Flatulent Irish cows are anything but great gas

The extent of flatulence among Irish cows, not to mention their belching, will soon force farmers to change the way they do business, it has been predicted. This factor is a major contributor to Ireland's growing greenhouse gas emissions problem.

Prof Frank Convery of the UCD Environmental Institute told a conference in Dublin yesterday that farmers faced new quotas relating to such emissions because farming was responsible for more than a third of Irish greenhouse gas emissions (which are being linked to climate change).

Quotas could be as penal as the current EU milk quota regime.

Cutbacks are likely in the short term in an attempt to reduce the problem, Prof Convery said. But farmers would have opportunities to participate in "carbon trading" as a global emissions market emerges within 10 years.

Much of the problem in farming derives to a large extent from a process known as "enteric fermentation" in ruminant animals, which account for a fifth of Ireland's greenhouse gas emissions. Methane gas is the inevitable by-product of this gut process, manifested in flatulence and belching.

Cattle account for 86 per cent of the resulting methane, he told the conference staged by AgMet, an Irish scientific body which considers research on the application of meteorology in agriculture.

Destocking was the main way of dealing with the problem, but this could prove to be expensive, he said. However, once carbon trading began options would improve for farmers. Investing in methane recovery or afforestation might result in some form of credit, he said, while those wishing to get out of farming could sell "the ensuing greenhouse gas emission reduction."

Although such a large proportion of Ireland's emissions comes from agriculture, these are not rising as rapidly as emissions from other sectors such as transport and electricity production.

Within the past few months the first pan-European agreement has been reached on limiting ammonia emissions, the main contributor to acidification. As ammonia is used in farming (in fertilisers and slurry), measures such as changing fertiliser types and improved technology for spreading slurry on land may be necessary.

As for eutrophication degrading rivers and lakes, Prof Convery said by-laws introduced by Cork County Council to reduce phosphorus and nitrogen run-off into water were likely to become "much more pervasive" elsewhere.

On whether man or nature was responsible for climate change, Dr John Butler of Armagh Observatory stressed the causes were not well established. But most climatologists were agreed that increasing carbon-dioxide levels in the atmosphere due to human activity were an important contributory factor.

This, nonetheless, was superimposed on long-term natural changes such as the well-documented "little ice age" which occurred from 1570 to 1730.

Changes in the past century were well within variability going back thousands of years, and thus could be considered natural, Dr Butler said.