Calves are being trained to use a toilet that’s called ‘Moo-Loo’. Most researchers believe urine waste is a serious environmental issue. A single cow produces about 8 gallons (30 liters) of urine a day. Combined with faeces it gives off ammonia, a serious environmental problem.
Veterinary and dairy scientists in New Zealand decided it was time something was done to stop cows from urinating in random places. So they came up with the idea to toilet-train calves to pee at just one place, instead of doing it wherever they like.
And the idea is working just fine. The Working together on a pilot project, Scientists of New Zealand and Germany have met with a reasonable amount of success. They were able to train 11 out of 16 calves to go to the ‘Moo-Loo’ and relieve themselves whenever they felt the urge.
The success of their experiments have led them to conclude that perhaps it’s easier to toilet-train cows than toddlers. In this particular project, it just took 15 days to push through a gate and urinate in a special pen.
New Zealand’s University of Auckland Animal Behavioural scientist
Lindsay Matthews says the researchers used a sweet treat to coax the bovines to fall in line and follow the drill. During this experiment, Mathews worked with colleagues on the tests at an indoor animal research lab in Germany.
Most researchers believe that massive amounts of urine waste is a serious environmental issue. And cows naturally tend to urinate a lot.
A single cow can produce about 8 gallons (30 liters) of urine a day, Matthews says. He goes on to add that urine contains nitrogen so when this gets mixed with faeces, it turns into ammonia, which is a serious environmental issues like acid rain and other problem.
He adds that in the long-term this may also contaminate water with nitrates and create an airborne pollutant nitrous oxide. An Environmental Protection Agency report says that in 2019, 7 per cent of all US Greenhouse gases contained nitrous oxide.
Urine contains nitrogen, and when mixed with feces becomes ammonia, which is an environmental issue with acid rain and other problems, Matthews said. It can also taint the water with nitrates and create the airborne pollutant nitrous oxide, he said.
And cows do pee a lot.. In 2019, nitrous oxide comprised 7% of all the U.S. greenhouse gases, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
In Dummerstorf, Germany, researchers put the calves in the special pen, and rewarded them with a sweet liquid, mostly molasses after they’d urinated. Those who urinated outside the ‘Moo-Loo’ got a squirt of cold water.
He adds that in the long-term this may also contaminate water with nitrates and create an airborne pollutant nitrous oxide. An Environmental Protection Agency report says that in 2019, 7 per cent of all US Greenhouse gases contained nitrous oxide.
A University of Cambridge Animal Welfare Professor Donald Broom avers that toilet training animals makes it easier to manage waste products and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Interestingly, the cows’ toilet training was limited only to urinating in the ‘Moo-Loo”and not to defecate.
Mathews asserts that Urine is a bigger problem, especially in Europe. He predicts that cows can be trained to poop in a particular place too. “While dogs, cats and horses can be toilet trained, they already show the desire to go in special places, but cows don’t”, Matthews adds..
The biggest environmental problem for livestock, though, is the heat-trapping gas methane they emit in belches and flatulence, a significant source of global warming. The cows can’t be trained not to belch or fart, Matthews said: “They would blow up.”
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