Potty Party: Researchers Show Young Cows Can Be Toilet-Trained

Ethologist Jan Langbein and his team trained the cattle as a way to keep solid and liquid cattle waste separate—with the goal of reducing ammonia emissions coming from livestock.

Written byAnnie Melchor

| 6 min read

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The tell-tale stench emanating from cattle farms is more than stinky—it can be devastating for the environment. That’s because an enzyme in cow pies liberates ammonia from the urea in urine, sending it into the atmosphere. This ammonia washes down with the rain, changing soil and water chemistry and leading to effects such as harmful algal blooms, damage to vegetation, and reduced biodiversity.

But a new study published yesterday (September 13) in Current Biology suggests a way to stop this problem at the source: by putting cattle in charge of separating their own waste products. The team, led by applied ethologist Jan Langbein of the Research Institute for Farm Animal Biology in Germany and PhD student Neele Dirksen, successfully convinced calves to utilize bovine latrines, dubbed “MooLoos.”

The Scientist spoke with Langbein about how—and why—his group set out to potty-train baby cattle.

Jan Langbein: The ...

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Meet the Author

Annie Melchor
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Stephanie "Annie" Melchor got her PhD from the University of Virginia in 2020, studying how the immune response to the parasite Toxoplasma gondii leads to muscle wasting and tissue scarring in mice. While she is still an ardent immunology fangirl, she left the bench to become a science writer and received her master’s degree in science communication from the University of California, Santa Cruz, in 2021. You can check out more of her work here.
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