Stamping soil into a methane source

Instead of producing methane via their digestion, cows can also boost the production of this gas through the soil.

A team of German scientists from the Institute of Soil Ecology of the National Research Center for Environment and Health (GSF), Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres and Czech colleagues at the Budweis Academy of Science have been able to show that bovine animals can also boost the production of methane gas in soil – as studied on a Czech farm.
 
This affect is most apparent when animals do not spend the cold season exclusively in the cow shed but are kept on winter pastures instead, according to the study.
 
The scientists proved that two factors were key for this process to take place: the amount and quality of organic material from excrement and the strength of the compaction of the soil by the cattle’s weight.
 
Fields that are not used intensively for agriculture generally act as sink for the greenhouse gases, methane, carbon dioxide and laughing gas (nitrous oxide). However, this situation can change if intensive management of the pastures with cattle occurs.

Closer to the shed…

For animal protection reasons, placing cattle on pastures in winter - with the possibility of sleeping in a cowshed or of obtaining feed there – is becoming increasingly popular. “The over-wintering of bovine animals is quite widespread at least in the ecological agriculture of Central Europe as a whole,” reported Dr. Michael Schloter, the leader of the study.
 
“The reasoning is that the animals are less susceptible to infectious disease, thanks to the movement outside and, therefore, fewer antibiotics need to be used. However, this connection has not been proved.” 
 
The investigation was carried out on a farm in south Bohemia. This area comprises of about four hectares and has been used since 1995 for the over-wintering of about 90 cows from October till the beginning of May.
 
Schloter added: “At the end of this season, we could clearly see the consequences of the over-wintering on the soil.”
 
Unlike typical summer grazing, where the animals spread out evenly, the animals on the winter pastures prefer to stay near the feed house. As a result, no vegetation was visible any more in this area, and the ground was strongly compressed. In addition, this area was marked by a very high incidence of organic matter from the excrement of the animals.
 
The intensive grazing in the areas close to the cowshed led to a clear increase of methane emissions throughout the whole winter. These showed 1,000 times more than the control areas, where no bovine animals were kept.
 
 

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