By 2025, capsules delivering a methane-inhibiting substance into the stomachs of livestock could significantly reduce the country’s greenhouse footprint.
That’s the goal of Waikato-based Ruminant BioTech. Repurposing the slow-release pills used to deliver medicines to livestock, the start-up created a proprietary capsule that it says reduced cattle-made methane by 90% for months.
Although the trials are at an early stage and haven’t been published, the start-up said its goal now was to deliver a commercially viable product that can cut methane by 70% over six months.
Cows, sheep, goats and deer all burp up planet-heating methane, a by-product of their digestion.
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With the help of a $7.8 million government grant, Ruminant BioTech aims to get its capsules fully tested and approved for the market by 2025 – the date when farmers will pay emissions levies on their greenhouse gases and receive discounts if they reduce their footprints.
Methane and nitrous emissions – the majority of which is generated by farming – contribute more than half of New Zealand’s overall emissions profile.
Ruminants, including cows, contain bacteria in their stomachs that produce methane. Released to the air, the greenhouse gas potently heats the planet for about a decade.
By law, New Zealand must reduce biological methane 10% by 2030 and somewhere between 24 and 47% by mid-century.
Food additives are a promising way to reduce the methane burped by livestock. However, the trials typically feed the substances – from a powder called Bovaer to seaweed – to animals every day. But that’s not practical on the average Kiwi sheep and beef farm, where animals may be left to graze on pasture for months at a time.
To overcome this issue, Ruminant BioTech uses a bolus: a large capsule that is currently used to provide medicine or supplementary nutrients to livestock. Animals aren’t keen to swallow a capsule every day, so a bolus contains a long-term supply that is slowly released over weeks or even months.
At the moment, roughly half of all livestock will receive a bolus in their life, estimates George Reeves – the start-up’s chief executive. “Some farmers wouldn’t use them at all for varying reasons, and some farmers would use them a lot.”
So the animals can’t spit them out, the capsules are delivered into the throat using a bolus device or “gun”.
The substance used inside the Ruminant BioTech capsule is a trade secret, Reeves said. But the active ingredient is “a naturally occurring organic compound” known to inhibit the production of methane in an animal’s stomach.
“Our [bolus] is smaller than a lot of other boluses on the market,” said Reeves, the son of sheep and beef farmers.
Roughly 200 large cattle have received the new bolus, with their health and wellbeing closely monitored in preliminary research trials.
“So far, there’s nothing of concern.”
To study the capsule’s effectiveness, some animals were regularly tested in methane-measuring chambers. The result – that cattle burped out 90% less greenhouse gas for 80 days – was ground-breaking, Reeves said.
“The effectiveness surpassed expectations.”
To be sold to farmers, the capsules will require regulatory approval from the Ministry for Primary Industries – acting as the animal version of Medsafe. Regulators expect more extensive research, which Ruminant BioTech hopes to complete in 12 to 18 months.
The taxpayer funds will speed up the studies, Reeves said. “It will help to go faster on cattle and start development on sheep earlier.”
The start-up hoped to sell boluses that last for six months – because that will fit better into a sheep and beef farmer’s calendar.
“It’s a really exciting field,” Reeves added. “We can make a big difference to climate change, not just locally but globally.”
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Pill dramatically reduces cattle's planet-heating burps, says start-up – Stuff
