New Zealand sheep farting, causing global warming? Experts adjust feed and breeding to cultivate little fart sheep

The dangers of global warming

Yesterday, the US Environmental Protection Agency released the results of a study that confirmed for the first time that human activity is also part of the cause of global warming. Global warming has severely affected Earth's ecosystems, human security, housing and health.

Scientists have confirmed that global warming is causing flooding along the Atlantic coast and coastal areas around the Gulf of Mexico about five times as often as in the 1950s.

Global warming has also rapidly melted the Arctic and Antarctic ice sheets, and seawater temperatures have reached unprecedented temperatures. The acidity of seawater from melting Arctic ice is also increasing, making global heatwaves about three times as likely as they were in the 1960s.

New Zealand sheep fart too much, causing global warming

Many scientists are working on ways to combat global warming, and so are those in New Zealand. The impression of New Zealand is often of large forests and grasslands and endless flocks of sheep.

New Zealand scientists have found through research that a large number of sheep will lead to global warming. It seems that both human and animal activities are to blame for global warming.

Some people may be scratching their heads, why do cute sheep cause global warming? That's because sheep often fart and burp, producing large amounts of methane, one of the most important gases responsible for global warming. Simply put, New Zealand's sheep farts too much and is a major cause of global warming.

cattle and sheep and produce a lot of methane

As the most common livestock, cattle and sheep are still very typical ruminant vegetarian animals. The grass they eat will be continuously digested in the stomachs of cattle and sheep, and finally produce a large amount of carbon dioxide and methane through burping and farting.

Carbon dioxide also contributes to global warming, but not nearly as much as methane. Methane is more than twenty times more potent than carbon dioxide in causing global warming. Methane is released into the air in large quantities, increasing the rate of global warming.

New Zealand scientists breed 'little fart sheep'

Scientists in New Zealand could no longer sit still, but they began to use what they had learned, determined to reduce the emission of methane from tens of millions of sheep in New Zealand.

The first idea that comes to mind is to combine the previous excellent breeding programs for animals and plants to cultivate sheep with the least fart, and then pass on this excellent gene from generation to generation, and use the most scientific method to breed "less fart sheep", thereby reducing the number of farts. Methane emissions.

This research has been going on for several years. At first, scientists selected nearly a hundred sheep for research and screening. Scientists recorded the amount of methane emitted by each sheep, and monitored in real time how much fart each sheep put out.

New Zealand's sheep produce 35% of the country's total methane emissions

Scientists then divide the flock into high methane and low methane groups. Only sheep with low methane emissions are allowed to breed. Through research, it has been found that the heritability of the offspring of these sheep is about 25%, and they have now been bred. The third generation of Shao fart sheep, their methane emissions have been reduced by one-tenth than before.

A long time ago, New Zealand was a typical agricultural and animal husbandry country, and its main income was from exporting agricultural products such as coarse wool and dairy products. The ratio of sheep to population in New Zealand has reached 7:1, and the current number of sheep in New Zealand may exceed 30 million.

Every sheep farts and burps, which can release a lot of methane and carbon dioxide, so the amount of methane gas emitted by tens of millions of sheep is quite large. Scientists have found through research that the total amount of methane emitted by sheep has accounted for 35% of New Zealand's total methane emissions. This is also the original intention of scientists to cultivate "less fart sheep".

Scientists are changing the eating habits of sheep

After cultivating the "Shao Fart Sheep", scientists in New Zealand have to work on the sheep's food. Through the study of sheep food, it is found that there is a significant difference in methane emissions between sheep that eat grass and those that eat rapeseed and sugar beets. The methane emissions of sheep eating vegetables are lower than those of sheep eating grass.

However, the rancher was still a little worried, and directly changed the sheep's diet, so that they could eat vegetables instead of grass. First, they were worried about increasing the cost of feeding, and second, they were worried that the quality and taste of the mutton would be affected.

It is urgent to control global warming

Relevant New Zealand authorities have put forward some countermeasures against the emission of methane gas by sheep a long time ago. Eighteen years ago, in order to control the emission of methane gas from sheep, the relevant departments of New Zealand formulated an agricultural emission research tax, which costs about 60 million RMB. In the end, it was unanimously opposed by the farmers, and finally it was nothing.

The harm of global warming is obvious to all. Scientists have confirmed that every time the average temperature of the earth rises by one degree, the size of animals in the sea will shrink by one-twentieth. Since the Industrial Revolution, global carbon dioxide emissions have increased by 25%, and average temperatures have risen by 1-2 degrees.

If all the north and south ice layers melt, the overall sea level will rise by about 67 meters, and most of the world's farmland and land will be submerged. Therefore, it is very necessary for scientists from various countries to respond to global warming. Pictures from the Internet must be deleted.