Nitrous oxide is the third most important gas in terms of greenhouse gas responsibility, after methane and carbon dioxide. And it is during excretion that the cows release it into the atmosphere. Therefore, German scientists have created special toilets where cows can go and where the gas can be neutralized.
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“Cows, like many other livestock, are very intelligent. Why shouldn’t they learn to go to the bathroom? ”Jan Langbein, an animal psychologist and one of the authors of the research, asks The Telegraph.
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The researchers conducted the research on 16 cows, 11 of which were successful when the animals learned to walk in the secretion room. According to scientists, it took them only 15 days.
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Rewards and punishments
“We taught the cows a system of punishment and rewards,” explains Dr. Langbein, adding: “We first used headphones to punish them, making unpleasant noises whenever the cows urinated outside. But they didn’t do anything about it, so we started pouring water on them. ”As rewards, the scientists allegedly used a classic combination of stroking and delicacies.
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In the special toilet used by the cows, urine should not be converted to nitrous oxide, as is the case with cow’s urine coming into contact with the soil. However, even scientists admit that this is only a minor improvement on the problem posed by nitrous oxide production in cattle breeding.
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In total, cattle farming brings more than four billion tonnes of nitrous oxide into the atmosphere each year. Cow’s milk production then another 1.5 billion tons. This together is more than the total emissions of all crop production. And within this number, cow excretion has only a marginal share, most of the pollution occurs during feeding, grazing and housing.
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