Tuesday 28 January 2014

"In farming news"

Via JuliaM via David Thompson from the BBC:

Methane gas released by dairy cows has caused an explosion in a cow shed in Germany, police said.

The roof was damaged and one of the cows was injured in the blast in the central German town of Rasdorf. Thanks to the belches and flatulence of the 90 dairy cows in the shed, high levels of the gas had built up.

Then "a static electric charge caused the gas to explode with flashes of flames" the force said in a statement quoted by Reuters news agency. Emergency services attended the farm and took gas readings to test for the risk of further blasts, said local media.

Cows are believed to emit up to 500 litres of methane - a potent greenhouse gas - each per day.


I love that last sentence, they couldn't resist it, could they? But given the facts, would it not be more appropriate to describe methane as a 'cow shed gas' rather than a 'greenhouse gas'?

1 comments:

View from the Solent said...

Potent greenhouse gas. Must have been those millions of bison wandering across N. America that caused the Medieval Warm Period then.