr Langbein said: “You have to try to include the animals in the process. We guessed it should be possible to train the animals, but to what extent we didn’t know.”