Cattle burping while chowing on feed in California’s San Joaquin Valley generated plumes of a powerful greenhouse gas that have been detected by satellites for the first time, shedding light on how agriculture may be contributing to climate change.
Methane emissions from the Bear 5 feedlot near Bakersfield, California, ranged from 443 kilograms (977 pounds) to 668 kilograms per hour on Feb. 2, according to GHGSat Inc., which owns high-resolution satellites. If those emissions are sustained for a year, the cattle would release 5,116 tons of gas, enough to power 15,402 homes, the Montreal-based company said in a statement.
“This has not been done at an individual facility scale for the agriculture sector, as far as we know,” said Brody Wight, sales director at GHGSat. “The idea is that we need to measure first before you can take real positive action.”
