What a Load of Bull!

You may have seen in the news over the past few days about the government considering the introduction of 'methane blockers' into UK agriculture, and in particular for dairy cows. 

We'd like to reassure our customers this is something that we would never consider doing under any circumstances. 

If the U.K. government want to reach net zero, they are barking up the wrong tree seeing as there are many more industries which produce far greater volumes of CO2, as seen in the government's own report below:

If we look at the carbon a cow emits, it has a 10 year (av) cycle unlike carbon trapped underground millions of years ago. 

The photo below highlights a cow’s carbon cycle (credit: Smiling Tree Farm).

Also, methane volumes from a ruminant will be largely dependent on diet, if you feed a cow an unnatural, protein-rich diet it is likely to burp a lot. 

When kept on a natural cellulose-based diet (e.g hay & grass) the cow will emit a lot less methane, as this is what cows are biologically designed to be able to consume and digest properly. 

If the government wish to reduce carbon emissions in the agricultural sector, the more sensible option would be to encourage a move towards low-intensity farming. 

We think the U.K. government will struggle to make anything like this happen, and we would certainly not participate.