Concern for the environment is now triggering working on different ways of controlling it and one of the latest attempts is to toilet-train cows! The aim is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

In a report in theguardian.com, according to the scientists who conducted the experiment to potty-train, the success of this method could lead to farms that are environment friendly.

Cattle farm wastes lead to soil and waterways contamination while also causing emission of greenhouse gases and soil acidification. Toilet-training of cattle has been a long-tried method to check this but so far it has not proved a success.

Scientists in this latest study have used the MooLoo method which imparts calves training to use a toilet area in the barn, to enable collection and treatment of the urine.

Jan Langbein, an animal psychologist at the Research Institute for Farm Animal Biology (FBN) in Germany said: “Cattle, like many other animals, are quite clever and they can learn a lot. Why shouldn’t they be able to learn how to use a toilet?”

The training of the calves is done through a system of rewards and mild punishments. On using the designated area for urinating, sweet drink or mashed barley is given but on not doing so, a short blast of water is used as punishment.

In nearly 15 training sessions which took place over a few weeks, 11 of 16 calves were toilet-trained successfully. This was stated by the study published in Current Biology journal. The remaining five, the study authors suggested, will require more time. Buoyed by this attempt, Langbein said that the next project will try to teach calves to defecate in a designated toilet area.

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Meanwhile, the team is at present working on creating a training system for the cattle that is automated thereby ensuring least intervention from the farmers. Langbeing remarked: “We want to develop some kind of sensor technology which is all-inclusive.” He also hoped that “in a few years all cows will go to a toilet”.

Cow’s urine does not lead to climate crisis or change but when it filters into the soil, it is converted into nitrous oxide by microbes. This is the third most important greenhouse gas after methane and carbon dioxide.

In terms of numbers, the agriculture sector is ammonia emissions largest source with livestock farming contributing more than half of that.

Initial estimates suggest that if 80 per cent of urine from cattle is collected in a farm, it will help in reducing ammonia emissions by more than half, said Langbein.

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