Stopping the Cattle Carbon Footprint…with Seaweed?

We've heard of grass-fed, pea-fed, corn-fed...but seaweed-fed beef? It might sound like an interesting topic to discuss. That is, until you hear the absurd reason why they're talking about feeding cows seaweed: cow burps and climate change.

That's right, they're hoping they can feed cows seaweed, so they can stop cows from doing you know what, so they can stop climate change.

The Disney family in Libby got a kick out of this story. They told me, "Feed those gas producing cows seaweed! Then there'll be a seaweed shortage!"

Here's the story from the MIT Technology Review about a study from The University of California--Davis:

This past spring, several of these Holstein dairy cows participated in a study to test a promising path to reducing methane emissions from livestock, a huge source of the greenhouse gases driving climate change. By adding a small amount of seaweed to the animals’ feed, researchers found, they could cut the cows’ methane production by nearly 60%.

By the way, in case you missed it, meat sales are sizzling due to more folks staying at and home eating more beef. As CNS News reports:

Americans eating at home during the COVID-19 pandemic helped boost year-to-date meat sales 24.2% (through June 7), the National Grocers Association (NGA) reports.

Year-to-date, meat departments have sold 1.2 billion more pounds of meat than they did during the same period a year ago, NGA reports, citing analysis by 210 Analytics LLC President Anne-Marie Roerink.

 

Now, let's just hope that our ranchers are able to start benefiting from those prices. If the packers are getting high dollar for their meat, the ranchers should be getting higher prices for their cattle.