[Lex Computer & Tech Group/LCTG] FW: Researchers potty-train cows to reduce ammonia emissions

Mon Sep 20 19:46:58 PDT 2021

Seeing is believing

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2021/09/14/potty-train-cows-to-help-environment/8333382002/

From: LCTG <lctg-bounces+ggamota=stma-llc.com at lists.toku.us> On Behalf Of Michael Alexander
Sent: Monday, September 20, 2021 10:38 PM
To: john rudy <jjrudy1 at comcast.net>; Lex Computer Group <LCTG at lists.toku.us>
Cc: Dick Eno <rdeno at fairpoint.net>
Subject: Re: [Lex Computer & Tech Group/LCTG] FW: Researchers potty-train cows to reduce ammonia emissions

A great advance in animal behavior research.  

Now, can they potty-train dog owners who don’t/won’t clean up their dog’s poop?

    – Mike A.

On Monday, September 20, 2021, 4:53 PM, john rudy <jjrudy1 at comcast.net <mailto:jjrudy1 at comcast.net> > wrote:

This is important stuff

John Rudy

781-861-0402

781-718-8334 (cell)

 <mailto:John.rudy at alum.mit.edu> John.rudy at alum.mit.edu 

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From: Gizmorama <ezine at gophercentral.com <mailto:ezine at gophercentral.com> > 
Sent: Monday, September 20, 2021 11:01 AM
To: jjrudy1 at comcast.net <mailto:jjrudy1 at comcast.net> 
Subject: Researchers potty-train cows to reduce ammonia emissions

Researchers potty-train cows to reduce ammonia emissions 

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September 20, 2021 

Good Morning,

Enjoy these interesting stories from the scientific community. 

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*-- Mars rover's first rock samples reveal lengthy water exposure --*

The first two rock samples examined by NASA's Mars rover Perseverance give scientists a firm belief that water inundated Jezero Crater for a sustained period of time, the agency announced Friday. 

"We determined salt granules in the rock indicate it was exposed to water," Julia Goreva, a NASA scientist for the rover program, said in a news conference from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. 

The rocks, drilled Monday and Wednesday, came from an igneous or volcanic rock. The agency previously knew that water once filled the crater, but not for how long. 

The salt deposits mean NASA can now rule out a sudden "flash in the pan" water event, the agency said in a news release. 

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The rover sampled a rock NASA dubbed Rochette on a ridge named Artuby. The two samples are named Montdenier and Montagnac after a French mountain and region, respectively. 

Scientists chose the Rochette drilling site after a previous attempt to drill a sample failed because the brittle rock target crumbled. 

The samples now are stored and sealed inside the rover as part of a multinational effort to bring Mars rocks back to Earth by 2031, said Kate Stack Morgan, Perseverance deputy project scientist. 

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The samples, about the thickness of a pencil, were 2.4 inches long and 2.6 inches long, which are nearly ideal, said Jessica Samuels, the Perseverance surface mission manager, at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. 

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"While it definitely was a very long time waiting, I think all of us can say that it feels fantastic to ... be up here and share this with you." 

*-- Researchers potty-train cows to reduce ammonia emissions --*

 <https://ptv.gophercentral.com/?a=474&oc=440&c=22742&p=r>  <https://ptv.gophercentral.com/?a=474&oc=440&c=22742&p=r>  <https://ptv.gophercentral.com/?a=474&oc=440&c=22742&p=r> Researchers are potty-training cows to go to the bathroom where their feces and urine can be collected and treated, reducing ammonia emissions. 

When cattle are allowed to relieve themselves as they graze, their waste can collect in fields and contaminate local waterways. If confined to a barn, urine and feces can mix together and yield ammonia, an indirect greenhouse gas. 

Both scenarios are problematic for human and environmental health. 

To keep barns more sanitary, waterways clean and greenhouse gas emissions low, researchers have started training cow to urinate and defecate in designated areas. 

Scientists described their efforts -- a system they named MooLoo training -- in a new paper, published Monday in the journal Current Biology. 

"It's usually assumed that cattle are not capable of controlling defecation or urination," study co-author Jan Langbein said in a press release. 

"Cattle, like many other animals or farm animals are quite clever and they can learn a lot. Why shouldn't they be able to learn how to use a toilet?" said Langbein, an animal psychologist at the Research Institute for Farm Animal Biology in Germany. 

To potty-train the young cows participating in the study, researchers in Germany and New Zealand offered food rewards to calves that urinated in the latrine. Afterwards, researchers allowed the cows to enter the latrine from the fields when they needed to go. 

To discourage urination outside the latrines, researchers tried fitting the calves with headphones and playing unpleasant sounds whenever they peed in the barn. It didn't take. 

"We thought this would punish the animals -- not too aversively -- but they didn't care," Langbein said. "Ultimately, a splash of water worked well as a gentle deterrent." 

In just a few weeks, researchers trained 11 of 16 cows to regularly use the latrine to relieve themselves. According to the study's authors, the cows' potty-training performance was comparable to children and superior to very young children. 

The ammonia produced when feces and urine mix doesn't directly contribute to global warming, but when it is leached into the ground, it gets broken down by microbes that release nitrous oxide, the third-most significant greenhouse gas after methane and carbon dioxide. 

Agriculture is the number one source of ammonia emissions, and livestock account for more than half of the industry's output. 

Now that cows can be cooperative partners in the quest to reduce ammonia emissions, researchers hope to adapt their MooLoo training for outdoor farms. 

"In a few years, all cows will go to a toilet," Langbein said. 

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