Posted on 09/13/2021 12:18:14 PM PDT by Red Badger
This photo shows a calf in a latrine undergoing MooLoo training. Credit: FBN
On a farm where cows freely relieve themselves as they graze, the accumulation and spread of waste often contaminates local soil and waterways. This can be controlled by confining the cows in barns, but in these close quarters their urine and feces combine to create ammonia, an indirect greenhouse gas. In an article published today (September 13, 2021) in the journal Current Biology, researchers show that cows can be potty-trained, enabling waste to be collected and treated, thereby cleaning up the barn, reducing air pollution, and creating more open, animal-friendly farms.
“It’s usually assumed that cattle are not capable of controlling defecation or urination,” says co-author Jan Langbein, an animal psychologist at the Research Institute for Farm Animal Biology (FBN) in Germany, but he and his team questioned this thinking. “Cattle, like many other animals or farm animals are quite clever and they can learn a lot. Why shouldn’t they be able to learn how to use a toilet?”
VIDEO AT LINK................
This video shows a calf in a latrine undergoing MooLoo training. Credit: FBN
To potty-train the calves, a process they dubbed MooLoo training, the research team with scientists from FBN, FLI (Germany) and the University of Auckland (New Zealand) worked backward. They started off by rewarding the calves when they urinated in the latrine, and then they allowed the calves to approach the latrines from outside when they needed to urinate.
The ammonia produced in cow waste doesn’t directly contribute to climate change, but when it is leached into the soil, microbes convert it into nitrous oxide, the third-most important greenhouse gas after methane and carbon dioxide. Agriculture is the largest source of ammonia emissions, with livestock farming making up over half of that contribution.
“You have to try to include the animals in the process and train the animals to follow what they should learn,” says Langbein. “We guessed it should be possible to train the animals, but to what extent we didn’t know.”
Observers watch calves undergo MooLoo toilet training. Credit: FBN
To encourage latrine use, the researchers wanted the calves to associate urination outside the latrine with an unpleasant experience. “As a punishment we first used in-ear headphones and we played a very nasty sound whenever they urinated outside,” says Langbein. “We thought this would punish the animals—not too aversively—but they didn’t care. Ultimately, a splash of water worked well as a gentle deterrent.”
Over the course of a few weeks, the research team successfully trained 11 out of the 16 calves in the experiment. Remarkably, the calves showed a level of performance comparable to that of children and superior to that of very young children.
Langbein is optimistic that with more training that this success rate can be further improved. “After ten, fifteen, twenty years of researching with cattle, we know that animals have a personality, and they handle different things in a different way. They are not all the same.”
Now that the researchers know how to potty-train cows, they want to transfer their results into real cattle housing and to outdoor systems. Langbein hopes that “in a few years all cows will go to a toilet,” he says.
Reference: “Learned control of urinary reflexes in cattle to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions” by Dirksen et al., 13 September 2021, Current Biology. DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2021.07.011
This work was supported by the Volkswagen Foundation.
I remember a Three Stooges short were Curly tried to milk a bull- it knocked him right out of the barn.
Unfortunately, not.....................
wonder if stacy abrams is a participant...
“cows can be potty-trained”
Hurrah. There’s hope for Joe.
And how much will this raise the price of beef? Or will this be another reason for us to be told to stop eating beef, because they’re now housebroken?
Shou’i iz name be ‘Arold then?
Heck, they can’t even get Joke Biden to go on the paper...
Pingy!...................
This will eliminate the game of cow patty bingo!
It’s another scheme for money for some crooked businesses and for starting more government offices to rob farmers. Meat and dairy product prices would soon be astronomical. The products would be unobtainable for most people. As it is now on the most efficient and healthy farms, cow manure is crushed spread on fields by the farmers with equipment made for that purpose. It fertilizes the hay fields.
Get off of the animal worship fad, folks, or you’ll starve before long.
Cows been freely relieving themselves as they graze for how long now?
= = =
That would be ‘contented cows’.
*****
they're stupid....that's why.
What every American kid once knew now takes:
“After ten, fifteen, twenty years of researching with cattle, we know that animals have a personality, and they handle different things in a different way. They are not all the same.”?
Apparently “From Incontinent Cows”.
Researchers Are Toilet-Training Cows – Here’s Why
A) To get research money.
B) To see if they can.
C) Because they are INSANE!!!
Used to be standard in stanchion/tie barn stalls to have an electrified metal piece over cows’ shoulders. When they humped their back for a 1 or 2 they quickly learned to back up a step to avoid a shock—and deliver their load into the gutter behind them.
All cows are incontinent, untill they are Potty-Trained.
Sounds like time compressed Americans or global citizens at this point.
The country is being ruled by paranoids and hypochondriacs.
Now if they can get them to finish the crossword puzzle, THAT would be impressive...
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