Cattle and other ruminants create methane as they digest their food. And when the belch and fart they add pretty amazing amounts of this greenhouse gas that is 27-times as 'warming' as carbon dioxide. Cows are responsible for 14.5% of all greenhouse gases. Now scientists at the University of Guelph in Canada have discovered that cow genetics help determine how much methane cows produce. Follow-up studies will try to breed 'low-methane' cows.
For more on this study, connect with the NPR report or go right to the paper in PLOS Genetics.