Twist says she knows why cows produce methane
By Drovers news staff
| Wednesday, January 07, 2009
One of the relatively new television channels on cable TV is Planet Green, which, as you might guess, is devoted to programming for the environmentally concerned viewer. Last June, Planet Green launched a show called “Supper with Tom Bergeron,” which features a group of celebrities and semi-celebrities having supper and conversation with the show’s host. Bergeron is better known as the host of “Dancing with the Stars” and “
During a show broadcast last month, Bergeron’s guests were engaged in a conversation about the evils of factory farming, and specifically the amount of methane produced by livestock that is contributing to global warming. One of the guests, Lynne Twist, told Bergeron, “All cows are allergic to corn, which is why they produce methane.” Twist went on to suggest that the world would be a better place if every beef-eater would just demand grass-fed beef.
Lynn Twist is a global activist, fundraiser, speaker, consultant and author. She is an original staff member of The Hunger Project, an organization started in 1977 to end world hunger. She has also worked on several global initiatives, including efforts to protect the world’s rainforests and efforts to “create a sustainable future for all life.”
Apparently Ms. Twist, author of The Soul of Money, is an expert at raising funds for global projects and initiatives that help a lot of people. Her life’s work has touched a lot of less fortunate souls, and generally her efforts are to be admired. But her field of expertise just doesn’t seem to lend much credibility to her comments about cow nutrition. Indeed, a junior high science student would likely know that cows — or any animal — are going to produce methane regardless of what they eat. But does feeding corn to cattle really increase methane production?
For the answer, I asked Ki C Fanning, a livestock nutritionist with Great Plains Livestock Consulting, Inc., Eagle, Neb. Dr. Fanning says cattle produce methane (CH4) for “the same reason we do; they have bacteria in the digestive tract that is digesting feed. Granted, they are ruminants and have the ability to produce more gas than a monogastric.”
Fanning continued with some facts that I’m sure Ms. Twist will find startling. “Grain is higher in digestibility than forages, and as a result, grains produce about four times less CH4 than forages. Cattle lose about 8 percent of the energy from grass to CH4 production but only about 2 percent of the energy of feedlot diets to CH4 production.
“Some of the ways we limit CH4 production is by lowering the amount of forages in feedlot diets to a minimum level. This increases gains and lowers daily CH4 production so it decreases CH4 production per animal fed. Another way we reduce CH4 production is by feeding an ionophore such as Bovatec or Rumensin. Fat supplementations from distillers’ grains will also limit CH4 production. – Greg Henderson, Drovers editor
