Australia: Seaweed additive drops methane by 95pc while upping cattle productivity 20pc

AUSTRALIAN seaweed could be a $1.5-billion agricultural sector within two decades, due to its ability to reduce methane emissions in livestock while improving their productivity. A new industry body has been established to help drive the growth of the emerging seaweed sector. The Australian Sustainable Seaweed Alliance (ASSA) has set ambitious targets of $100 million in production by 2025, and $1.5 billion by 2040. The red seaweed asparagopsis is already driving significant demand from farmers. The native species has been shown to reduce cattle methane emissions to almost zero when just a small amount is added to their feed. Australia is leading the way in the emerging market, with company's such as FutureFeed - born out of a partnership between the CSIRO, MLA and James Cook University - turning the seaweed into a feed additive. Just 50 grams of FutureFeed's product a day has been shown to reduce cattle methane emissions by 95 per cent. It's also been shown to increase cattle ...