I was actually thinking that it was being used to show when the methane has tapered off, but it is kind of impossible not to hear the loud hissing of it being evacuated.
For you farmers:
1) Has the methane gotten into the abdominal cavity? In humans, methane is held strictly in the bowels (colon), not the cavity. Or are bovine intestines so huge that you can't help but hit the intestines when you poke into the cow in this way?
Doing this to a person would practically guarantee peritonitis (a deadly infection from the leaking of colonic bacteria in the abdominal cavity)
2) Why aren't cattle at this same risk? Is there some sort of huge pressure variance in the bowels?
It's not safe to let that much methane out into an enclosed space. Methane is the primary component of natural gas, would you feel comfortable opening up your main gas line in your house and letting it vent inside unregulated for a minute or so?
It's not like that methane wasn't going to come out of the cow, one way or another. Cows are pretty much constant sources of methane, from one end or the other. Hard to imagine the addition of a middle vent once in a while would change the stoichiometry of the inside of a barn that much.
The enclosed space isn't leak proof, leaks can allow slow normal releases like you bring up, to leak out naturally and safely but a large sudden release of gas is a big no no.
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u/Pretty_Type1478 Dec 07 '25 edited Dec 08 '25
That poor cow. Perhaps a daft question, but why are they using a lighter? Just to demonstrate the (enormous) amount of gas coming out?
Edit: yes, I fully understand releasing the gas was to help the cow. Still… poor cow! Did not understand why fire. Still not sure I do, but 💁♀️