Beef cattle fart much more than dairy cows and their farts are much worse. Many might say that’s normal as a distinction between the sexes but in the case of cows, it’s a bit more complex.

In the last few months of their lives, beef cattle are not allowed to graze naturally and are confined to feedlots. Their diet in those months is mostly corn or enhanced with corn syrup to pack on weight quickly. Corn is not a natural feed for cattle and it does bad things to their digestive system. It creates a very acidic condition that generates much more methane than does their natural grass diet.

While even pedestrian level beef is expensive enough to make us all think about vegan diets, restricting beef consumption to grass-fed only sources will considerably cut down on the farts per pound equation and makes it less likely that your steak or roast contains antibiotics normally injected in feedlot cattle prophylactically to counter their being more prone to infection from their close confinement and poor diet.