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Global livestock accounts for 14.5 per cent of man-made greenhouse gases. The Rumen or fore-stomach, the first of four stomachs in cows and other ruminants is where fermentation breaks down feed and produces the bulk of the methane gas that domestic cattle create and release into the atmosphere through burps and excretion. Adding as little as .3 per cent of Asparagopsis Taxiformis, known as Dulse or Dillisk in Ireland to both cattle feed and dairy-cow feed reduces methane production by from 80% to 98%.
Dillisk, duileasg as gaeilge, was referred to as ´famine food´ in Ireland. This Red Alga also fixes carbon from seawater, thus reducing Oceanic Acidification. There has always been a cottage industry in Ireland for gathering Dulse. (See the lyrics to Dulahan). This new research could be an economic as well as ecological boon to the Republic. A science heavy article can be found here: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101 ... 958v1.full A much more readable article can be found here: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/climate- ... 4c0ff08393

Bob

Dúlamán na Binne Bui

I don't know about 'famine food' and cow farts, seaweed is riding a wave of popularity between Prannie Rhatigan's book and everything else, 'foraging' trends and a variety of 'Wild Atlantic' (always 'Wild' or ' Atlantic') seaweed baths and sea vergetable products that have become available in recent years. (Here is a local business)

It's a handy mulch for the garden (the veg garden is covered in about a foot of it and there's loads around our fruit trees and bushes).

We also pick dulse, wakame, kelp/kombu carrageen and other ones to add to the diet. And bring back a bit of samphire while we're at it. Plenty of it to be had, if you know where to look. It's not a miracle cure though.

The travelling Wild Atlantic Seaweed Baths recently (before the latest lockdown):

an seanduine wrote:Adding as little as .3 per cent of Asparagopsis Taxiformis, known as Dulse or Dillisk ... to both cattle feed and dairy-cow feed reduces methane production by from 80% to 98%.

Sounds like a no-brainer to me.

Nanohedron wrote:

an seanduine wrote:Adding as little as .3 per cent of Asparagopsis Taxiformis, known as Dulse or Dillisk ... to both cattle feed and dairy-cow feed reduces methane production by from 80% to 98%.

Sounds like a no-brainer to me.

Wrong end, Nano, wrong end.

benhall.1 wrote:

Nanohedron wrote:

an seanduine wrote:Adding as little as .3 per cent of Asparagopsis Taxiformis, known as Dulse or Dillisk ... to both cattle feed and dairy-cow feed reduces methane production by from 80% to 98%.

Sounds like a no-brainer to me.

Wrong end, Nano, wrong end.

Maybe not:

That's really cool, Bob. I have a (sort of) family member who does seaweed research; I've sent this to him to see what his reaction is.

Well, Nano, that serves me right for being a smartarse, doesn't it?

benhall.1 wrote:Well, Nano, that serves me right for being a smartarse, doesn't it?

If it's any consolation, I don't delight in being a pedant.

But since I'm at it, I might as well crack on: Asparagopsis taxiformis is not dulse, which is Palmaria palmata.

Mr.Gumby wrote:We also pick ... wakame ...

Didn't know wakame grew in Irish waters. Probably my favorite. You can only get it dried hereabouts, though, but it's not a deal-breaker.

Nanohedron wrote: Didn't know wakame grew in Irish waters. Probably my favorite. You can only get it dried hereabouts, though, but it's not a deal-breaker.

The Korean grown/harvested stuff has a finer structure, the stuff you get here is a bit coarse.

Harvested and sold locally too :



Kelp used to be the big thing here, the 'sea rods' were harversted and dried and sold off to the plastics industry. There used to be big bundles drying all over the place near the coast. That ended some twenty years ago. But it was a bit of income for fishing communities for a long time.

The whole discussion around feeding cows seaweed to reduce emissions has been around for the last four or five years, IIRC.

Mr.Gumby wrote:The whole discussion around feeding cows seaweed to reduce emissions has been around for the last four or five years, IIRC.

Knowing what we know, and we're still only talking about it?