The greenhouse effect was first documented by Irish physicist John Tyndall in 1859. However, it wasn’t until later the next century that this phenomenon became a cause for global concern creating a need for constant updating of best practices for the industry - particularly for agricultural producers with livestock.
More than 95% of Angel Bay’s pure New Zealand beef and lamb comes from processing plants operated by our parent company ANZCO Foods.
Farmers are being asked to reduce their on-farm emissions, but outside of reducing stock numbers, there are few tools and resources currently available to achieve the required reduction in methane emissions. ANZCO Foods is involved in programmes and projects to accelerate getting tools and resources into farmers’ hands to help manage emissions.
ANZCO Foods is a founding partner in an industry and government collaboration to accelerate developing, commercialising and delivering solutions to reduce agricultural emissions. The partnership, between the New Zealand Government, ANZCO Foods, Fonterra, Rabobank, Ravensdown, Silver Fern Farms and Synlait will see around $172m invested during the next four years to develop practical tools and technologies to help farmers address on-farm emissions.
The initiative is part of the new Centre for Climate Action on Agricultural Emissions and is a great example of industry working together to get new technologies into the hands of farmers sooner.
There aren’t any immediate fixes but by working together and giving those involved direct access to farmers, we can get the tools created faster to help reduce emissions. We’re excited to be involved with this sector group actively seeking solutions to help New Zealand maintain its position as a world leader.
New Zealand’s food and fibre sector is among the most emissions-efficient globally, but we must address methane. We must have a viable primary sector with access to the tools and resources that enable the sector to produce environmentally sustainable products, which means always looking for avenues to do more while maintaining productive and profitable farming businesses.
ANZCO Foods’ Five Star Beef operation is trialling a natural feed supplement called Mootral Ruminant that reduces methane gas released by cows as part of the digestive process. Mootral is a pellet made from a combination of garlic and citrus extract that doesn’t impact the taste or texture of the meat or milk but can reduce methane emissions by 38%. The trial is part of a Ministry for Primary Industries Sustainable Food and Fibre Futures project that involves several other on-farm trials.
A regularly calibrated measuring machine picks up the breath of the animals fed Mootral, reads their tags and turns on sensors that measure the amount of methane gas in the animal’s breath. ANZCO then works with our project partners to generate data on methane emissions so we can better understand methane outputs based on the feeds animals receive.
The trial started in early 2022 and ran for 12 months. Five Star Beef intends to continue using Mootral and will provide ongoing monitoring as part of normal operations.