Burping Cows

[shtferbrains]

Canada to offer incentives to cattle farms to reduce methane emissions

Canada on Sunday introduced new economic incentives for beef cattle farms in order to reduce methane emissions from cows, according to a statement from the Canadian government.

The new draft protocol, Reducing Enteric Methane Emissions from Beef Cattle (REME protocol), will incentivize farmers to implement changes that would cut enteric methane emissions from their beef cattle operations with an opportunity to generate offset credits that they can sell.

Methane generated during the digestive process of cows and is released into the air when cows burp, is known as an enteric methane emission.

Each credit represents one tonne of emission reductions and the REME protocol is expected to encourage cattle farms to reduce emissions by improving animal diets, management, and other strategies that support more efficient animal growth.
reuters.com/s

[AlbertaFarmer5]

Meanwhile. A few years ago I had an interesting conversation on this very topic with Chuck's buddy Darrin Qualman.
Where he revealed that the research indicates the best way to lower methane emissions from cattle is with a grain diet. The worst way is with a grass diet.
Whereas, the Earth muffins are pushing something they call sustainable agriculture, a big part of which involves sustainable grass-fed beef, as opposed to intensive high inputs grain fed beef.
How they propose to square that circle is yet to be seen.

[shtferbrains]

Agriculture is number 3 on the list of Methane emmiters and general "pollution " that the liberals feel they have to address in order to be able to show they are tough on meeting their climate goals coming up quickly.
So far virtually nothing has moved the needle since covid shutdowns and using natural gas instead of coal.
We all have to do our part and make sacrifices so our leaders can fly off to climate conferences and virtue signal.

Canada already sinks over a billion tons more carbon than we produce. NASA has real data to prove it.

[Blaithin]

How do they plan on cutting them? Encouraging ionophore use?

As Abby says, grain diets produce less methane than forage diets.

BUT

Healthy pastures have populations of methanotrophs which absorb atmospheric methane and distribute it back into the soil as part of the methane cycle. Which does feed back into what the Earth Muffins are preaching. A sustainable system should more easily be able to balance itself.

Removing something from its natural cycle may reduce immediate production numbers but it rarely achieves an actual reduction goal. That math would be like saying we have low carbon emissions because we don’t burn coal ourselves and takes into no account the coal we supply to other places to use.

[AlbertaFarmer5]

How do they plan on cutting them? Encouraging ionophore use?

As Abby says, grain diets produce less methane than forage diets.

BUT

Healthy pastures have populations of methanotrophs which absorb atmospheric methane and distribute it back into the soil as part of the methane cycle. Which does feed back into what the Earth Muffins are preaching. A sustainable system should more easily be able to balance itself.

Removing something from its natural cycle may reduce immediate production numbers but it rarely achieves an actual reduction goal. That math would be like saying we have low carbon emissions because we don’t burn coal ourselves and takes into no account the coal we supply to other places to use.

The imminently sensible solution which you suggests, sounds suspiciously like performing full life cycle analysis of methane reduction from cattle.
The problem with that solution is that we would then need to apply the same methodology to all of the other supposed climate measures.
And if we performed honest scientifically based full life cycle analysis of electric cars, wind and solar energy, fertilizer reduction, biomass and wood chips into energy, and energy storage, etc, we would have to slaughter a lot of sacred cows. Pun intended.

[Blaithin]

If they did full life cycle analysis then row crops and mono crops are done which would mean they’d have to flop from “eat less meat” to “eat more meat”.

[Blaithin]

So it’s pretty much just defining feedlot protocol.

[url]https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/services/climate-change/pricing-pollution-how-it-will-work/output-based-pricing-system/federal-greenhouse-gas-offset-system/protocols/draft-reducing-enteric-methane-emissions-beef-cattle.html[/url]

[shtferbrains]

I suspect this is the carrot.

We haven't seen the stick yet.

Expect a blizzard of forms/paperwork and platoons of inspectors.

[Blaithin]

Yes I didn’t read the link in depth but it sounds like a lot of crappola.

Have to prove a baseline of how much methane you produce, possibly back to 2017, and then if you can do better than that you will be considered offsetting.

Knowing how that works with carbon credits I’m assuming if any feedlot was utilizing those tools prior to 2017 then that’s their baseline so they will get no offset credits for using them now as they really won’t be able to reduce methane by any more. They’re already utilizing all the tools possible.

Which will mean most feedlots won’t be included.

[shtferbrains]

750,000 dairy cows in Ontario and Quebec.

Steers go to local feeders. Cows go to grind.

A large part of the beef supply.

No politician ever upsets Quebec dairy.