WHERE are the old threads about cow burps/farts?  I've done several searches, even manual ones and can't find them anywhere.  They shouldn't have been lost in the hacking because they weren't recent topics.  There's several references to the posts, but can't find the original ones. They were classics.  Was going to add this to them.

Belching cows under scrutiny
21 October 2006
By BECK ELEVEN



A North Canterbury dairy farm is under the watchful eye of scientists who are measuring methane gas from 700 cows burping.

The scientists, from the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric research (Niwa), Landcare Research and Agri-Food Canada are using a range of techniques to study the volume of harmful greenhouse gases emanating from the agricultural industry.

More than half of New Zealand's reported greenhouse gas emission is from the agriculture sector. Working on a farm in Medbury, the scientists will gauge the amount of methane from a herd of 700 belching cows along with nitrous oxide produced by the breakdown of farm soil by bacteria and nitrogen which is excreted by grazing animals.

About 36 per cent of New Zealand's total greenhouse gas emissions are methane. About 18% of the country's greenhouse gases are nitrous oxide. Both gases are considerably more potent as greenhouse gases than carbon dioxide.

Niwa scientist Tony Bromley said the research, which will be published in about a year, will be significant for New Zealand and other agriculture-based countries.

"We're measuring a paddock before and after irrigation or rainfall occurs, and before and after a herd of cows go through the paddock. They do their business everywhere and that will have an effect on the amount of nitrous oxide released."

Bromley said, contrary to popular belief, methane came from the mouths of grazing animals, not the other end.

Using equipment such as a tuneable diode laser, a gas chromatograph, an Oofti, poles and cake tin-like objects, the rate of build-up and total volumes of gases will be measured.

The group of scientists will be working until the end of the month. Bromley said countries needed to measure greenhouse gases so they can report on their obligations under the Kyoto Protocol.