Mitigating methane - one artificial lab cow at a time

American animal health multinational Alltech is years into its NZ study of how a cow's diet impacts its methane output. File photo / RNZ / Rebekah Parsons-King

RNZ

While the government scrambles to develop methane-mitigating tools for farmers, the private sector is drumming up its own solutions.

New Zealand researchers are working to develop methane inhibitors and vaccines for cows, sheep and deer to reduce agricultural emissions.

It comes as the government announced at Fieldays a joint industry investment of $17.7 million to go towards the construction of a new purpose-built greenhouse gas testing facility.

But American animal health multinational Alltech is already years into its New Zealand study of how a cow’s diet impacts its methane output - with its yeast culture feed products being tested on 60 artificial cows in an Auckland laboratory.

Its innovation sales manager Nigel Meads said it was about improving scientific understanding of a ruminant’s methane production.

“We’ve done over 500 farms, or rations, around New Zealand now, looking at the variability and the conversion of different feedstuffs in different rations to methane,” Meads said.

“I can go on to farms, I can take the entire ration being fed to that cow, I can put it through an artificial cow and study the methane output.

“Now, I understand that there are limitations to that, but at the same time, it offers us an opportunity to study variation at a level that we just can’t study in any other way.”

Meads hoped the study will also be able to explore the differences in outputs by season, which he said vary greatly, as well as by location.

The company aimed to bring Europe-sourced methane inhibitors it recently invested in to the New Zealand market - and soon, he said.

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“We’ve invested in methane-mitigation technologies from Europe, which we hope to also bring to market in due course, through the proper channels.

“You have to do it properly because, on one hand, there’s pressure for the industry to get things done now - or yesterday.

“On the other hand, you’ve got to slow down and do it right, if you want it to last. So there’s a lot of work on and it’s an exciting time to be in the industry.”

There should be amazing technological solutions for farmers to reduce emissions in the next five to 10 years, as the science continued to improve, Meads said.

- RNZ