Feed curry to sheep, boffins suggest
Tests by scientists from the University of Newcastle have suggested that spices commonly used in curry could cut methane emissions from flatulent sheep. Research student Mohammad Mehedi Hasan and Dr Abdul Shakoor Chaudhry probed the possible beneficial effects on ovine guts of cinnamon, cloves, coriander, cumin and turmeric. …
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Easting curry reduces flatulence?
I mean, really? Are they sure?
Maybe they had the experimental thingummys connected the wrong way round, or something?
Hot air
They said it reduced methane production - a fart is mostly hot air so you can easily fart more but produce less methane.
http://bodyodd.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2008/03/19/4380042-passing-time-by-passing-gas-plus-fun-fart-facts
• On average, a fart is composed of about 59 percent nitrogen, 21 percent hydrogen, 9 percent carbon dioxide, 7 percent methane and 4 percent oxygen. Less than 1 percent of their makeup is what makes farts stink.
• The temperature of a fart at time of creation is 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit.
• Farts have been clocked at a speed of 10 feet per second.
• A person produces about half a liter of farts a day.
• Women fart as much as men.
• The gas that makes your farts stink is hydrogen sulfide. The more sulfur rich your diet, the more your farts will stink. Some foods that cause really smelly farts include: beans, cabbage, cheese, soda and eggs.
• Most people pass gas about 14 times a day.
@ oolon re. hot air
"...21 percent hydrogen.."
So that's why they burn well with a blueish flame.
it would do..
..if we didn't insist on drinking 15 pints with every curry
Flatulence
So why do I fart so much the morning after a spicy curry? :-/
Obvious explanation
Perhaps you're farting something other than methane.
Curry and ...
So, have you tried the curry without the traditional side dish of 6 pints of fizzy lager?
Re: More Flatulance in Humans
Perhaps because we are not ruminating mammals? We only have one stomach, after all...
Curry to sheep?
If my botty is anything to go by after a hearty Lamb Madras, I'm guessing it's not going to work..
Flame, well, because you wouldn't want to strike a match..
hot air !
sound like a load of hot air
and how come it has the opposite effect in humans? or is that the 10 pints that go with it
also those names sounds rather foreign, not a family busuness in spices is there?
Radioactive cheese?
"Quality Evaluation of Sliced and Pizza Cheeses Treated by Gamma and Electron Beam Irradiation".
No doubt the irradiated cheeses give you a (not so) healthy glow... why use carrots to help you see in the dark, when eating irradiated cheese results in you lighting up the room without needing to worry about torches?
Nice
Maybe it would give the lamb a nice flavour as well - a pre-mortem marinade?
Curious
As the day after a curry my emissions are definitely not reduced. Quite the opposite in fact!
Also did they factor in the impact of the 9 pints of lager the sheep would drink to balance the curry?
What will the sheeps responce to the morning Ring o' Fire be?
Scorched wool anyone?
Learn what goes into curry!
Ah, I think the "ring of fire" is probably caused by the the chilli and pepper, nothing to do with cinnamon, cloves, coriander, cumin and turmeric, which are all rather less, um, active. And the flatulence may well be a result of the large amount of protein in the meal, as well as the lager already commented on.
If my wife's ponies are anything to go by, something with a little more flavour than grass may well go down well with the sheep. Garlic (which keeps the flies away) goes down a treat, and they like dried stinging nettle a lot.
Not sure about dairy cattle, though. I've had milk from a cow that ate raw onions. Not good on cornflakes!
unique wife?
Does your wife have her own unique style of shitting? Do you have them stored around your house in tupperware pots? Or are you married to a horse?
@Chris Collins
Don't understand your comment.
The ponies belonging to my wife, written as 'My wife's ponies'. I'm fairly certain that my apostrophe usage is correct. Or are you thinking that I should have capitalized wife? I don't think it is a proper noun in this context. My grammar is not good enough for me to be certain that I have capitalized it correctly here, but then whose is nowadays (damn, that's probably wrong too).
The comment had nothing to do with the toilet habits of my spouse, who is definitely human, and I cannot see how you could think it did.
Anyway, the ponies live, quite properly, in a field. The comment switched track from the ring of fire, to what ponies (and possibly sheep) might consider palatable. Sorry if you could not keep up. Try some coffee to wake you up.
Hint
I think Chris was thinking along the same lines that I did when first reading your post:
Pony & trap
Good idea?
> Spices have long been used safely by humans to kill bacteria
So adding spices to the fodder might just upset the tummy of a real, live sheep and cause much embarassment. There's much to be said for in vivo experiments....
Premarinated? Tha's daft.
Would kind of ruin the flavour wouldn't it? Not every lamb ends up in a curry does it? Trouble is those particular spices don't grow 1500ft up in the Pennines, and it's a 2 mile trek in the quad bike and then the beggars won't touch them.
Don't even consider doing the same for me cows - any taint t'milk will have 'em reducing the the 3p/1000litres they currently pay me from t'dairy.
Try that round 'ere and I'll let t'dog off t'chain.
Re Premarinated? Tha's daft.
Sheep raised on mint will be provided as an alternative.
Re: Re Premarinated? Tha's daft.
Mint is good for the digestion. This could totally work.
re: Premarinated? Tha's daft.
Not so daft, if it's already happening.
http://www.gowersaltmarshlamb.co.uk/index.html
Damn fine it is too!
On a more serious note
While I can't stand coriander (ghastly stuff) I do recall that it grows very well in the UK. Admittedly, my experience is based on a herb garden in the heart of Metroland, so I don't know if the stuff will grow just as well in the more northerly sheep-farming areas. Or if sheep will actually eat the stuff.
But.... if it does work we may have a cheap(ish) method of reducing emmissions.
Now back to the fart jokes.
Why Waste...
...all that natural gas? Buttplugs and collection bags; Yes, Sir, there's the solution to our energy crisis..
My Chinese buddy recalls guys on bicycles transporting a garbage bag inflated with methane.
Immediate recollection, 200 people rushed TOWARD an upset gasoline tanker to steal^H^H^H^H^collect^H^H^H^H^H^H^Recycle all that fuel. FOOMP! Oops!
Ignoble Prize Candidate?
Useless reesearch into a useless topic, possibly well curried out. Must be a prime candidate.
Epazote *might* help cut back on gas ...
Works for me when I add it to black beans ... Not sure if your common or garden sheep could handle the rest of the spices in my cooking, though ;-)
grew some out of curiosity
Not really suited to a london window sill though. Didn't really develop the full tarmac[*] flavour. Shame. Still got some seeds, might replant.
Growing some Trichocereus Pervuianus though... ironically much more successful... Most pleased.
[*] asphalt to you
These
so-called "scientists" are clearly just farting around.
I'll leave the fart jokes to the comedians here
I thought that ruminant digestion relied heavily on bacterial action (to break down cellulose?), side-effects of course being the production of schoolboy entertainment. If you suppress bacterial action with an acknowledged bactericides, I'd have thought that digestive efficiency might be curtailed.
@kevin elliott. You could try checking the chart here <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmospheric_methane#Emissions_accounting_of_methane> followed by <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmospheric_methane#Methane_as_a_greenhouse_gas>
Also on a more serious note
Turmeric has anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial properties. Ginger, a member of the same family, is well-known for settling an upset tum. Together they are useful in treating ailments that affect one in five adults: irritable bowel syndrome and small intestine bacterial overgrowth, SIBO. They certainly seem to have helped me where two course of antibiotics didn't.
Ginger is supposed to calm an upset tummy...
...but if it isn't successful, it burns like the blazes coming back up.
lamb + curry
Mmmm ... Lamb pre curried. Well that's one more manufacturing step taken care of. Now all we have to do is make them smaller and convince them to sleep in microwaves. :)
re: lamb + curry
I like your thinking, although they come pretty small at the start so that's nature's genius working for you already.
But if only we could breed them profoundly despairing of life that'd remove my reservations and us veggies could pile back in again, conscience clear. But please start with pig, they taste much nicer.
lamb+curry
Going one further than microwaves, get these ovine-flavouring boffins together with Craig Venter, to genetically engineer "Baaaaaaas" that flavour themselves with appropriate spices during their life time, and then, when their individual "baa-by date" approaches, jump on the dining room table, lie down in a suitable pan and self-immolate!
Mine's Shaun the Sheep!
Or The...
...bovine in "Restaurant at the End of the Universe" pointing out his tastiest parts.
No need to marinade the meat...
..either. Just think marinaded for 9 months. Wow!
Meh
I have stomach and GI problems meaning that I rarely fart. This makes me feel something of an outcast when I'm drinking down the pub with my flatulent mates.
If only there was some sort of app that could help me out.
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