A large part of the gases responsible for global warming come from livestock, mainly through methane emissions.
It is the second most abundant gas in the atmosphere and is 28 times more powerful than carbon dioxide.
Pets or burps?
Contrary to their reputation, it is not the farts of the cows that are the problem: it is their burping.
"Cows produce methane because the microorganisms that live in a cow's stomach break down food like grass or whatever the cow eats," says Jan Dijkstra, associate professor and animal feed expert at Wageningen University, the Netherlands.
"In this degradation process, they also produce methane and this is released by the cow on her breath."
What, when and how cows eat could be the key to limiting methane emissions.
At Leeuwarden Dairy Campus, an experimental farm, Jan and a team of scientists tested different models that could help optimize digestion in cows.
And the results are encouraging.
By changing the diet of cows, "we should achieve a 40-50% reduction in methane emitted by dairy cows," he explains.
The Dutch "nitrogen crisis"
But the Netherlands faces another equally serious problem: nitrogen emissions.
When a cow's manure and urine come into contact, the mixture releases ammonia, a nitrogenous compound that can then seep into the soil and water, damaging natural habitats and promoting algae growth. .
But what if farmers could separate urine and manure from the start?
With a system that collects urine from animals, Dutch engineers developed the world's first cow toilets.
This is a simple method, according to Jochem Tolkamp, a sales representative for Hanskamp, the company that makes the toilet.
"The toilet stimulates the nerve between the udder and the vulva, which makes the cow urinate by reflex," he explains.
The urine is then collected and stored so that farmers can reuse it as fertilizer.
"We already collect 15 liters per cow per day. This already allows us to reduce ammonia production by 40%."
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