Australia: Methane busting seaweed feeds need investment

THERE needs to be a huge investment into commercially producing the methane-reducing feed additive, red seaweed asparagopsis, if the technology is to succeed – that’s according to Commonwealth Bank and Agrifutures Australia.

Its latest report concluded that it would cost between Aus$132m and $1.62bn for the beef sector down-under to get 100% adoption of the seaweed-based product, which is claimed to be able to cut methane produced by ruminants by around 30%.

AgriFutures Australia’s general manager, business development, Michael Beer, said asparagopsis farming was still in its infancy, with no large-scale production currently in Australia. “With greater control over the operating environment including water quality, temperature and harvesting frequency, within a terrestrial aquaculture system, it could become the dominant production system for Asparagopsis,” he said.

“Terrestrial aquaculture systems are likely to have quite different establishment and ongoing cost structures to ocean-based ones. Scale will undoubtedly drive down the costs of establishing and operating these facilities.”

The bank’s agribusiness general manager, Carmel Onions, said the seaweed option could be a significant contributor to the Australian red meat and livestock industry’s goal to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030. “Cattle make up a key segment of Australian agriculture and are our largest agricultural export. The sustainable development of the livestock industry is recognised as an important part of the solution to address the complex challenges of sustainable food production to feed a rising global population,” she pointed out.

“Commonwealth Bank is committed to the transition to net zero emissions by 2050 and is proud to support research that drives innovation by Australian farmers and the agricultural sector to develop new techniques in sustainable farming.”

Tasmanian dairy farmer, Richard Gardner, had been using asparagopsis for two years as part of trials with a seaweed farm licensed to grow it commercially. He says there was a ‘“moral imperative’ for Australia to sign up to the methane pledge, but measuring the greenhouse gas will be the biggest challenge for producers.

“At the moment there is no simple and practical way currently to measure methane,” Mr Gardner told Australian Associated Press. Mr Gardner said while his cows are eating about 10% less grass, expensive and impractical technology means he did not know the methane reduction.

He added: “The current technologies like asparagopsis should, in theory, reduce emissions by more than 30%. But can we get them into the animals effectively and efficiently?”

Australia has signed up to a non-binding international commitment to reduce emissions of methane by 30% and livestock supplement supplier, Chick Olsson, who supported the pledge, said problems in measuring methane emissions, along with highly complicated regulations, were causing headaches for producers.

At his factory in the southern suburbs of Brisbane, methane-busting supplements were blended in a giant ‘cake mixer’. The supplement blocks don’t contain asparagopsis but are made of natural vegetable oils, including eucalyptus, garlic, clove and canola, which help bulk up cattle but also reduce emissions.

Despite the hype around the methane-busting seaweed asparagopsis, Mr Olsson doesn’t plan to use it in his mixture until the industry has developed further – hence the call for further investment.