Human practices

Cattle farm

The first industrial facility we surveyed was a cow barn, not just any cow barn of course; we visited the royal cow barn at the Norwegian Royal Farm in Bygdøy.

Picture 1: The Main Barn and the Surrounding Field

The main barn is 1000 m² and houses 60 dairy cows 70 calves, in total 130 cows. These are mostly Norwegian Red cattle with a few Blacksided Trondheim and Norland Cattle added to the mix. They have plans for collecting manure in tanks to make biogas by anaerobic digestion, but there is no system yet that utilizes the methane released from cows.

Picture 2: The main cow barn, houses about 60-70 cows, part of the ventilation system that draws in surrounding outside air and mixes it with the indoor air can be seen hanging down from the roof

Picture 3: Calves in an enclosure. #Royal bovids

Facts About Methane Emissions From cattle
The average cow can produce 250-500 L of methane per day:

• Beef cows produce 2.29 Tg/year Tg (one million metric tons)

• Dairy cows 1.2 Tg/year

• Calves about 0.07-0.15 Tg/year depending on type of cow, dairy or beef.¹

• Enteric fermentation in cattle is responsible for 26% of US methane emissions

iGEM UiOslo 2015 was sponsored by:

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