In his post on global warming earlier today pointing out that greenhouse gases emitted by livestock represent a larger share than those generated by automobiles, Ross Kaminsky blamed "good old fashioned cow farts." It turns out Ross had the wrong end of the cow.

Steve Kelton, the editor of Livestock Weekly, emailed to point out that in reality the culprit is good old fashioned cow burps:

Actually, it's not the farts -- it's the belches. Cattle, sheep, goats, deer, water buffaloes, camels, yaks, etc. are all ruminents, meaning they have predigestive organs in which microbes ferment the otherwise indigestible forage these animals eat. In fact, it's mostly the microbes and their waste products that nourish ruminents; the largely cellulose diets they consume serve to feed the bugs. When they belch, they expel the gas created by fermentation. It can be vile, though sometimes with a playfully fruity bouquet.

When I hear of scientific geniuses "discovering" this contribution to "greenhouse gas" I have to wonder what obvious secret they will uncover next. By way of context, we have roughly 100 million head of cattle in this country today, which is perhaps half the number of bison that grazed just the central Plains a little more than a century ago; USDA wasn't around to take a census then, of course, so the count is uncertain, but that estimate is based on railroad bills of lading for hides shipped back East during the final slaughter years.

It is yet another non-problem just crying out to be solved by experts in desperate need of a lifetime government job.