Imagine a cow fed with specially engineered food and probiotics in its gut to reduce the amount of methane it belches. That's the vision that Dairy Management Inc. is pursuing with dollars derived from every hundred pounds of milk trucked off U.S. dairies.

The idea is to reduce methane, a potent greenhouse gas that cows belch as they chew their cud. Greenhouse gases are blamed for global warming.

According to Thomas Gallagher, CEO of the U.S. Dairy and Dairy Management Inc.'s Innovation Center in Rosemont, Ill., cutting the dairy industry's emissions by 25 percent would be equivalent to removing about 1.25 million passenger cars from the nation's roads every year.

The research could have a huge impact in California.

There are approximately 300,000 head of stock on Kings County dairies, with an estimated 2.5 million animals on dairies statewide.

Those dairies will soon face regulation for greenhouse gases under California's landmark greenhouse gas reduction law passed in 2006, said Frank Mitloehner, a livestock air quality specialist at University of California Davis.

Local dairy producers expressed interest in the research.

"If we can learn to feed cows to produce less methane, I'm all for that," said Riverdale dairyman Tom Mendes.

But they also worried about cost at time when dairy margins are being stretched to the breaking point.

"These 'less gassy' feeds will certainly be more expensive to produce and therefore, more expensive for a dairy farmer to purchase. Since we are price takers, we wouldn't be able to pass on increased costs associated with these new technologies," said Durbin Pedro, a dairy operator near Hanford.

They also took a cautious approach to just how much greenhouse gases cows produce.

According to a University of Arkansas estimate cited by the Associated Press, the dairy industry contributes less than 2 percent of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.

"As long as it is scientific and consumers are willing to pay more for our product, I have no problem reducing our greenhouse gases," said local dairyman Chuck Draxler.

Riverdale dairyman Jamie Bledsoe said that he's already reducing his cows' gas production by feeding them high-ruffage diets instead of rich grain mixes that boost milk production.

The higher ruffage diets are a cost-cutting measure to deal with low milk prices in the recession.

Joaquin Contente, a Hanford area dairyman, expressed interest in generating clean energy from what comes "out of the back end of the cow."

Several dairy operations in the region have methane digesters designed to take cow manure and turn it into clean electricity. However, they report that issues with the utilities and with local air district requirements have prevented the projects from operating profitably.

"We're all open to new ways of doing things," Mendes said.

(April 16, 2009)