German researchers trained cows to go to the toilet to reduce greenhouse gas emissions

The scientists claim that they have managed, as part of a programme to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, to train 16 calves to have them urinate in the toilet. The experiment began as a joke, but managing the urine of the cattle, with a high nitrogen content, could, in the long run, bring real benefits to the environment, according to a team of researchers from Germany and New Zealand, who presented the results of the experiment in the journal Current Biology, writes CNN.

Cattle produce around 66-88 kilograms of feces and about 25 liters of urine every day. The spread of waste in the soil can have negative effects on the environment, explained Jan Langbein, co-author of the study published on Monday, September 13.

Agriculture is the world’s largest source of ammonia emissions, and livestock farming accounts for more than half of this contribution, the researchers said in a press release, adding that in Europe, 90% of ammonia emissions come from agriculture.

If the ammonia produced by cow waste does not directly contribute to climate change, when mixed with the soil, it turns into nitric oxide, a greenhouse gas. It contaminates the ground and streams.

Thus, the main question for Langbein, a psychologist at the Research Institute for the Biology of Farm Animals in Germany, and his team was: “Why can’t cows learn how to use the toilet? Animals are quite intelligent and can learn a lot.”

“In a few years, all the cows will go to the toilet”

Thus, the scientists used food as a reward to train 16 cows to urinate in a toilet pen and claim that the results obtained are comparable to those you would expect from a three-year-old child.

In the first phase of training, the cattle were placed in a closed latrine. And whenever they urinated, they were given a reward.

The calves were trained for 45 minutes each day. And, after 10 days of training, the team had managed to successfully train 11 of the 16 calves involved in the experiment.

According to the researchers, the challenge now is to train large herds and adapt this principle to the context in Germany, where cattle spend more time outdoors than in stables.

Researcher Langbein concluded: “In a few years, all the cows will go to the toilet.”

Em