Moos and Methane
When visiting a ranch you will likely view a large group of cows peacefully enjoying a meal of grass while ambling around the property. Although these animals appear harmless, when farmed on an industrial level, cows can actually produce the same amount of pollution as a car. In this blog, I am going to answer the question: Why are cows so detrimental to our environment?
The answer to this question can be summarized in one keyword: methane. Cows produce a large quantity of methane, a greenhouse gas when they undergo their digestive process.
A brief overview of a cow’s digestive process: When first consuming food, a cow will only chew its food enough to swallow it. This food travels to its first two stomachs, the rumen and the reticulum, and is stored. While being stored in the rumen, the food ferments and produces methane. The cow expels this methane through belching and defecating and it is released into the environment. A study from the University of California, Davis concluded that one cow can “belch 220 pounds of methane, which is 28 times more potent than carbon dioxide,” each year.
What is the impact of this methane expulsion? The process of cattle releasing methane is similar to the greenhouse gas production that occurs in landfills. The methane and greenhouse gases travel to the atmosphere and warm it, accelerating climate change. Methane is even stronger than carbon dioxide in its warming powers. In fact, over the first 20 years, after methane reaches the atmosphere, it has more than 80 times the warming power of carbon dioxide—the primary greenhouse gas in vehicle emissions.
To fight these emissions, certain ranchers have adopted a method called regenerative grazing. Ranchers who practice regenerative grazing closely manage where and for how long their animals forage, as opposed to just letting their animals graze the same pasture more or less continuously. These ranchers also rely more on their animals’ manure to maintain the health of their pastures. These are just some methods that ranchers are using to help move the cattle industry toward a more environmentally-friendly future.
