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Cattle produce most of their methane through eructation - or burping - but this can be reduced by
altering their diet (Credit: Getty Images)
Feeding biochar to cows also has a long and illustrious history. In the 3rd Century BC, Cato the
Elder wrote that sick cattle should be given “three pieces of live coal”, or charcoal. However, he
also recommended giving the sick cows three pints of wine, and a series of other questionable
substances.
More recent studies have found that there may be some wisdom in the former of Cato the Elder’s
musings. In 2012, a research group in Vietnam found that adding 0.5-1% biochar to cattle’s feed
could reduce methane emissions by more than 10%, while other studies have found reductions of up
to 17%. Studies on beef cows in the Great Planes of the US found that adding biochar to feed
reduces cows’ methane emissions by between 9.5% and 18.4%. Given that methane makes up 90%
of greenhouse gas emissions from cattle farming, this could considerably cut cattle’s environmental
footprint.
The mechanism by which biochar is thought to lead to these reductions, however, is not well
understood. One way it is thought to work is by “adsorbing” methane molecules, or holding them
on its surface. Another theory is that it biochar favours the growth of certain microbial communities
in the cow’s microbiome, resulting in more efficient digestion. To get to the bottom of how biochar
reduces cow methane emissions, and by how much, more research is needed, writes Claudia
Kammann of Hochschule Geisenheim University.
On this farm near Manjimup, cattle farmer Doug Pow has been taking part in studies on biochar for
several years. He gets his biochar as a by-product from a local silicon producer. He was originally
drawn to it not for its potential to reduce his herd’s methane emissions, but as a way to sequester
more carbon into the soil. This had the dual prospect of sinking carbon and improving soil health.
“Due to the highly porous nature and high surface area of biochar, it improves soil’s ability to hold
more water,” says Bhawana Bhatta, a soil science lecturer of the University of Melbourne. “The
fine network of pores within biochar gives room for soil microorganisms to live. This increases the
microbial diversity in the soil.”
But at first Pow had puzzled over how he would be able to get the biochar into his pastures. Usually
it required large and expensive specialist machinery. “I thought, we haven’t got big-time farming
equipment, and my gates aren’t wide enough,” he says.
Pow wondered, would it be possible to get the biochar in the ground with little to no cost by using
his herd of cows to distribute it? After all, they wandered his pastures all day long and their dung
was sprinkled liberally across it. They seemed like a ready-made delivery system.
Cattle farming is a source of income for an estimated 1.3 billion people worldwide (Credit: Getty
Images)
But once the biochar-enriched cowpats were distributed across his land, there was a further
challenge. How would this dung get into the ground?
Cowpat is incongruous in the harsh Australian landscape. It was the early European settlers who
introduced cows, sheep and other ruminants. Kangaroos and other native species produce waste in
small, fibrous pellets that the dung beetles native to Australia have co-evolved to work with. But
these beetles ignore the soft, wet pats produced by cows.