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Mahon: Cattle rations again pressured by human bandwagons

The lines of an illogical human universe are intersecting at the back end of the common cow.

The lines of an illogical human universe are intersecting at the back end of the common cow.

Let’s start with the feed additive Bovaer, licensed in many countries around the world including Canada for beef and dairy cattle.

Mahon: Cattle rations again pressured by human bandwagons Back to video

Bovaer is an additive to the bovine ration that targets methane-producing microorganisms by temporarily inhibiting a key enzyme, blocking the pathway that converts hydrogen and carbon dioxide into methane. It can dramatically lower the emission of methane, one of the worst forms of greenhouse gases which the world is so ineffectively fighting against.

I wrote last year that the rumen is not a place for unnecessary tinkering. I have thought the science on Bovaer seemed okay, but intuitively felt that a formulaic equation cannot be balanced if the cow suddenly produces less methane in its high-performance life. It has to come out of the equation somewhere. Talking to several dairy ration specialists over the year, they seem to feel somewhat the same – the science seems sound, but there is this lingering, perhaps emotional worry about what we don’t know.

It isn’t really much of an issue in Canada because farmers are not using it. There is no incentive to do so. But that is not the case in other parts of the world, notably Europe, which has more ardently jumped on the methane reduction bandwagon. In fact, Norway........

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