California targets dairy cows to combat global warming

[bluemingidiot]

The biggest target is dairy manure, which accounts for about a quarter of the state's methane emissions.


Regulators are looking for ways to reduce so-called enteric emissions — methane produced by bovine digestive systems. That could eventually require changes to what cattle eat.


Dairy farmers say the new regulations will drive up costs when they're already struggling with five years of drought, low milk prices and rising labor costs. They're also concerned about a newly signed law that will boost overtime pay for farmworkers.
"It just makes it more challenging. We're continuing to lose dairies. Dairies are moving out of state to places where these costs don't exist," said Paul Sousa, director of environmental services for Western United Dairymen.


www.chron.com/news/science/article/California-targets-dairy-cows-to-combat-global-10641403.php

Maybe California could just buy dairy farmers Beano to mix in with the feed?

[Deleted]

either that or purchase my newly invented Pilot Lights that are sure to eliminate most problems.

[here to stay]

Nov 30, 2016 13:23:03 GMT @deerjohn said:

either that or purchase my newly invented Pilot Lights that are sure to eliminate most problems.

I was hoping for a visual aid on that one. Brings new meaning to a million points of light.

[countrymom22]

If they would stop feeding cows things they aren't meant to digest, the problem might not be so bad.

[paquebot]

They produce the same amount of gas on green grass as on silage.

Martin

[willowgirl]

Dairy farmers are already hurting bad. This will put some farmers out of business for sure. But no worries; we can always import our milk from China, along with everything else. :-(

Edited to add that people who are worried about methane emissions should know that it seeps naturally from the Earth's crust in various places; for instance: www.livescience.com/37517-east-coast-gas-seeps-discovered.html

[bluemingidiot]

"Warmer Pacific Ocean could release millions of tons of seafloor methane"

www.washington.edu/news/2014/12/09/warmer-pacific-ocean-could-release-millions-of-tons-of-seafloor-methane/

[paquebot]

As California's demographics change to a larger percentage of African and Hispanic, they'll consume less and less dairy products. Won't be a need for half of those dairies in 25-30 years.

Martin

[here to stay]

Asians are the ones without a milk culture. Africans and Hispanics use milk a lot. Long live Mexican cheese and flan....

[paquebot]

here to stay,We've gone through the lactose intolerance issue many times on these forums. The majority of both Africans and Hispanics can not handle milk. East Africans are able to handle it but some West African tribes have over 90% who can not. The majority of African Americans have West African origin and 75% are affected. East Asians are 90%+ while Central Asians are 80%+. Native Americans are also 80%+. Latino/Hispanics in North America are over 50%. At the low end are British with only 5%.

Martin

[bluemingidiot]

"Mexico is the world's largest importer of non-fat dry milk (NFDM) and imports of cheese, fluid milk, and whey have increased rapidly in the past four years."

www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0169515096012042

Economic studies indicate that as wages increase in Mexico, the people will buy more fluid milk. But if Trump brings jobs back from Mexico, purchases of dry and fluid milk should decrease.

[paquebot]

Article in this morning's paper about dairy farmers losing ground to non-dairy such as almond milk. Milk production has gone up in proportion to population growth but average milk consumption has gone down. Number one reason for that was allergy. Bigger percentage of the population is becoming allergic to it.

Martin

[here to stay]

www.environment.ucla.edu/perch/resources/images/cow-vs-almond-milk-1.pdf

"Almond milk uses 1,534.62 more gallons of water per liter than cow milk.." A big deal in California. In my area, dairy is big because most years cows can produce very rich milk on unirrigated pasture alone.

Besides, if there is over production of cow milk, you can exchange it for steak and create a replacement within 3 years. An almond tree could be burned I suppose but will take about 5 to 6 years to restart a new tree into production.

And I suspect there is a sizable part of the population with nut allergies too.

There is room for both products and having both is key to being able to adapt. In fact I suspect the ability of cows to over winter on hay in weather that kills almond crops is so important, it is the reason the gene mutation extending the ability to digest lactose dominated in Europe.

[paquebot]

The lactose tolerant gene for Europeans developed in the Mideast and it would have been goat milk, not cows.  The expansion was later due to the spread of domesticated cattle. 

In addition to almond milk competition, there also is rising consumption of soy milk and rice milk.

Martin