Chemical Reduces Cows' Carbon 'hoofprint'

Sustainability is important in agricultural production, with an emphasis placed upon meeting human food requirements while mitigating environmental impact. A recent study demonstrates that use of recombinant Bovine Somatotropin (rbST)markedly not only improves the efficiency of milk production but also mitigates environmental impact of greenhouse gas emissions and reduces natural resource requirements such as fossil fuel, water and land use. Supplementing cows with rbST on an industry-wide scale would improve sustainability and reduce the dairy industry's contribution to water acidification, algal growth, and global warming.

In 2007, there were 9.2 million cows in the United States. For every one million cows supplemented with rbST, the world would see an environmental saving of 824 million kilograms of carbon dioxide, 41 million kilograms of methane and 96,000 kilograms of nitrous oxide. For every one million cows supplemented with rbST, the reduction in the carbon footprint is equivalent to removing approximately 400,000 family cars from the road or planting 300 million trees.

Producing milk uses large quantities of land, energy and feed, but rbST – the first biotech product may be used on American farms; has been in agricultural use for nearly 15 years.carbon hoofprint (hoofprint: a visible impression on a surface made by the hoof of an animal) by easing energy, land and nutritional inputs necessary to sustain milk production at levels sufficient to meet demand. Now it is found to reduce the

This research found that, compared to a non-supplemented population, giving rbST to one million cows would enable the same amount of milk to be produced using 157,000 cows (approx. 1.5 million). The nutrient savings would be 491,000 metric tons of corn, 158,000 metric tons of soybeans. In this manner the total feedstuffs would be reduced by 2,300,000 metric tons. Producers could reduce cropland use by 219,000 hectares and reduce 2.3 million tons of soil erosion annually.