German cows cause methane blast in Rasdorf

[theHandpuppet]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-25922514
BBC News
27 January 2014

Methane gas released by dairy cows has caused an explosion in a cow shed in Germany, police said...

...Thanks to the belches and flatulence of the 90 dairy cows in the shed, high levels of the gas had built up.
Then "a static electric charge caused the gas to explode with flashes of flames" the force said in a statement quoted by Reuters news agency...

...Cows are believed to emit up to 500 litres of methane each per day.

Cattle ranching is a polluting business - methane is a potent greenhouse gas and cows also release large amounts of ammonia, which can lead to toxic acidification of soil and water bodies.

[LiberalEsto]

1. I hope the NSA is keeping an eye on these terrorist cows

[democratisphere]

2. The heck with horsepower.....

we need to harness cowpower.

[madokie]

3. Yup

I can see it now. A cow hooked up to a buggy with a hose from the cows ahole running to a gas engine and every time the cow passes gas the gas engine fires and gives them a kick. Ought to be able to go a lot further on a bale of hay, looks to me like anyway LOL

[democratisphere]

6. Research is underway......

[theHandpuppet]

7. That flamethrowing cow is hilarious

[Demeter]

4. didn't I read somewhere that they were figuring out how to reduce methane from cows?

special diet, I think....

[Demeter]

5. Selective breeding and diet changes could produce low methane cows

http://phys.org/news/2013-05-diet-methane-cows.html


New Cow Diet Reduces Methane Emissions...and No, It's Not M


http://www.treehugger.com/green-food/new-cow-diet-reduces-methane-emissionsand-no-its-not-mms.html

While farmers in the US are trying to save money by feeding their cows junk food, the London Times reported today that scientists have found a diet that just might cut down on the belching coming from cows. By feeding cows chopped hay and straw, only 6-7cm in length, farmers can cut down on emissions by 20%. While cows don't really prefer the straw/hay combo, they will learn to eat it by adding silage, wheat, maize, soya or sugar beet, "just as children are encouraged to take their medicine by cloaking it in a syrup" because they can't pick around it.

Farms across the UK are already trying out the new regimen and noticing good results. First, the chopped hay/straw helps to settle the stomach of the cow and produce fewer burps. Second, farmers are noticing an increase in milk yield and scientists say that this is because the hay/straw are adding extra fiber to the diet, which makes the cows chew more, creating more saliva and fermentation and increasing milk yields. Farmers also report that their cows are healthier and there are less incidence of lameness. Who wants lame cows anyways?Scientists estimate that if every farmer in the UK adoped this regimen, they could collectively save 1.6 million tons of methane emissions every year. Methane being more destructive than CO2 in the atmosphere. There are 5 million cattle globally, accounting for 5% of global methane emissions, so a 20% reduction in emissions per cow really adds up.

[theHandpuppet]

8. Cool. And seems like a simple, cheap solution

But I wonder how many of the industrial cattle ranchers would be willing to do this. If feeding cows "junk food" is cheaper than feeding them a healthy diet, you know what they're going to choose.