The Genome Canada project is gathering data on how much methane comes out of either end of that bovine biogas generator, the cow.
Wired reports:
It’s not easy to gather data on how much methane a cow actually produces: You can stick a cow in a closed chamber for a few days, but that’s expensive and interrupts the cow’s daily routine. Some researchers use small backpacks that wrap around a cow’s head and measure how much methane it exhales. Miglior’s lab in Ontario—along with the other farms involved in the project—use a third option: a machine that puts out little cow snacks. Cows like Number 1995 stop by a couple of times a day to take a nibble. When the animal sticks its head in the machine, a vent sucks up a sample of its breath and measures the amount of methane and carbon dioxide.
If the genetic basis of cattle breed emissions can be defined, Canada hopes to take a whack out of the carbon footprint of everything from yogurt to tournedos Rossini by propagating low CH4 genes among the herds of walking windbags roaming Ontario's pastures & Calgary's climate blogs.
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| It's a lumberjack - is that OK? |
Nothing seems sacred anymore in the Great White North -- Wired also notes Ottowa, for reasons I'd rather not know, has commenced sequencing the beaver genome.
