Ruminant Bio Tech's R&D team holding boluses, designed to curb methane emissions in cattle, in front of the lab team producing a batch of boluses Photo: Supplied
A cow pill, vaccines, and specially treated grass-seed are among products it is hoped will be in farmers' methane-busting toolkits in the not-too-distant future.
As debate intensified this week over reduction targets for the potent greenhouse gas, scientists, industry leaders and farmers were meeting in Wellington to look at some of the technology out there and some of the hurdles ahead.
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New Zealand farmers will need a suite of options to reduce emissions, according to Harry Clark, chief scientist of the New Zealand Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Research Centre, co-organisers of this year's Agriculture and Climate Change conference.
"But we will need some high-impact technologies at some point."
Reducing methane emissions is seen as the strongest lever to slow global warming over the next 25 years. The gas makes up about three-quarters of New Zealand's agriculture greenhouse gas emissions. The country's present target for cutting methane over the next 25 years is 24 to 47 percent.
"Five years ago, I would have said it's even questionable whether we can mitigate at scale. I think we can mitigate at scale. It's just how soon we will have those technologies in the hands of farmers at a price they are likely to be able to take them up," Clark told Country Life.
So, here's a closer look at some of the work in development.
Capsule fit for a cow
A cow-sized capsule, or bolus, which sits in the cow's rumen (part of the stomach) could be available in New Zealand as early as 2026, according to Ruminant Biotech (RBT) CEO Tom Breen.
It's 7cm tall by 3cm in diameter and tests show greater than 70 percent daily methane inhibition over 100 days.
He said they were aiming for a product that can work for six months, administered to the cow once or twice a year and "really pleasing progress" had been made in tests around safety.
The active ingredient in the bolus is tribromomethane, "a naturally occurring compound which is found in seaweed - we use the synthetic form of that".
The capsule also contains an electronic tag which, when scanned, identifies animals that have been treated.
"We're going to have the verification practices in place in the field as well so that we can show what impact we had.
"What it'll cost farmers will ultimately be linked to the value that it creates for them. That's a function of how much methane can we reduce at the farm and what are those emissions going to be worth."
The firm, founded in 2021 in Waikato, will be manufacturing the capsules at a purpose-built plant to be ready midway through 2025. First sales will be in Australia around October next year, while RBT awaits regulatory approval for New Zealand use.
"If we do what we are hoping to do here with the regulator in New Zealand, we should be pretty close to market in New Zealand with our first product not too far after that.
"(Animal) productivity is a question that's on everyone's lips at the moment. It's a hard one to measure. We don't have any conclusive data either way on that but as we get closer to commercialisation now our programme can take more of a deeper look at that."
BioLumic seed treatment in action. The Palmerston North-based company hopes to produce methane-reducing pasture using its UV light process. Photo: Supplied
Shining a light
UV-light treated grass seed holds the potential to reduce methane in pasture-fed animals, according to trials underway at Palmerston North-based BioLumic.
Founder and chief science officer Jason Wargent told Country Life they're already using different "light recipes" to trigger certain traits in plants, such as yield, and in April started testing for methane reduction.
"The work of other scientists has already indicated that if you can increase the concentrations of fat in the grass, then that is related to a potential to reduce methane emission from animals. So BioLumic's job will be to point our light treatment technology at rye grass seeds before they're sown, and then we will see increases in lipids in the grass, and then we will see that potential to reduce methane."
Lab trials will shift to field and animal trials in the coming months and treated seed could be ready for sowing on farm in two years, Wargent said, with a potential 12 percent reduction in methane from animals consuming the pasture.
"We're optimistic that we're one of the - from a cold start - speedier solutions, in the sense that we don't have any regulatory encumbrances. It's not, obviously, a genetic modification technology."
BioLumic's Jason Wargent (L) and David Macdonald, Head of Ventures at AgriZero, standing at BioLumic’s R&D Centre in Palmerston North with one of the increased-lipid ryegrass trials in progress. Photo: Supplied
A shot in the arm and a share of the profit
Boston-based ArkeaBio has been working on a methane-curbing vaccine since early 2023, with nearly $10m in funds from New Zealand, and hopes to have it on the shelf within five years.
CEO Colin South, who grew up on a New Zealand sheep farm, said their trials in the lab and with small herds at an agricultural college in Texas have shown a 10-15 percent methane reduction.
The vaccine, developed with $38 million in venture capital, targets methanogens in the rumen via saliva and is administered like traditional vaccines.
They're aiming for it to last more than six months.
"We've shown, what we believe is conclusively, that the use of a vaccine can reduce methane in cattle and with some longevity. We're not at commercially viable levels yet, but certainly, at least we know that we're fishing in the right pond.
"The beauty of a vaccine is, because you have a longevity of action, it'll work on feed lots. It'll work on pasture feed. It'll work in places like India, where the average herd size is less than three and it fits into existing supply chains."
The plan is to minimise costs to farmers, offering them a share of carbon market profits, South said.
"Ultimately, we would like to go to market with a zero-cost vaccine that we would share profitability with a farmer."
Home-grown
A home-grown vaccine is also in the development stage at Lucidome Bio, which was launched in September.
The agritech firm was established by AgriZero NZ, which is half-owned by the New Zealand government and half by major agribusinesses.
Interim chief executive David Aitken said the company is developing a protein subunit vaccine to reduce methane emissions in ruminant animals.
"We're focused on developing a vaccine that's safe, effective and affordable. Speed and scale are very important to us."
Testing so far in the lab and using methane measurement chambers shows they can get high levels of antibodies, that bind on to methane producing organisms (methanogens) and that they reduce methane formation "in vitro" by 10 percent.
A vaccine with 20 to 30 percent methane reduction lasting six months is the aim and they hope to have regulatory approval within five years "so we can get into the hands of farmers".
"Affordability is really important. We know farming's a tough business," Aitken said.
Artificial insemination underway at a Wairarapa dairy farm Photo: RNZ/Sally Round
Like father like daughter
Breeding for lower methane stock is another tool that farmers can use.
Newly released results of research by the herd improvement co-op LIC shows naturally low-methane emitting bulls do pass that genetic trait onto their daughters.
Not only that, but the low-emitting offspring gave off even lower amounts of methane - about 5g per day less than their dads, according to Lorna McNaughton who leads the low-emitting breeding programme.
"What we need now is to measure them as lactating females just to make sure that there is no impact of lactation on their methane production."
She said they hope to be giving out the low methane breeding values ready for the 2027 breeding season.
Hurdles in the paddock
Health and safety concerns for both animal and consumer are not the only hurdles to overcome.
Agriculture Greenhouse Gas Research Centre's Harry Clark cautions that farmer acceptance is also key.
"Any technology developed has got to be acceptable to the farmer as the person who is being asked to implement that technology, whether it's put into their animals or sprayed on the ground or whatever, and we have to be cognisant of, you know, what are the practical limitations?
"What does that farmer have to do? Do they have to put an upfront investment? Do they have to learn new skills? Does it cause increased labour requirements? Is it something they feel is ethically acceptable?"
Farmer attitudes will be determined to some extent by what they feel consumer attitudes are, he said.
"Would farmers wish to risk consumers not buying their products because they may potentially be putting in a chemical into their animals?
"I think that's why we need a suite of technologies, because ... different technologies will have different levels of acceptability to different people."
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