Tasmania-based Sea Forest—one of a flurry of startups producing feed supplements from Asparagopsis seaweed to curb livestock methane emissions—has teamed up with Uganda-based agtech co NileOrbital Aerospace to feed its wares to cattle in East Africa.
Stage one of the partnership will begin early next year with 30,000 cattle across 15 farms in Uganda and Kenya. Noa’s Herd—an app developed by NileOrbital Aerospace—will measure the resulting reductions in methane, supported by GreenFeed devices, portable feeding stations that capture and analyze gases produced by ruminants.
Sea Forest CEO Sam Elsom told AgFunderNews: “[We’re supplying] a lick that will be used in grazing systems with methane measurements taken via GreenFeed devices which will arrive in January 2025.”
Proceeds from the sale of the carbon credits that result will be shared with farmers, said Sea Forest, which will receive $2 million per year from Noa’s Herd over the course of the initial three-year deal, with an option to later expand.
Nicholas Katongole, cofounder and CEO at NileOrbital Aerospace, said: “This is an important partnership for so many reasons. Not only will it be reducing methane emissions from day one, but this project will provide capital to farmers in one of the poorest parts of the world through carbon credits. This access to finance will allow them to catch up with the rest of the world and help sustain their livelihoods.”
‘I think the rubber hits the road when we get close to 2030’
Will methane-reducing feed supplements ultimately pay for themselves through increased yields or will consumers pay a premium for greener meat and dairy? Or will the success of the whole endeavor rest on carbon credits?
It depends on the market, Sea Forest CEO Sam Elsom told AgFunderNews in a recent interview: “If you’ve got a product that goes into a big retailer, maybe they’re motivated to support farmers to meet their emissions reductions targets. Or maybe you’ve got a wagyu beef producer sending product to high end restaurants [that want to make environmental claims], so there’s not one answer [to who will pay]. And then there are carbon credits. But I think there’s also going to be a need for some government support.”
In terms of productivity benefits, he said, “a peer-reviewed paper that came out in 2020 showed productivity gains from Asparagopsis supplementation in beef cattle, but we haven’t seen that replicated in larger trials, which you need before making any claims along those lines to farmers. Anywhere from 4-8% is probably realistic.”
He added: “Right now we’re working with [Australian fashion house] M.J. Bale [which sells ‘methane-reduced’ merino wool suits from sheep fed Sea Forest supplements]; we’re working with [restaurant chain] Grill’d on a lower emissions burger, and Ashgrove Dairy [which makes ‘Eco-Milk’ from cows fed Sea Forest’s feed supplements] that’s available in Coles and Woolworths; plus we’ve been working with [global dairy co-op] Fonterra and other dairy companies. We’ve also just done a deal with [vertically integrated UK supermarket chain] Morrisons.
Asked what will focus minds, he said, “I think the rubber hits the road when we get close to 2030, as so many people have made commitments around that date. Meat and Livestock Australia has a 2030 carbon neutral target for the Australian red meat industry, for example.”
He added: “Farmers can try and sequester more soil carbon, they can plant trees, they can do manure management, but none of those things can deliver the level of abatement that Asparagopsis can. It’s a case of for how long can you kick the can down the road?”
Source - https://agfundernews.com
