Jess Vilvestre reports that global emissions from livestock account for 14.5% of all greenhouse gas emissions, with about 44% of emissions in the form of methane. Researchers discovered they can radically decrease livestock emissions by adding a small amount of dried seaweed to the Bovine diet.
Although natural, cows burping and tooting profusely has not has a positive impact on our world. The agriculture and forestry industry is the second largest contributor of greenhouse gas emissions. Researchers in Queensland, Australia believe it is possible to radically decrease livestock emissions. They have discovered that adding a small amount of dried seaweed to the Bovine diet decreases produced methane by up to 99%.
The researchers considered twenty species of seaweed to become the cattle feed additive that would improve the cow-stomach chemistry. De Nys group tested the effectiveness of each species in an artificial rumen, the first chamber of a cow-stomach where microbial fermentation occurs. The lab-made rumen contained controlled amounts of microbes, grass, and seaweed where the scientists could easily determine methane concentration. They found that Asparagopsis taxiformis, a type of red seaweed, resulted in the most significant reduction.
They have results already with whole sheep, De Nys said. If Asparagopsis is fed to sheep at 2% of their diet, they produce between 50 and 70% less methane over a 72-day period continuously. De Nys stated that trials on cattle would be underway at the CSIRO Lansdown facility until next year.
The most challenging part of implementing the discovery to truly make large-scale impact will be harvesting enough seaweed to feed millions of cows. The researchers are considering partnering with other parties, like established seaweed farmers in South East Asia, to make it happen.
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