Seaweed and Cows

A Global Methane Assessment published in 2021 claims methane emissions from livestock, which includes cattle, are the largest source of agricultural emissions worldwide!

This is all due to change with new research going into reducing methane production in cattle via diet changes. One of these changes being the addition of seaweed!

Using seaweed as a dietary supplement can cut methane emissions by more than 80%.

How is this possible?

In a recent 2021 BBC news article it spoke about how popular supermarket Morrisons is trialling using a new "seaweed supplement" in order to reduce the methane produced by cattle, as University studies have shown using seaweed as a dietary supplement can cut methane emissions by more than 80%. This is due to the fact the chemical composition of seaweed cuts the manufacturing of methane in the gut of the cows. Cows and other ruminant livestock tend to produce much more methane than non-ruminant animals. This is due to the fact they eat produce that is non-digestible to non-ruminants. They are able to digest this "un-digestable" produce due to the fact all ruminants have 4 stomachs. One of these four stomachs is called the rumen. This allows partially digested food to be stored to allow fermentation to occur. When fermentation occurs, methane is produced. This fermentation of produce also occurs on landfill sites and is how methane is produced there also. The addition of seaweed in feed aims to stop this fermentation producing as much methane when digesting. This reduction of methane will really help slow down the rate if global warming as methane is the second most powerful greenhouse gas after carbon dioxide. Methane is currently responsible for 1/3 of current global warming as a result of human activities, methane is also 30x more effective at trapping heat than carbon dioxide. 

However, it is said that the addition of seaweed causes the cattle to eat less and therefore, they produce less milk as a result. This factor will make a lot of dairy farmers hesitant to add this new supplement. As dairy farmers hold a huge amount of the cattle population, without them being on boards with cutting methane emissions in this way, not much will change.