GOING Dutch has taken on an entirely different meaning thanks to an inventor who has designed a toilet for cows.

Businessman/farmer Henk Hanskamp says he and his development team have now trained seven out of 58 cows on a farm near the Dutch town of Doetinchem to use the portable device.

Cattle urine is a pollutant when they pee onto pasture land – ammonia is the result – so the aim is to collect it and prevent it seeping into water courses.

The average cow produces 15 to 20 litres of urine a day, resulting in a huge amount of ammonia in a country that is the second biggest agricultural exporter in the world, after the United States.

The urinal he has produced is little more than a box that is placed behind the cow while it is at its feeding trough.

Initially, a robotic arm tickles a nerve near the cow’s udder, stimulating it to urinate on cue.

However, seven of the cows in the test trial have gone on to respond to the sight of the box alone.

“The cows have got used to it,” Hanskamp told the AFP news agency. “They recognise the box, lift their tail, and pee.

“A cow is never going to be completely clean, but you can teach them to go to the toilet.”

Hanskamp, whose company develops agricultural machinery, says the amount of ammonia could be reduced to half that produced on open land.