A new study finds that feeding seaweed pellets to grazing beef cattle reduces their greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent.
Previous research has shown that seaweed helps cut methane emissions in feedlot cattle and dairy cows. But the new paper is the first to demonstrate the effects among grazing beef cattle, which produce more methane than feedlot cattle and dairy cows because of the high fiber content of the grass they eat.
We all know that cows are gassy creatures. As they munch on grass, the animals burp and fart - and, in doing so, they release enormous amounts of heat-trapping methane gas into the atmosphere. In total, the livestock industry is responsible for between 11 and 19 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, and cow belching is the biggest contributor to that number.
Now, another study is pointing the way toward an emerging solution: seaweed pellets.
When grazing beef cattle were fed seaweed supplements, their methane emissions dropped by nearly 40 percent. And this change in diet had no apparent effects on the animals’ weight or health, researchers report in a new study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.