The climate-friendly cow

Many of us may be familiar with the fact that a ruminant has four “stomachs” and that the stomachs work together to effectively break down and digest plant material. But did you know that the primary fermentation of the cow’s feed occurs in the first two stomachs called the reticulorumen?

And did you know that this process produces a lot of the methane that we try so hard to reduce in the effort to decrease the agricultural sector’s contribution to greenhouse gas emissions? In fact, an adult dairy cow that produces around 12,000 liters of milk in a year will produce around 400 gram of methane every day.

Giulio Giagnoni is a post-doc at the Department of Animal and Veterinary Sciences, Aarhus University. One of his goals is to identify a feeding strategy to reduce enteric methane emissions from dairy cows. One element of the research involves investigating the processes and the microbiome of the reticulorumen, whose surface is partly shown in the winning picture.

Meet Giulio Giagnoni and learn more about his winning picture and the research behind it:

“In this case, you see the reticulorumen of a calf. This is where the feed starts to be digested, and where it stays for some time until it is small enough to move on to the rest of the stomachs,” explained Giagnoni.

During fermentation, the microbiome transforms the plant fibers into acids that the animal can absorb and use for energy. Giagnoni tries to affect this process by using additives that establish a microbiome that emits less methane.

“But this is not straightforward because these microbes are part of an ecosystem. And they are in a balance with all the other entities living there. If we could reduce, let’s say, 10 – 15%, by using additives for a short period at the beginning of their life, then we could get the benefit of this reduction for the entire life of the animal.” Giagnoni emphasized how using additives in the early life of the cows could be a strategy that works both for the animal, the economy, and the climate.

In other words, if researchers succeed in reducing methane emissions, ruminants can reduce their carbon footprint while serving the modern food production system by converting inedible materials into valuable nutrients.

Giagnoni decided to participate in this year’s photo competition because he thought the photo Digestive System of Dairy Cows was relevant to his scientific work and pinpoints his research. Besides that, the competition gave him a chance to explore his creativity “…and go a bit off-road and try something different.”

Read more about the research group