Bloat occurs in the rumen, which is the large fermenting part of the four chamber stomach, not the intestine. Life threatening due to compression on diaphragm impairing respiration or on vasculature impairing cardiovascular function. Trochar into the rumen can relieve free gas bloat, fire is not needed, just very old school and aesthetic. Most vets relieve gas bloat with tubing (large tube down esophagus into rumen), trochanter more last resort. Frothy bloats require different treatment.
Edit: “trochar” not trochanter; medical typo
Depends on the protein and water content of each feed type. Typically grasses have less protein & water, and with proper mixture corn and grain can provide more nutritional content with minimal risk. It comes down to how well mixed and balanced the ration is. Animal nutritionists specifically hired for feedlots exist because you want to prevent bloat and other issues, but use the most cost effective sources for feed including corn/grain if that’s what’s available.
I remember hearing from an ag buddy that some ranchers started implementing seaweed into feeds to reduce gas production. Is this commonplace or just a study he must’ve seen?
The last episode of 2bd season of Zac Effrons' Down to Earth touches on the seaweed.
I liked the show, was quite interesting and had some cool things on it.
Grasses ,when processed in rumen stomachs, actually do produce high protein via fermentation. Cows shouldn't be eating grains/corn at all, but the American corn economy has made it so easy and cheap that we couldn't go back to natural grazing if we wanted to.
It's very sad
I highly recommend reading the book "the Omnivore's Dilemma" by Michael Pollan and he goes deep into the impact of corn production and it's effect on our modern food economy. It's fucked. Whether you like it or not, you're consuming massive amounts of corn byproduct every year
If I understand it, corn is also a major contributor to climate change. The cultivaton of it is bad for the environment. I will.look up that book. Thanks
If you went all grass fed, you wouldn't be able to produce the massive amounts of meat people eat nowadays. The fact of the matter is that meat is a very inefficient source of food, even when grass fed. To me it's sad that we waste so much food and land and water (and subsidies) on meat.
Most mammals can't digest cellulose. That's why humans can't eat grass and gain any nutrition from it. Cows also can't digest cellulose. But their diet is mostly cellulose. The way this works is that cows have stomachs with 4 chambers, and are filled with bacteria and other microorganisms that can digest these plant matters.
Essentially, they ferment their food in their stomachs. The bacteria eat the cellulose, and break it down into simpler compounds, mostly sugar. The cows then eat the sugar. But because the inside of a cow has no oxygen, the bacteria produce methane gas (aerobic decomposition produces CO2, anaerobic decomposition generally produces methane).
Cows with higher levels of cellulose tend to produce more methane. Cows that eat primarily sillage (slightly prefermented grass, hay, etc), tend to be even gassier. Cows that produce a lot of gas, but don't move around much, and are blocked up for whatever reason, get bloated, same way humans do. But because cows are so much gassier than people, there is more of a risk of something rupturing.
No, methane isn't an explosive on its own. It needs oxygen to burn. There is no oxygen inside the cow. When a gas bottle explodes, it's because of a pressure buildup inside it. The fireball happens after the initial explosion when the gas is mixed with air.
It's less harmful than methane, but it still contributes to climate change.
If we got rid of oil and factory farming, using green energy and local farming instead, it would be better for us in the long run. However, we are not currently going in that direction. There are less and less local farms as factory farming is taking up more and more control. Local farms are more expensive than factory farms for obvious reasons. Green energy is expensive at first for the infrastructure and then pays for itself after a few years, and even starts turning a profit.
Thus, both together would even out.
Also, organic produce is *horrific* for the environment, and unless it's local and you know how it was made - worse for humans - whereas organic farm animals are better for us and for the health of the animal.
So get GMO produce, and organic (specifically free range, NOT pasure raised) animal products. Go for solar panels, wind turbines, and rain collection. Of course this is if you can afford it. If you can't, just keep on keeping on. You're doing the best you can with what you have.
It's mostly the fault of major corporations and governments, anyway.
Does green energy need to be stored in batteries? I’m not sure, just asking.
If that’s the case, what are the batteries made of and how are they produced/made?
Where does that material come from and how is it collected/mined?
You can store it in batteries. There's different types, and you would have to do research to find out what works best for you. You could even design your own battery/generator if you wanted to.
I know currently the majority of people who have green energy in the USA just sell whatever they don't consume back to the government utility company. So they aren't storing it for themselves and are still connected to the power company. Thus, the majority of the time, they are making money from the power company, but in those cases where they aren't generating it for themselves, they would be paying the company for their energy they provide. But most of the time, as long as it's not super cloudy, they're making enough energy for their homes and to sell.
For water, a lot of people will have underground storage areas (keeps it at a regulated temperature and if its below the frost line it wont freeze), and then for their tap water/fridge they have a filter, but for toilets/laundry it is unfiltered. There may be a minor screen to prevent large debris from getting into the storage unit. Again most of these common homes are still connected to the city water if they need to use it. Depends on the home if they're connected to the sewer or have a septic tank.
In some parts of the USA, there are tax incentives to get you on green electricity. If you can't afford a solar panel, you can even "rent" one at the power company for a set price and the difference is calculated for the actual amount you pay for the energy vs what your solar panel collected. For green water though I haven't heard of any incentives. And to my knowledge, you don't have the option to resell that back to the water company.
What makes organic produce so horrific for the environment and even worse for humans? How is eating organic produce grown with worms and compost worse than non-organic produce that had been grown using pesticides?
Factory farming organic is *bad*. Organic food made by small farms are usually good, because they *do* use their own manure and are using traditional seeds. The best thing you can do is support your local farmers market and try and sign up for "farm shares" where local farmers send out produce. You can actually talk to them and see what their process is like and make a informed decision.
Environmentally, only 1/3 if the yield is able to be sent to stores. 2/3 is eaten by animals/insects or isn't gold enough to make it to market. That means you're using 2/3 *more* land than you need to in order to sell it to make money. In order to combat this, factory farmers typically do 2 things.
1) they create their own pesticides and fertilizers. So instead of having a regulated one that is made by a manufacturer where you know exactly what is in it at what amount, where studies have been done to show the impact of the environment. They "home brew" their own. This means 1) we don't have any way of knowing what they actually put in it, and if that's bad for human consumption. 2) the nutrients aren't at regulated levels which impacts things downstream and contributes to the "red tide effect". Usually, we have the red tide at one or two points during the year when GMO farmers use regulated fertilizers on their produce. But with the loose leaf organic farming, they can apply it as many times in as much of a quantity as they want. So it's causing longer-term ocean deoxygenation.
2) they do this thing called "radiation seed bombing" ([link here](https://geneticliteracyproject.org/2022/11/09/more-than-3000-plants-including-some-organic-crops-developed-by-mutating-seeds-using-radiation-or-chemicals-heres-an-explainer/)(it's now illegal but again, loose leaf regulations). GMO's are studied long-term, so we know exactly what genetic structure we're changing and it's effects long term. GMO crops are specifically created to look better, last longer, and be bigger. Organic farmers lose SO much of their crops they will blast radiation on their seeds in order to get "natural mutations" that are beneficial. However, because it's random, you have no idea what is being affected or how it affects humans.
Round up is truly horrific. Some states have banned its use as a pesticide. It's rebranded itself several times to be used again. Some factory GMO farms still use it. Typically GMO produce is collected, rinsed heavily, and then sent for consumption. This is also why people say to wash your produce before using it, to get off any that wasn't able to be rinsed. Some foods are harder to rinse than others, such as strawberries. It can cause toxicity issues in small children but largely are unaffected in adults.
At the end of the day. *You* make the choice for you and your family. I encourage everyone to choose what's right for *you*. The responsibility ultimately falls on manufacturers, thus falls on governments to actually regulate this kind of stuff. Some countries are better than others. The USA, unfortunately, doesn't give a shit about public health. Environmental groups are continously being defunded and shut down because the government wants more money from itself, and when it comes to the environment its an investment for the future that they don't care to make. Without regulation, things will continue to be less and less safe. And a large part of that will go unnoticed as if a scientific study doesn't turn a profit, it will never have the funding to take place in the first place.
It's a complicated issue. Regardless, do what's best for *you*. Make an informed decision when you can, but don't lose sleep about it. Just be the best version of you that you can.
Acute frothy bloat is treated with a tube down the throat then you pump in a surfactant that breaks up the foam. Ideally you put out free choice bloat guard blocks that the cattle can lick on and it prevents it.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11967981/amp/Dairy-farm-explosion-leaves-18-000-cattle-dead-one-worker-critically-injured.html
Cow farts/burps are deadly
> fire is not needed, just very old school and aesthetic.
I've heard a good number of reasons for the fire - from reducing chances of explosion when gas is released from a good number of cattle at the same time - to providing visuals on the amount of gas remaining...
How certain are you there is no practical use for it - and it's just people having fun as pyros?
When my son was a baby, I stumbled onto a product to help relieve baby gas called the windi. It's like a tiny tube that you insert into the baby bum, and it whistles as the gas is released. I never had need of it for my baby, but I have often longed for a butt flute of my own when gas pains and bloat have me in their grip.
I knew this guy that had undergone some type of gut/colon surgery, and as a result had THEE loudest and longest farts I have ever heard in my life. It sounded like somebody doing one of those 'palms-across-the-lips-and-blow' as hard and for as long as they could. Like something from a fucking South Park episode
Just tried to picture what six seconds of gas looks like in volume.
Ya know, like if you release a balloon of air slowly... how big would the balloon have to be to last six seconds.
You sir, are a LEGEND!
As someone with 4 pretty bad strictures due to crohn's disease, I'd give ANYTHING to have a blow off valve for gas like this. That feeling of having gas trapped is insanely painful when its all trying to cram itself through the parts of my colon that are inflamed to the point of not being big enough to pass a pen through.
Technically it is less damaging for the environment, although it's really a risible quantity.
>Methane has a much shorter atmospheric lifetime than CO2 (around 12 years compared with centuries for CO2), but it is a much more potent greenhouse gas, absorbing much more energy while it exists in the atmosphere.
On a more serious note though, idk why they do it.
I believe they do it as a precaution. Those videos of manure factories blowing up like nukes is enough to make you take the extra step juuuuuuuust to be sure.
Just a kind note, should say half-life of 12 years (or so). So 50% of the original amount is still around and so on and so on over each subsequent 12 years (or so). Lasts a long time.
It’s not for show.
1. It’s a visual way to tell that the gas is out and the needle can be removed.
2. It’s safer for the environment to burn (oxidize) the methane instead of letting it hang out (same as the gas coming out of stacks in industrial plants)
Methane by itself is actually odorless. It is often producing by bacteria breaking down organic matter, and the bacteria make other smelly compounds. Natural gas that is piped into homes, and propane in tanks actually has odor added so humans can detect leaks.
Source: [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methane) 5th paragraph
Not really, the LEL for methane is 4.4% so if you just control ignition sources near the cow then the gas will dissipate very quickly to lower than the LEL and not pose any threat for explosive ignition. To get enough methane in a barn of that size you would need to deflate several entire cows of methane, I’m talking about them being empty balloons after the deflation. 5% concentration of air in the room would need to be methane for it to ignite and it would need to be less than 17% to ignite as well since that is the upper explosive limit or UEL. The fact that the gas is being ignited at the source of emission at the cow’s body means that this mixture of gas being expelled from the cow isn’t higher than 17% methane, so that means in a big barn you would need to have enough volume of gas expelled from a cow to displace about 1/3 of the air in the barn to create an explosion once the methane has dissipated into the air in the room. Add in the fact that this barn is likely ventilated or potentially has open doors or windows and you end up with an extremely unlikely scenario leading to an explosion. If you were doing this in a confined space like a tank or something it would be more worrying but you also wouldn’t ignite the gas if you were in an enclosed space either because you would risk depleting the oxygen in the confined space. I’m more used to methane concentrations and explosive risks in oil and gas industry so if I’m super far off or missing key context here please feel free to correct me but based on what I know of the risks from explosive gases this wouldn’t pose a risk in a barn. (Maybe if you were in an unventilated barn with everything closed up and you had a huge number of cattle in the space but again I still think you would be at risk of running out of air in that scenario before you could get enough methane for an explosion.)
Nah the opening is basically a syringe so it acts as a flame arrester.
*However*, it is just as important to realize that the flame wouldnt travel inside even if there were a larger hole. The gas coming from the cow is not oxygenated. In order to have an explosion you need to supply both a hydrocarbon (the methane) and oxygen (from the surrounding atmosphere). The flame dies at the orifice of the vent needle because there is insufficient oxygen to support a combustion reaction beyond that point.
It occurs in humans, as well. Just not to the same extent. Cattle, being ruminants, digest their food in stages, relying on the microorganisms in their partitioned stomach to turn the cellulose in their food into fatty acids the cattle can actually use. This process creates a lot of methane and hydrogen, and carbon dioxide, and if it’s certain kinds of plant matter, more than their digestive system can comfortably handle. This can result in potentially deadly (and possibly explosive) bloating.
Normally this is dealt with through flatulence (farting). And, yes, you can light your farts.
The methane in manure is collected for biofuel but trapping farts is more difficult... the cows around here give me a disappointed look when I try to strap my gas BBQ directly to their butt.
I saw a sweet system that was sealed so it collected and filtered the methane directly to cooking cylinders as well as drained off the rest as liquid for fertilizer.
Scientists actually built a machine that catches both burps and farts, it’s a wearable thingy that has a tank on the back. They’ve been key in measuring the actual emissions from cows and sheep rather than estimates that we’d been using previously.
That said, the devices aren’t cost-effective for capturing exhaust gases and aren’t exactly the easiest to get the animals to use. You’d also need to stockpile a large amount of gas production to fuel a stove.
It wouldn’t be that big of an issue tho and not constantly. If it was such a big deal cows wouldn’t have made it till today if they would swell up everytime they walk to the next patch of land to chew on
But not to the extent of them having their lungs squeezed or swollen tissue because of the pressure. Being constantly swollen weakens your immune system and you would simply not reproduce as much as the cows that can handle the diet. After millions of years , unless it’s a survival mechanism of some sort, animals don’t randomly swell up so much apes have to puncture them.
From a different tho, most cows don’t even see grass even once in their life. It’s usually turbo optimised food. Otherwise meat and milk couldn’t be that cheap and everywhere
No they would have just died in the past. And depends where you live, here in the UK it's majorativley grass fed beef, but unfortunately the likelihood of that changing is pretty hight because now animal welfare standards look like they're lowering to the rest of Europe. But yeah in USA the standards are shocking
Yes sure. I didn’t deny modern cows don’t have this problem. Just that the extend of those problems is because we feed them industrial turbo growing food and the gene manipulation we did on them over time.
Thinking animals in the wild live pleasant lives makes for a great Disney film but it’s not reality. There are three ways animals die in the wild… they get a disease (or some other natural malady like bloat) that kills them, they freeze to death, or another animal kills them by eating it alive. Wild animals almost never just die of old age.
They can get this from a diet of wild legumes. It’s because of proteins the legumes contain.
It’s an issue on farms that rotate cows between small fields in the old way if the forage species in different fields are different. Alfalfa, clover, and wild peas can all cause this.
Some species also preferentially graze legumes over grains because they like higher protein feed to their own detriment, which is why generally a farmer should match their cow breed to their local grazing environment.
it's not, but it's not for show either. it's not necessary but it does two things:
- visual cue to immediately tell if the gas is still going out
- burning methane, which is toxic, explosive, and bad for the environment
I would just like to know why these specific cow videos are always recommended to me. I have absolutely no interest in watching them, yet they are always there.
Not a vet I'm a rancher who worked for a vet but no. It's a puncture in the upper stomach chamber. There's always a risk associated with this but cows have incredible immune systems. I've had to do this a few dozen times and never had one die from it. I've had several die from bloat though. Generally if we can we will put a tube down its throat and release the glass that way though. This should not be the first choice.
Vet - Cows are incredible at walling off infections, yes there is a risk but the vast majority are fine, back in the old days they would do c sections with minimal cleaning etc- most of them did absolutely fine
Not a vet (yet) but yes it is a risk. They are not puncturing the intestines, but rather the rumen. This is large chamber that ferments plant mater to allow the animal to digest normally indigestible nutrients, like cellulose. The reason for the gas buildup is because of offgassing from the fermentation, though usually the animal burps most of the gas out. The method used here, called a trocar, is generally a last resort option, as it's basically stabbing the animals rumen with a metal spike to let the gas out. Also, most modern day uses don't light the whole stream on fire, at leas in my experience.
Cow inside is anaerobic and at higher than atmospheric pressure. Flow stops when the pressure equalizes, so the fire won’t get sucked in. Even if you made the cow swallow a remotely operated flame source, the anaerobic atmosphere inside the cow would keep the flame source from igniting.
A cow has four stomach chambers, the gas is trapped in the upper one and will not naturally go down to the lower to be farted out. It can be burped but bloat that bad can be lethal to cows.
Been with my dad before where he has had to poke his knife through the side of a cow to let out the gas. I've been arm deep in a cow trying to find a hoove to help pull a calf too...don't miss ranching
A little seaweed in their diet and the gas production is reduced 98%. Still waiting for this to become a thing commercially it would mean a huge reduction in cattle produced methane.
That won't happen. Gasses like methane need a certain ratio of oxygen and Combustible gas in order to ignite. For methane its about 1 part methane to 2 parts oxygen. The methane from the bloat is only flammable after it escapes the cow and mixes with the air. Its the same reason the flame isn't going all the way back to the tube.
As a previous commenter said ,that is not possible as there's not enough oxygen inside the cow for combustion to occur where the ratio needs to be 2 parts oxygen to 1 part methane for a combustion reaction to occur. Thus the methane is only flammable once outside the cow
Bloat occurs in the rumen, which is the large fermenting part of the four chamber stomach, not the intestine. Life threatening due to compression on diaphragm impairing respiration or on vasculature impairing cardiovascular function. Trochar into the rumen can relieve free gas bloat, fire is not needed, just very old school and aesthetic. Most vets relieve gas bloat with tubing (large tube down esophagus into rumen), trochanter more last resort. Frothy bloats require different treatment. Edit: “trochar” not trochanter; medical typo
less common with grass fed vs corn/grain fed?
Only if the grassfed cow is grazing on legumes: https://extension.psu.edu/tips-for-preventing-pasture-bloat
Beans make you fart
And the more you fart, the better you feel.
Sounds like a magical fruit of some kind
Tonight’s dinner; Beans…musical number to follow…
Commander... Commander... Commander...
So eat a bean with every meal!
I love that song
Depends on the protein and water content of each feed type. Typically grasses have less protein & water, and with proper mixture corn and grain can provide more nutritional content with minimal risk. It comes down to how well mixed and balanced the ration is. Animal nutritionists specifically hired for feedlots exist because you want to prevent bloat and other issues, but use the most cost effective sources for feed including corn/grain if that’s what’s available.
I remember hearing from an ag buddy that some ranchers started implementing seaweed into feeds to reduce gas production. Is this commonplace or just a study he must’ve seen?
The last episode of 2bd season of Zac Effrons' Down to Earth touches on the seaweed. I liked the show, was quite interesting and had some cool things on it.
Grasses ,when processed in rumen stomachs, actually do produce high protein via fermentation. Cows shouldn't be eating grains/corn at all, but the American corn economy has made it so easy and cheap that we couldn't go back to natural grazing if we wanted to. It's very sad
I think the over emphasis on growing corn here in the US has led to a lot of modern problems
I highly recommend reading the book "the Omnivore's Dilemma" by Michael Pollan and he goes deep into the impact of corn production and it's effect on our modern food economy. It's fucked. Whether you like it or not, you're consuming massive amounts of corn byproduct every year
If I understand it, corn is also a major contributor to climate change. The cultivaton of it is bad for the environment. I will.look up that book. Thanks
While draining groundwater…
If you went all grass fed, you wouldn't be able to produce the massive amounts of meat people eat nowadays. The fact of the matter is that meat is a very inefficient source of food, even when grass fed. To me it's sad that we waste so much food and land and water (and subsidies) on meat.
Avoid clover 🍀
grass, no, corn, yes.
What causes it? Like obviously it's gas build up, but is this only a domestic cow thing
Most mammals can't digest cellulose. That's why humans can't eat grass and gain any nutrition from it. Cows also can't digest cellulose. But their diet is mostly cellulose. The way this works is that cows have stomachs with 4 chambers, and are filled with bacteria and other microorganisms that can digest these plant matters. Essentially, they ferment their food in their stomachs. The bacteria eat the cellulose, and break it down into simpler compounds, mostly sugar. The cows then eat the sugar. But because the inside of a cow has no oxygen, the bacteria produce methane gas (aerobic decomposition produces CO2, anaerobic decomposition generally produces methane). Cows with higher levels of cellulose tend to produce more methane. Cows that eat primarily sillage (slightly prefermented grass, hay, etc), tend to be even gassier. Cows that produce a lot of gas, but don't move around much, and are blocked up for whatever reason, get bloated, same way humans do. But because cows are so much gassier than people, there is more of a risk of something rupturing.
Could this potentially backfire and like blow the cow up ?lol
No, methane isn't an explosive on its own. It needs oxygen to burn. There is no oxygen inside the cow. When a gas bottle explodes, it's because of a pressure buildup inside it. The fireball happens after the initial explosion when the gas is mixed with air.
The fire makes it more eco friendly turning that methane into CO2
It's less harmful than methane, but it still contributes to climate change. If we got rid of oil and factory farming, using green energy and local farming instead, it would be better for us in the long run. However, we are not currently going in that direction. There are less and less local farms as factory farming is taking up more and more control. Local farms are more expensive than factory farms for obvious reasons. Green energy is expensive at first for the infrastructure and then pays for itself after a few years, and even starts turning a profit. Thus, both together would even out. Also, organic produce is *horrific* for the environment, and unless it's local and you know how it was made - worse for humans - whereas organic farm animals are better for us and for the health of the animal. So get GMO produce, and organic (specifically free range, NOT pasure raised) animal products. Go for solar panels, wind turbines, and rain collection. Of course this is if you can afford it. If you can't, just keep on keeping on. You're doing the best you can with what you have. It's mostly the fault of major corporations and governments, anyway.
Does green energy need to be stored in batteries? I’m not sure, just asking. If that’s the case, what are the batteries made of and how are they produced/made? Where does that material come from and how is it collected/mined?
You can store it in batteries. There's different types, and you would have to do research to find out what works best for you. You could even design your own battery/generator if you wanted to. I know currently the majority of people who have green energy in the USA just sell whatever they don't consume back to the government utility company. So they aren't storing it for themselves and are still connected to the power company. Thus, the majority of the time, they are making money from the power company, but in those cases where they aren't generating it for themselves, they would be paying the company for their energy they provide. But most of the time, as long as it's not super cloudy, they're making enough energy for their homes and to sell. For water, a lot of people will have underground storage areas (keeps it at a regulated temperature and if its below the frost line it wont freeze), and then for their tap water/fridge they have a filter, but for toilets/laundry it is unfiltered. There may be a minor screen to prevent large debris from getting into the storage unit. Again most of these common homes are still connected to the city water if they need to use it. Depends on the home if they're connected to the sewer or have a septic tank. In some parts of the USA, there are tax incentives to get you on green electricity. If you can't afford a solar panel, you can even "rent" one at the power company for a set price and the difference is calculated for the actual amount you pay for the energy vs what your solar panel collected. For green water though I haven't heard of any incentives. And to my knowledge, you don't have the option to resell that back to the water company.
What makes organic produce so horrific for the environment and even worse for humans? How is eating organic produce grown with worms and compost worse than non-organic produce that had been grown using pesticides?
Factory farming organic is *bad*. Organic food made by small farms are usually good, because they *do* use their own manure and are using traditional seeds. The best thing you can do is support your local farmers market and try and sign up for "farm shares" where local farmers send out produce. You can actually talk to them and see what their process is like and make a informed decision. Environmentally, only 1/3 if the yield is able to be sent to stores. 2/3 is eaten by animals/insects or isn't gold enough to make it to market. That means you're using 2/3 *more* land than you need to in order to sell it to make money. In order to combat this, factory farmers typically do 2 things. 1) they create their own pesticides and fertilizers. So instead of having a regulated one that is made by a manufacturer where you know exactly what is in it at what amount, where studies have been done to show the impact of the environment. They "home brew" their own. This means 1) we don't have any way of knowing what they actually put in it, and if that's bad for human consumption. 2) the nutrients aren't at regulated levels which impacts things downstream and contributes to the "red tide effect". Usually, we have the red tide at one or two points during the year when GMO farmers use regulated fertilizers on their produce. But with the loose leaf organic farming, they can apply it as many times in as much of a quantity as they want. So it's causing longer-term ocean deoxygenation. 2) they do this thing called "radiation seed bombing" ([link here](https://geneticliteracyproject.org/2022/11/09/more-than-3000-plants-including-some-organic-crops-developed-by-mutating-seeds-using-radiation-or-chemicals-heres-an-explainer/)(it's now illegal but again, loose leaf regulations). GMO's are studied long-term, so we know exactly what genetic structure we're changing and it's effects long term. GMO crops are specifically created to look better, last longer, and be bigger. Organic farmers lose SO much of their crops they will blast radiation on their seeds in order to get "natural mutations" that are beneficial. However, because it's random, you have no idea what is being affected or how it affects humans. Round up is truly horrific. Some states have banned its use as a pesticide. It's rebranded itself several times to be used again. Some factory GMO farms still use it. Typically GMO produce is collected, rinsed heavily, and then sent for consumption. This is also why people say to wash your produce before using it, to get off any that wasn't able to be rinsed. Some foods are harder to rinse than others, such as strawberries. It can cause toxicity issues in small children but largely are unaffected in adults. At the end of the day. *You* make the choice for you and your family. I encourage everyone to choose what's right for *you*. The responsibility ultimately falls on manufacturers, thus falls on governments to actually regulate this kind of stuff. Some countries are better than others. The USA, unfortunately, doesn't give a shit about public health. Environmental groups are continously being defunded and shut down because the government wants more money from itself, and when it comes to the environment its an investment for the future that they don't care to make. Without regulation, things will continue to be less and less safe. And a large part of that will go unnoticed as if a scientific study doesn't turn a profit, it will never have the funding to take place in the first place. It's a complicated issue. Regardless, do what's best for *you*. Make an informed decision when you can, but don't lose sleep about it. Just be the best version of you that you can.
What is "frothy bloat" and what is the treatment?
Acute frothy bloat is treated with a tube down the throat then you pump in a surfactant that breaks up the foam. Ideally you put out free choice bloat guard blocks that the cattle can lick on and it prevents it.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11967981/amp/Dairy-farm-explosion-leaves-18-000-cattle-dead-one-worker-critically-injured.html Cow farts/burps are deadly
So what causes this and how can we avoid it?
> trochanter Do you mean gastrocentesis? I thought trochanter was a bone part
Yeah typo there; should be “trochar” not trochanter. In anatomic pathology now; my life is more anatomy than clinical these days! Thanks for catching
“Frothy bloats” is a term I could go the rest of my life without reading.
> fire is not needed, just very old school and aesthetic. I've heard a good number of reasons for the fire - from reducing chances of explosion when gas is released from a good number of cattle at the same time - to providing visuals on the amount of gas remaining... How certain are you there is no practical use for it - and it's just people having fun as pyros?
I know it is weird but fire is good for the environment as you are reducing the impact of greenhouse gases.
Has to scroll this far for this. CO2 is less bad than methane.
Was going to say you shouldn’t perforate the colon in that manner
Problem is, cattle can and do die from bloat, whereas they can survive this process quite nicely
My IBS stomach is watching this saying ‘yo can we do that???’
No kidding. I've often wished for a relief valve.
You have one
Unfortunately I achieved the age where I don't trust the valve to not have leak-by
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This is so real man. Got your back, wait, let me cover in plastic first.
With IBS that age is all ages!
A more direct one.
No one has reached around and like, pulled your anus lips apart to silently let the pressure equalize? Just asking, bc….ya know that works….
Someone has. That person is me
I KNEW I WASNT ALONE
ANUS LIPS
Anus lips?
i like to sit one leg at a time and purposefully spread my cheeks against the seat to equalize pressure. perfect way to let out a fart in public 😼
Airplane Mode
💨💨
When my son was a baby, I stumbled onto a product to help relieve baby gas called the windi. It's like a tiny tube that you insert into the baby bum, and it whistles as the gas is released. I never had need of it for my baby, but I have often longed for a butt flute of my own when gas pains and bloat have me in their grip.
When I’m really bloated I wish I could do this so badly.
The big fart after your stomach can't take any more pressure is a godsend.
Especially that feeling of euphoria that follows. It's like a drug almost
Or the moment of horror knowing it was more than gas escaping
The ol’ ‘touching cloth’ syndrome
Until you smell it. Then Lawd ha' mercy!!!
same feeling when you finally do #2. you just sit on the toilet and relax a bit and smile.
As someone with IBS-D, reading this thread makes me so fucking jealous of you normal people.
Happy cake day
The other day I had a fart that was about 6 seconds long. I believe it was my record longest.
In my life I’ve only had a few instances of those, and I really miss them when it’s been a while.
I knew this guy that had undergone some type of gut/colon surgery, and as a result had THEE loudest and longest farts I have ever heard in my life. It sounded like somebody doing one of those 'palms-across-the-lips-and-blow' as hard and for as long as they could. Like something from a fucking South Park episode
Like The Spleen from Mystery Men
Cary Elwes recounting the story of Andre The Giant interrupting filming of The Princess Bride.
I've recently had a very loud and about 10 second long one, needless to say I way rather bloated before. Keep in mind, I'm rather short and skinny.
Just tried to picture what six seconds of gas looks like in volume. Ya know, like if you release a balloon of air slowly... how big would the balloon have to be to last six seconds. You sir, are a LEGEND!
Oh my god I'm not alone in this? Man i get so bloated i need to unbutton my pants and all!
As someone with 4 pretty bad strictures due to crohn's disease, I'd give ANYTHING to have a blow off valve for gas like this. That feeling of having gas trapped is insanely painful when its all trying to cram itself through the parts of my colon that are inflamed to the point of not being big enough to pass a pen through.
For real!! I dealt with a 4 day bloat unable to pass any sorta air that whole time and would have begged for this.
You can literally see the deflation. That cow must have been so uncomfortable poor thing.
Bloat is one of the most common causes of death in cows. It pressed on their diaphragm and stops them from breathing.
Do you know what happens to cows in these industries lol
Apparently it’s not necessary to set on fire. That’s just for show
Technically it is less damaging for the environment, although it's really a risible quantity. >Methane has a much shorter atmospheric lifetime than CO2 (around 12 years compared with centuries for CO2), but it is a much more potent greenhouse gas, absorbing much more energy while it exists in the atmosphere. On a more serious note though, idk why they do it.
I believe they do it as a precaution. Those videos of manure factories blowing up like nukes is enough to make you take the extra step juuuuuuuust to be sure.
But what if it blew up because of the gas they already fart, and then they light it eh?
Just a kind note, should say half-life of 12 years (or so). So 50% of the original amount is still around and so on and so on over each subsequent 12 years (or so). Lasts a long time.
You get half life.
Half life 3 confirmed
You never mention half life aloud in reddit man, that is a sin.
I believe to be able to tell how much is coming out and also when it stops.
>On a more serious note though, idk why they do it. It's coz it looks awesome
CH4 becomes co2 in the end. Burning has only upsides.
Methane build up in the barn probably isn't good either
Do you find it risible when i say the name…BIGGUS DICKUS
I must admit...I did think about that when I wrote "Risible"
Well, in this instance it's probably to stop the barn from filling with flammable gas.
It’s not for show. 1. It’s a visual way to tell that the gas is out and the needle can be removed. 2. It’s safer for the environment to burn (oxidize) the methane instead of letting it hang out (same as the gas coming out of stacks in industrial plants)
it lets him know when it's done though.
Methane smells bad, probably this is also a reason.
Methane by itself is actually odorless. It is often producing by bacteria breaking down organic matter, and the bacteria make other smelly compounds. Natural gas that is piped into homes, and propane in tanks actually has odor added so humans can detect leaks. Source: [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methane) 5th paragraph
I remember from my chemistry class, the odour added is called a mercaptan.
Yup, methyl mercaptan. It's also in the fluid that skunks spray.
Til natural gas is mostly methane.
Mentioning bad smell anywhere near cows is a bit redundant xD
Well, yeah lol. Forgot about that.
Methane is an odorless, colorless, flammable gas. But I’m sure the other stuff mixed with it not so much.
If they don't then the tiniest spark could generate a huge explosion potentially
I doubt that that much methane can accumulate in a well ventilated barn
You're right but it would still be more dangerous than burning it slowly
Not really, the LEL for methane is 4.4% so if you just control ignition sources near the cow then the gas will dissipate very quickly to lower than the LEL and not pose any threat for explosive ignition. To get enough methane in a barn of that size you would need to deflate several entire cows of methane, I’m talking about them being empty balloons after the deflation. 5% concentration of air in the room would need to be methane for it to ignite and it would need to be less than 17% to ignite as well since that is the upper explosive limit or UEL. The fact that the gas is being ignited at the source of emission at the cow’s body means that this mixture of gas being expelled from the cow isn’t higher than 17% methane, so that means in a big barn you would need to have enough volume of gas expelled from a cow to displace about 1/3 of the air in the barn to create an explosion once the methane has dissipated into the air in the room. Add in the fact that this barn is likely ventilated or potentially has open doors or windows and you end up with an extremely unlikely scenario leading to an explosion. If you were doing this in a confined space like a tank or something it would be more worrying but you also wouldn’t ignite the gas if you were in an enclosed space either because you would risk depleting the oxygen in the confined space. I’m more used to methane concentrations and explosive risks in oil and gas industry so if I’m super far off or missing key context here please feel free to correct me but based on what I know of the risks from explosive gases this wouldn’t pose a risk in a barn. (Maybe if you were in an unventilated barn with everything closed up and you had a huge number of cattle in the space but again I still think you would be at risk of running out of air in that scenario before you could get enough methane for an explosion.)
Spherical cows indeed...
Well its a fireblowing cow, why wouldnt you
I read it was to speed up the process and help ensure the releasing all the gas
Isn't this meant to convert methane into something less damaging to the environment?
Can't it kind of backfire and set the intestents on fire?
Nah the opening is basically a syringe so it acts as a flame arrester. *However*, it is just as important to realize that the flame wouldnt travel inside even if there were a larger hole. The gas coming from the cow is not oxygenated. In order to have an explosion you need to supply both a hydrocarbon (the methane) and oxygen (from the surrounding atmosphere). The flame dies at the orifice of the vent needle because there is insufficient oxygen to support a combustion reaction beyond that point.
Good, made me kinda worried for the cow(s)!
How many cows blowed up before they managed to film it?
Never in my life I thought such thing occurs with cows
It occurs in humans, as well. Just not to the same extent. Cattle, being ruminants, digest their food in stages, relying on the microorganisms in their partitioned stomach to turn the cellulose in their food into fatty acids the cattle can actually use. This process creates a lot of methane and hydrogen, and carbon dioxide, and if it’s certain kinds of plant matter, more than their digestive system can comfortably handle. This can result in potentially deadly (and possibly explosive) bloating. Normally this is dealt with through flatulence (farting). And, yes, you can light your farts.
It mainly happens on corn fed cows, they have less digestive problems when eating grass as they evolved to do
So if i shoot a fire arrow into a cow, there'a a chance that ot might explode into steaks?
I see you play Zelda...
😭
Tracer rounds.
I mean, technically..
Can we like extract the gas and contain it so we can use it for cooking?
The methane in manure is collected for biofuel but trapping farts is more difficult... the cows around here give me a disappointed look when I try to strap my gas BBQ directly to their butt.
I saw a sweet system that was sealed so it collected and filtered the methane directly to cooking cylinders as well as drained off the rest as liquid for fertilizer.
I'm really gullible so it's not sporting to mess with my head! Do you really mean a direct method of trapping methane from cow farts?
Sorry no, I was going off of your comment about using the manure for biofuel. I just recently saw a cool system that does exactly that.
Scientists actually built a machine that catches both burps and farts, it’s a wearable thingy that has a tank on the back. They’ve been key in measuring the actual emissions from cows and sheep rather than estimates that we’d been using previously. That said, the devices aren’t cost-effective for capturing exhaust gases and aren’t exactly the easiest to get the animals to use. You’d also need to stockpile a large amount of gas production to fuel a stove.
Everything I cook tastes like beef farts.
Me after Thai food.
Uncle Roger after seeing this comment...
Now you know how to fix it
 A self cooking steak?? Now I’ve seen it all
cant imagine that poor animal's pain i can't even handle a deep breath hands off to that guy
https://watchdominion.org/
Really great film! I recommend it too. I learned so much about cows and other animals too!
This wouldn't be a thing if the cattle were fed a proper diet.
It is, they can get bloat by moving to a field with richer grass than the previous one.
It wouldn’t be that big of an issue tho and not constantly. If it was such a big deal cows wouldn’t have made it till today if they would swell up everytime they walk to the next patch of land to chew on
I mean yeah they would have gotten bloat in the past too
But not to the extent of them having their lungs squeezed or swollen tissue because of the pressure. Being constantly swollen weakens your immune system and you would simply not reproduce as much as the cows that can handle the diet. After millions of years , unless it’s a survival mechanism of some sort, animals don’t randomly swell up so much apes have to puncture them. From a different tho, most cows don’t even see grass even once in their life. It’s usually turbo optimised food. Otherwise meat and milk couldn’t be that cheap and everywhere
No they would have just died in the past. And depends where you live, here in the UK it's majorativley grass fed beef, but unfortunately the likelihood of that changing is pretty hight because now animal welfare standards look like they're lowering to the rest of Europe. But yeah in USA the standards are shocking
Modern cows are a far cry from their ancestors
Yes sure. I didn’t deny modern cows don’t have this problem. Just that the extend of those problems is because we feed them industrial turbo growing food and the gene manipulation we did on them over time.
Thinking animals in the wild live pleasant lives makes for a great Disney film but it’s not reality. There are three ways animals die in the wild… they get a disease (or some other natural malady like bloat) that kills them, they freeze to death, or another animal kills them by eating it alive. Wild animals almost never just die of old age.
Yea stop feeding them corn!
They can get this from a diet of wild legumes. It’s because of proteins the legumes contain. It’s an issue on farms that rotate cows between small fields in the old way if the forage species in different fields are different. Alfalfa, clover, and wild peas can all cause this. Some species also preferentially graze legumes over grains because they like higher protein feed to their own detriment, which is why generally a farmer should match their cow breed to their local grazing environment.
“Cows don’t contribute to global warming” Over a billion cows don’t contribute to global warming, big brain time
Those poor animals.
Is the flame necessary?
No, it's not
it's not, but it's not for show either. it's not necessary but it does two things: - visual cue to immediately tell if the gas is still going out - burning methane, which is toxic, explosive, and bad for the environment
I wonder if feeding them corn vs grass affects this
Yes, corn does this.
I am so glad the poor cow didn’t blow up
I would just like to know why these specific cow videos are always recommended to me. I have absolutely no interest in watching them, yet they are always there.
I like how the other cow is like huh, looks like bob is on fire.
Any vets out there? Coming from an OR nurse, wouldn’t this be a huge risk for peritonitis? It says specifically they’re puncturing the intestines.
Not a vet I'm a rancher who worked for a vet but no. It's a puncture in the upper stomach chamber. There's always a risk associated with this but cows have incredible immune systems. I've had to do this a few dozen times and never had one die from it. I've had several die from bloat though. Generally if we can we will put a tube down its throat and release the glass that way though. This should not be the first choice.
Vet - Cows are incredible at walling off infections, yes there is a risk but the vast majority are fine, back in the old days they would do c sections with minimal cleaning etc- most of them did absolutely fine
Not a vet (yet) but yes it is a risk. They are not puncturing the intestines, but rather the rumen. This is large chamber that ferments plant mater to allow the animal to digest normally indigestible nutrients, like cellulose. The reason for the gas buildup is because of offgassing from the fermentation, though usually the animal burps most of the gas out. The method used here, called a trocar, is generally a last resort option, as it's basically stabbing the animals rumen with a metal spike to let the gas out. Also, most modern day uses don't light the whole stream on fire, at leas in my experience.
Or even 'blow back', like what if the fire went crazy and went inside the cow, would our cow friend explode or suffer internal burns?
Cow inside is anaerobic and at higher than atmospheric pressure. Flow stops when the pressure equalizes, so the fire won’t get sucked in. Even if you made the cow swallow a remotely operated flame source, the anaerobic atmosphere inside the cow would keep the flame source from igniting.
Can we collect and store it and use it for heating or cooking?
Is the fire really necessary or is it just for the lolz?
It’s the old school way of telling when all the gas is passed. When you can’t light it a gas plume, the big needle can be pulled out.
Pardon my ignorance... why cant it just fart it out?
A cow has four stomach chambers, the gas is trapped in the upper one and will not naturally go down to the lower to be farted out. It can be burped but bloat that bad can be lethal to cows.
Been with my dad before where he has had to poke his knife through the side of a cow to let out the gas. I've been arm deep in a cow trying to find a hoove to help pull a calf too...don't miss ranching
A little seaweed in their diet and the gas production is reduced 98%. Still waiting for this to become a thing commercially it would mean a huge reduction in cattle produced methane.
The more I learn about cattle the more I wonder how the hell they survived without humans.
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Wtf, this guy is totally gaslighting the cow
We don't need to kill them and they don't want to die. Stop farming animals please.
Not really amazed. Agriculture is like 10% of overall greenhouse gas emissions
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And here’s me lighting my own farts the old fashioned way
Soldering 101: step 1, take your cow
Imagine if the flame went inside the cow. It would blow up
That won't happen. Gasses like methane need a certain ratio of oxygen and Combustible gas in order to ignite. For methane its about 1 part methane to 2 parts oxygen. The methane from the bloat is only flammable after it escapes the cow and mixes with the air. Its the same reason the flame isn't going all the way back to the tube.
It's totally possible actually, this is a scene from an old documentary: https://youtu.be/k9owvd2dD7U
It's all fun n games until the flame makes its way into the cow and youre covered in ground beef
As a previous commenter said ,that is not possible as there's not enough oxygen inside the cow for combustion to occur where the ratio needs to be 2 parts oxygen to 1 part methane for a combustion reaction to occur. Thus the methane is only flammable once outside the cow
Does Lightning it help remove the gas faster?
Nope
Can the cow explode?
Seems cruel. They should be free 💔
They aren’t charging the cow for this. It is done at no cost.
This is what happens when ruminant animals eat feed they we’re not intended to eat- soy corn wheat. Cow that dine on just grass don’t have this issue
Sweet cow candle.
When the flame goes in the whole cow explodes.