UF Study Says Cattle Are Champion Recyclers For Florida

October 31, 1996

GAINESVILLE—They produce mountains of manure and stinky, ozone- depleting (some scientists contend), methane gas. They also supply the nation with sweet, fresh milk. It’s a real public relations quandary for the nation’s dairy cattle.

But a survey of the state’s dairy industry conducted by University of Florida scientists brings “moo-ving” news for the bucolic bovines, often condemned as environmental criminals. Cattle are also major-league recyclers who eat about 600,000 cubic yards of by-products that otherwise would end up in as waste in a landfill.

Need a visual?

“If you added up the volume of by-products made in Florida and consumed by Florida dairy cattle each year, you’d fill an area the size of a football field to 120 yards deep,” said Mary Beth Hall, an assistant professor of dairy nutrition at UF’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences.

Florida-produced by-products include wet brewer’s grains that were used to make beer, whole cotton seeds leftover from cotton plants, citrus pulp delivered from the state’s citrus processing plants and distiller’s grains that were used to make whisky.

Hall said it is important for people to understand, that while dairies will always have their issues — “there’s no way you can get a cow to excrete nothing” — through this recycling effort, many are doing their part to help the environment as well.

“This is a good example of how animals and people fit together to get rid of waste,” Hall said.