Dead Cows Can’t Fart: The Dark Side of Denmark’s Methane Reduction Experiment
Bovaer allegedly reduces cattle methane emissions. It may be true in the sense that dead cows can’t fart.
Legal Insurrection readers may recall that in late 2024, I reported on Bovaer, an anti-methane additive now being mixed with cattle feed in Europe.
Its makers, Elanco Animal Health, claim the ingredient powder used in feed will reduce methane emissions from dairy cattle by almost 30% and works by suppressing a cow’s ability to produce methane during digestion.
People are now more clearly recognizing that carbon dioxide (CO2) is a life-essential gas and methane is a critical part of the finely tuned biogenic carbon cycle. Consumers are also alarmed by the introduction of a supplement to animals, with no consideration given to the long-term effects of humans consuming meat and dairy products from animals that eat the additives.
There are now reports that from Denmark of cows collapsing and suffering illness after eating Bovaer, which is now legally required for many farms in Denmark as part of its national climate policy. Some farmers claim their cattle experienced severe symptoms after eating the additive-infused feed, including collapse, lethargy, reduced feed intake, fever, diarrhea, miscarriages, and significant drops in milk production.
There are also accounts of some animals recovering when Bovaer was discontinued but relapsing when forced to resume eating the additive-infused feed.
Since October 1, farms with over 50 cows have been required to dose rations with the chemical 3-nitrooxypropanol, developed by DSM-Firmenich. If the farms don’t comply they face heavy fines.
Horrifying reports flood in: cows collapsing, miscarrying, suffering fevers, diarrhea, and plummeting milk yields—some euthanized after agonizing weeks.
“It’s slow poisoning masked as sustainability,” lamented one producer.
Key whistleblowers include farmers featured in citizen journalist Kent Nielsen’s viral video. Henrik Jensen, a Jutland dairyman, removed Bovaer from his 120-cow herd amid rampant illnesses; within days, the animals recovered vigor and output. Upon reintroduction to comply with fines, symptoms returned ferociously, forcing another halt.
Similarly, Søren Larsen in Funen withdrew the additive after losing two cows to neurological distress. Recovery was swift, but re-dosing triggered worse inflammation. “Our herds are experiments now,” Larsen said.
Paul Homewood of Watts Up With That blog has an account from a Danish report.
Since 1 October, farmers have started mixing the statutory additive into the cows’ feed.
The aim is to reduce the cows’ emissions of the greenhouse gas methane, and Bovaer has previously been thoroughly tested over several years.
Yet something seems to have gone wrong in the roll-out.
– We have so many people calling us and are unhappy about what is happening in their herds, says Kjartan Poulsen, chairman of the National Association of Danish Milk Producers, to TV 2.
The organization has now launched an investigation into the matter, he says.
The effects are so severe, some of the affected animals had to be euthanized.
Danish regulators, who thrust this feed requirement on already unwilling ranchers and dairy farmers, are scrambling for explanation in the explosion of reports since the October 1st deadline for this inanity kicked in.
However, Ida Storm of the Danish Agriculture and Food Council said: “We are familiar with some cases where dairy farmers report problems after starting using Bovaer.
“This is obviously of great concern to us. Animal welfare must not be compromised. At the same time we are surprised, since no research or large-scale trials have indicated problems.”
Ms Storm said the organisation had launched an online survey to collect reports and “quickly learn more and hopefully find solutions”.
I will conclude by noting Bovaer’s claims are true in this sense: Dead cows can’t fart.
This is a sign that BOVAER works.
It stops the cow farting.
Then it stops the cow moving as well… pic.twitter.com/PqdC436cOp— Robin Monotti (@robinmonotti) November 4, 2025
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Carlyle in Sartor Resartus remarks
“For my own part, these considerations, of our Clothes-thatch, and how, reaching inwards even to our heart of hearts, it tailorizes and demoralizes us, fill me with a certain horror at myself and mankind; almost as one feels at those Dutch Cows, which, during the wet season, you see grazing deliberately with jackets and petticoats (of striped sacking), in the meadows of Gouda.”
cows in literature.
The best part of Sartor Resartus is about Toom Tabard, I should mention:
“Did not King Toomtabard, or, in other words, John Baliol, reign long over Scotland; the man John Baliol being quite gone, and only the ‘Toom Tabard’ (Empty Gown) remaining? What still dignity dwells in a suit of Cast Clothes! How meekly it bears its honors! No haughty looks, no scornful gesture: silent and serene, it fronts the world; neither demanding worship, nor afraid to miss it. The Hat still carries the physiognomy of its Head: but the vanity and the stupidity, and goose-speech which was the sign of these two, are gone. The Coat-arm is stretched out, but not to strike; the Breeches, in modest simplicity, depend at ease, and now at last have a graceful flow; the Waistcoat hides no evil passion, no riotous desire; hunger or thirst now dwells not in it. Thus all is purged from the grossness of sense, from the carking cares and foul vices of the World; and rides there, on its Clothes-horse; as, on a Pegasus, might some skyey Messenger, or purified Apparition, visiting our low Earth.
But why is a mouse when it spins?
The problem is that something doesn’t stink in the state of Denmark.
Absolutely insane, as all claimed BS is
Freaking poor cows
this is all from the same people that are convinced that a man in a dress wearing lipstick is really a woman
Where are the animal rights people on this one? It’s okay to cause cows suffering, pain and death in the name of some vague climate control policy? Aren’t environmentalists supposed to love animals? I’m confused my intersectionality radar is not working! All those DEI lectures I attended for my job, have left me with no way to understand this mess. Maybe it’s the zionists fault, they must be killing the cows with their white colonial imperialism. Few, now I feel better.
Where are the environmentalists when it comes to windmills that kill insects, bats and birds wholesale? Their silence signals that they don’t give a hoot about the environment. They are misanthropes whose goal is to make human life as difficult as possible.
Do you think maybe it’s Jewish Steak Lasers?
1) What indication is there that these results are a side effect and not an intended effect by the environmentalists?
2) It might be wise to avoid Danish dairy and beef products for a while, and maybe EU dairy and beef products; as I am pretty sure they have no compunctions about poisoning us.
Subotai Bahadur
Seaweed?
https://www.ucdavis.edu/food/news/feeding-grazing-cattle-seaweed-cuts-methane-emissions-almost-40
No more hakkebof for you.
not only forced to take bovaer but must mask up too
according to rules by denmarks dr.fartcci
I hate these climate idiots
I hate them all
I think they should eat this instead of harming animals, we do enough harm to them by overpopulation and stealing all the land that was meant to live in harmony with the animals
Get used to pigeons and rats
Nothing against them, but with cockroaches, that’s all the wild we will have left
Livestock feed additives often receive less than comprehensive testing.
We found a marvelous product for our horses and burros to cut down on desert horseflies, which are a veritable plague to them. It passed through the horses and came out in the droppings. Flies would lay their eggs in the droppings as usual, but it interfered with their life cycle so the larvae would never mature. It was advertised as safe for pregnant mares.
However, ranch dogs enjoy snacking on livestock poop, and it turns out it was far from safe for them. Two of our girls had near simultaneous stillborn and malformed litters after we started using the product. We contacted the manufacturer, who said the product had never been tested on dogs in any way. We had to switch to a less-effective solution (predator flies), but the dog reproductive issues disappeared immediately.
For the most part, the manufacturers do not even discuss the problem. The closest I have seen is a FAQ for one product: “Q: My dog eats manure. Will my dog be safe if he consumes manure when I am feeding MultiFly to my horses? A: We are not able to make any claims regarding safety/efficacy for any other animal other than horses.” Not very transparent.
It takes a special kind of idiot to push an untested chemical into livestock feed on the chance that it will make cows more fragrant. Instead, it is making them more dead, and God only knows what the chemical breakdown products will do in meat and milk products.
Well, seeing as how these same type of idiots had no problem pushing and even mandating fraudulently tested mrna shots on human populations…. why are you surprised?
Methane is a product of the bacteria’s metabolism. If it’s not being produced at an ordinary rate, that’s an indication the cow’s gut bacteria isn’t metabolizing at a normal rate. The bacteria is either being killed outright or its metabolism if being interfered with. Either way, it means the cows aren’t getting sufficient nutrition from their feed, because the bacteria are being prevented from/inhibited in their breakdown of cellulose in the feed, which is essential in making nutrients in the feed available for absorption by the cows’ intestines.
The cows are being starved.
The hubris of man, thinking he can improve upon Mother Nature….
German meteorologists have concluded there is nothing to worry about since the prevailing winds in Germany blow cow farts across the border into Denmark.
People that push this nonsense refuse to account for the millions of farting animals that no longer exist. Bison, etc.
You can just imagine how bad it was during the Jurassic Era. One dinosaur fart released several tons of methane in the atmosphere.
And the resulting juvenile laughter afflicted small continents with halitosis.
Something like this:
https://youtu.be/KCBp0CZC9_M?si=have8ZGKHrzq7F1a
That was hilarious!
It must be either one of two things – either the original reports on safety and effectiveness are fraudulent, or else the effect of the additive depends on the species of bacteria in a particular cow herd. Perhaps it worked fine in some tests, but different bacteria turn it into a toxic substance.
I wonder why they didn’t try peppermint.
I know burros and horses love them. No experience with cattle, however.
They think they are anti-animal, which is perverse enough, but their anti-methane ideology is equally anti-plant.
Plants pull CO2 from the atmosphere to grow, and when they die and break down, that CO2 gets returned to the atmosphere.
Some of it breaks down directly to CO2, and some of it breaks down first into methane, which then breaks down into CO2.
In no case is there any addition of CO2 to the atmosphere. Every molecule that is released to the atmosphere was first taken out of the atmosphere.
So they pretend that the brief stage of breakdown into methane is something especially dangerous, which it absolutely is not.
Methane’s contribution to heat trapping is small, and the effect of variations in methane is utterly insignificant, then they completely overstate the size of these variations too, not noting that plants break down first into methane whether they are eaten by cows or not.
Ever heard of “swamp gas”? That’s methane, and it has nothing to do with cows, which don’t live in swamps.
Having plants breakdown into methane in the gut of a cow instead of in the open air or in swamp water makes virtually no difference.
It has an insignificant effect on the amount of methane, which already has an insignificant effect on climate.
There is really nothing stupider and more irrational than worrying about the climate effect of cow farts. They are really waging war on the entire biosphere, on all life, both plant and animal, in the name, they say, of saving the planet.
It’s just the life that they hate.
While it’s amusing to talk of cow farts, the real problem is from the other end. It is cow belching (burping) that releases 96% of the bovine-related methane.