Cows Who Live in Glass Houses Shouldn’t Emit Stones

This month in Finland, a team of intrepid researchers herded one thousand European cows one-by-one into a glass “metabolic chamber” to measure their methane emissions, digestion, production characteristics, energy-efficiency, metabolism, and the microbial make-up of their rumens. The Project is known as RuminOmics, but if it had been titled The Truman Show II: When the Cows Come Home, we wouldn’t have been a bit surprised. The ultimate aim of the study was to find an optimal, low-emission, high-yield cow, and the team noted in its premise that of all greenhouse gases produced by humans, five percent comes from cattle. The study identified areas in the cow’s genotype, the variation of which was linked to the amount of methane produced per kilo of milk produced. So, can a Super Low-Carb cow be identified and can this genotype be bred for.