Sixteen percent of Australia's greenhouse emissions come from agriculture, so scientists there are busy trying to solve the problem of ... burping sheep?
"Ninety per cent of the methane that sheep and cattle and goats produce comes from the rumen, and that's burped out," John Goopy from the New South Wales Department of Industry and Investment told ABC.
"Not much goes behind - that's horses."
The scientists in New South Wales have been conducting experiments in specially designed pens where they measure how much gas sheep emit by burping. They have found, from tests on 200 sheep so far, that the more they eat, the more they belch.
The scientists' goal is to breed sheep that burp less: Link
Methane is a common end-product of anaerobic bacteria, though. This implies that the part of the rumen that produces methane lacks sufficient oxygen to bring about a more complete breakdown of the food into carbon dioxide. A tough problem.
Gas has got to go somewhere. :p