A cow pill, vaccines, and specially treated grass seed are among the products it is hoped will be in farmers’ methane-busting toolkits in the not-too-distant future.
As debate intensified last 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.
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.”
“Five years ago, I would have said it’s even questionable whether we can mitigate at scale,” Clark told RNZ’s Country Life.
“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.”
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 chief executive Tom Breen.
It’s 7cm-tall by 3cm in diameter and tests show greater than 70% daily methane inhibition over 100 days.
He said they were aiming for a product that could 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.
The first sales will be in Australia around October next year, while Ruminant BioTech 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.
“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.”
Shining a light
BioLumic seed treatment in action. The Palmerston North-based company hopes to produce methane-reducing pasture using its UV light process.
UV-light treated grass seed holds the potential to reduce methane in pasture-fed animals, according to trials under way at Palmerston North-based BioLumic.
Founder and chief science officer Jason Wargent told RNZ’s 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.
BioLumic's Jason Wargent (left) 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.
“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% 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.”
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 $10 million in funds from New Zealand, and hopes to have it on the shelf within five years.
Chief executive Colin South, who grew up on a New Zealand sheep farm, said the company’s trials in the lab and with small herds at an agricultural college in Texas have shown a 10-15% methane reduction.
The vaccine, developed with $38m in venture capital, targets methanogens in the rumen via saliva and is administered like traditional vaccines.
Testing so far in the lab and using methane measurement chambers shows the company can get high levels of antibodies, that bind onto methane-producing organisms (methanogens) and that they reduce methane formation “in vitro” by 10%.
A vaccine with 20 to 30% methane reduction lasting six months is the aim and the firm hopes to have regulatory approval within five years “so we can get into the hands of farmers”.
