cow burps

[ddgfs]

or farts, which is deemed funnier if you're trying to get everybody who's ever had a 4H calf indignant that they're coming to take our cows away. But to be accurate, much more a matter of eructation than flatulation.

Anyway, some interesting preliminary research on using a seaweed feed additive to sharply reduce methane emission. Preliminary is the key word.

I'm not a ruminant nutritionist but I do know that all lost methane amounts to lost energy and feed efficiency.

https://e360.yale.edu/features/how-eating-seaweed-can-help-cows-to-belch-less-methane

A  really crazy thought is if that tropical seaweed could be farmed in the Gulf of Mexico, soaking up the nutrients in the Dead Zone. There are tests to that effect going on with other species elsewhere.

I'd also like to bring attention back to the Savory Institute* piece that would suggest that we can reduce greenhouse gas emissions through HIGHER stocking rates using holistic grazing practices.

Sure enough that the consideration of matters like this get (sometimes intentionally) stuck in the middle of resistance of vested interest and incomplete science.

*As Savory has said, the great regret of his life was when he authorized a mass cull of elephant herds to reduce grassland degradation because he didn't really understand how the system worked.

[k-289]

seems  there  never  is  a  drought  of  ex-pert  opinions 

[ddgfs]

The world is going to go greener*.

The question for agriculture is whether it is going to be 100% invested in the Heartland Institute agenda of complete denial and obstructionism, or whether it is going to get ahead of the curve on policies that will permit the continuation of something that resembles the current structure of things.

If the former path is chosen, the 99% who aren't farmers or landowners should rightly conclude that agriculture shouldn't receive public support for circumstances of its own choosing- similar to where we are on trade now.

The good news is that the Judiciary is going to be dominated by very conservative judges for a few decades and people with vested rights are likely to be duly compensated for any changes forced upon them.

*Unless cascading economic problems and a breakdown in international cooperation cause distraction to other priorities. In which case, start digging your bunker now.

[ddgfs]

Reminds me of when we were told that chicken would become an unaffordable luxury if antibiotics were banned.

Antibiotics weren't banned, but consumers prefer chicken that sports an antibiotic free label and the major branded producers quickly moved to adopt production systems that met that definition-because they could get a few cents a pound more for their product.