Kowbucha: Fonterra researching natural ways to stop cows burping

Content brought to you by Fonterra

Fonterra has been busy researching the answer to the dairy industry's million-dollar question; how can we stop cows from burping?

The co-op's research and development (R&D) centre has been looking at natural ways to inhibit cows from producing methane and has come up with something they're calling Kowbucha.

The aim of Kowbucha is to create new fermentations that switch off the bugs that make methane in cows.

The research was all part of the co-op's long-term strategy announced last year, Managing Director of Co-operative Affairs at Fonterra, Mike Cronin said.

"It's part of our strategy around being leaders in sustainability and innovation and science," Cronin told The Country Sport Breakfast's Brian Kelly.

Fonterra has completed the first round of on-farm trials to see how the probiotics perform in the real environment.

Listen below:

The trial is conducted in collaboration with the Pastoral Greenhouse Gas Research Consortium, Massey University and AgResearch.

Some young volunteers were already taking part in the trial, Cronin said.

"We're using a group of calves and feeding them Kowbucha as part of their regular milk feeding."

Calves were used because the earlier a cow can take Kowbucha, the more effective it could be - much like the long-term benefits young children can gain from drinking milk early in their lives, Cronin explained.

So far the results have been promising, with a substantial reduction in emissions by up to 20 per cent.

Researchers will now follow each animal's progress for at least a year, to see if feeding them Kowbucha early in their lives reduces their methane production long term.

Part two of the trial kicks off in April, with a second group of calves being brought in.

These autumn calves will verify the results of the first group, Cronin said.

It isn't just bovine volunteers taking part in the experiment, as Fonterra is also trialling Kowbucha with a group of fully grown sheep.

"Apparently their rumen are pretty similar to the cow rumen, but because sheep are small, you can fit more into the testing facility. They're a good size for testing," Cronin explained.

Fonterra's R&D centre is not only trialling Kowbucha, but producing it as well.

The co-op's latest piece of equipment is called MinION.

"It's a genome sequencing device that spits out DNA results from bacteria real quickly and at a quarter of the cost," Cronin said.

The device is incredibly powerful, despite only being the size of a pen.

"It's really helping us in the Kowbucha project because we're not having to send these probiotic strains overseas for analysis, which is good."

This process often took weeks or months but MinION meant it could be done within a matter of hours, right here in New Zealand, Cronin said.

"It saves a lot of time."

It has also allowed Fonterra to unlock the secrets of more than 2000 dairy cultures.

It's not only cows that benefit from this information, as some of these probiotics have been shown to help people improve their mental and physical health and wellbeing.