Why do cows fart so much? Can we feed them seaweed to help? How does the gas make climate change?

Most of the methane that cows produce comes from burps, rather than farts. Cows fart (and burp) because they have to digest grass, which is quite hard to break down. Did you know cows have four different stomachs? And they chew their food twice? Imagine if you had four stomachs! You would probably fart and burp more too. Seaweed can be added to a cow’s diet to help reduce the amount a cow farts and burps. They are still looking into why this is and how to maximise these results, but it is very promising, as they have found that cows who eat seaweed burp and fart around 80% less.  

Burps and farts produce methane which is a potent greenhouse gas. It makes climate change because it absorbs the light from the sun and so traps the heat in our atmosphere, creating the warming that contributes to climate change.