Cows On Treadmills Produce Clean Power For Farms

separsons writes "William Taylor, a farmer in Northern Ireland, recently developed the Livestock Power Mill, a treadmill for cows. Taylor uses the device to generate clean, renewable power for his farm. Cows are locked into a pen on top of a non-powered, inclined belt. The cows' walking turns the belt, which spins a gearbox to drive a generator. One cow can produce about two kilowatts of electricity, enough energy to power four milking machines. It may seem like a kooky idea, but Taylor could be onto something: According to his calculations, if the world's 1.3 billion cattle used treadmills for eight hours a day, they could provide six percent of the world's power!"

Comments

Torture? ASPCA should investigate.

[B5_geek]

There are two glaring faults with this setup:

#1) The cows are 'locked in'.
#2) The treadmill is inclined.

This results in the animal walking out of 'fear' from falling. The inability of the animal to stop whenever it wants is cruel treatment. On the other hand, if it were 'elective' and the cows got a special treat (a yummy grass/feed?) then it is a different story.

I would like to see how guy would like to be locked onto a treadmill 8hrs a day, walking uphill the entire time.

I doubt the quality of the milk would be very good. Stress does not make for a nice quality or quantity of milk. (I used to work on a dairy farm.)

This is hardly new...

[the_rajah]

In Lincoln's New Salem, near Springfield, Illinois, there is a reconstructed carding mill powered by a tilted tread wheel on which an ox walked to supply the power. This would have been in use around 1830.

Re:Food?

[Z34107]

Cows are lazy, but also very curious.

I was bicycling past a herd of cattle, and they all looked up and stared at me. They started wandering towards the road I was at, following me, but soon broke from "mosey" into full-out "walk." I sped up, and so did the cows - they were leaping, like giant, bloated, mooing rabbits, fully keeping pace with my bicycle.

Granted, I never had cancer, but I'd like to think I bicycle faster than cows. They were almost doing 20 miles an hour.

They're evil, too. My grandfather was a farmer back in the day. One day working in the fields, a door-to-door salesman drove up, through the field, to try to hawk something to him. My grandfather was annoyed, naturally, but the cows discovered his car and licked all the chrome off.

Re:Food?

[Pharmboy]

>> Then we diesel truck the manure off and bury it in a landfill.

Y'all ain't from around here, are ya?

I was about to say, I pay $2 to $4 a bag for that stuff to put on my blueberries, blackberries, etc. Better yet: use human waste for lawns, fields and golf courses.

We cleared off 1/4 acre of wood (which was taken to the lumber mill and turned into railroad ties) and in order to get grass to grow in the poor soil, we hauled in a tandem load (about 11 cubic yards or about 9-10 cubic meters) of "sterilized compost" from the waste treatment plant. This means grass clippings, leaves and human poo, sterilized and composted, all "trash" that the county has to deal with. It costs $110, delivered, and we spread by hand. Best. Lawn. Ever. And no, it doesn't smell like poo, just a little like ammonia (like all compost) for a couple of days.

I'm a conservative who is a conservationist (ie: I have no use for environmentalists as I want to USE the resources we protect) and this is the right way to recycle and reuse, as it gives great results, cheaper, and creates less landfill, which is where it would have gone if I didn't spread it on the lawn. AND it allowed the waste plant to make a profit on something they normally would have to pay to dispose of.