There are currently approximately 1.3 to 1.5 billion cows grazing, sleeping, and chewing their cud at any given time on planet Earth. And these 1,300 pound (average weight for both a beef and dairy cow) animals eat a lot. Much like humans, when they eat, gas builds up inside of their guts and has to be expelled. (See Why Beans Make You Fart) Cows fart and burp… a lot. The result is a large amount of methane being introduced into the atmosphere.
Take a dip in the salty waters of the Dead Sea, visit a surprisingly musical milking parlor, get swept away by the surreal majesty of "underwater rivers," and go birding in the urban alleyways of Cambodia—all in this week’s landscape reads.
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There is nothing quite like technology to help one in their job. If you are a farmer and love all of the hands-on experiences that you spend with your animals and crops each day, surely an extra pair of eyes and hands will come in handy regardless of the task. Assuming you have a herd of cows grazing on your fields, rounding them up can be quite a challenge, even with your pet dog around. How about having an assistant that will never complain about the long hours nor does not get upset at all? Meet Rover, the robotic cow-herder, that gets the job done in a cool and calculated manner.
Rover comes across as a four-wheeled device, where it has been tested by a team at Sydney University. In that particular test, Rover actually helped move an entire herd of cows from a field to a dairy with great success. What was more amazing for the researchers was this – the entire herd of cows found it a snap to accept the presence of Rover in a jiffy, now how about that? Does this mean that farm hands will be obsolete sometime down the road? Probably not, as you will still need someone to help clean up Rover’s tracks of cow poop.
Robot Rounds Up Cows, Gives Farmers Smiles On Their Faces original content from Ubergizmo. 
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So this is the situation. Human tastings are a crucial component in milk safety evaluations and by extension the dairy industry as a whole. So the Future Farmers of America (FFA) have an event called the Milk Quality and Products Career Development. A big part of it is a milk tasting contest for high school students, and the competitors go big.
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A rapidly growing field of disease treatments now revolves around the use of antibodies. These immune system foot soldiers identify and neutralize foreign objects like bacteria and viruses, but producing them en mass for modern pharmacology is no simple task. That’s why a team from Sanford Applied Biosciences in Sioux Falls, SD has recruited a small bovine army to help.
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When a drive through America’s heartland showcases mile after mile of cow-filled field, it’s easy to overlook the most sobering of all possibilities. These wonderful delicious animals could all get wiped out one day, leaving the world burgerless and milk free. Don’t worry. The USDA is on the case.
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I’d hate to be the IT guy fixing this network. By dropping electronic devices into the stomachs of cows and networking them together, researchers hope to reduce the climate-warming farts and burps they produce. More »
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