Spray helps reduce emissions
A pasture spray has been developed that can reduce methane emissions from livestock and make them more productive, but the developer is struggling to get widespread farmer support.
Biozest spray has been developed by scientist Nathan Balasingham. He said it made pastures more resistant to drought and pests, and also improved nutritional value, allowing livestock to grow faster and produce more milk.
Balasingham has been trialling the spray with arable and livestock farmers for 10 years, after initial testing on horticulture. Biozest worked by triggering an immune response in plants that produced an organic compound called phenylpropanoids.
Balasingham said healthier pastures could help sequester more carbon, which helped to combat climate change. The phenylpropanoids stopped the feed converting into urea and methane during digestion, leading to less pollution and greenhouse emissions.
This meant the animal could use more of the food to grow and produce milk.
Biozest is made from plant extracts, fatty acids, plant-compatible organic acids, and wetting agents. It is certified organic and can be used by organic, regenerative, biological, and conventional farmers.
‘‘Plants have an immune system. Phenylpropanoids allow the plants to overcome pests, disease and environmental stress.’’ The science was well established, and the data had been presented at conferences and symposiums, and undergone peer review, he said.
But Balasingham said there was resistance to his findings. ‘‘[Farming lobbyists] keep talking about the vaccine and the inhibitors to reduce methane production, which means you’re trying to stop the methane producing bacteria. These things work as a consortium. You try to affect one and the others also get affected. It doesn’t work.’’
Stuart Aspin had been using Biozest for two years to see if it could help him reduce farm emissions without affecting profitability or milk production.
In combination with a good spring, the spray helped to produce an extra 60 tonnes of silage, he said. It also had animal health benefits because the cows were extracting more from what they were eating. ‘‘I used it at the start of calving and midway through calving, and I had zero deaths.’’
Aspin said production was affected by many factors and he was not part of a farm trial, but he would continue to use Biozest in conjunction with other things like plantain pasture.
Balasingham was proud of what he had created. It was an opportunity for the country to respond to the criticism that it was failing to meet its emissions targets.
He hoped farmers would eventually be able to use Biozest to claim carbon credits.