Coles is partnering with Mort & Co Grassdale Feedlot in Queensland, and Royal DSM to trial feed supplement Bovaer on cattle in a bid to reduce methane emissions.
DSM has developed Bovaer, a feed supplement for cattle which has produced positive results overseas.
Coles says the trial with Mort & Co Grassdale Feedlot will be the largest commercial feedlot trial in Australia.
Coles chief executive, Commercial & Express Leah Weckert said the trial was a part of the company’s Together to Zero emissions ambition in its Sustainability Strategy.
“This trial is going to give us a wealth of data and knowledge to help us understand how we can reduce emissions in one part of our supply chain.
“We hope the Bovaer feed supplement trial will open up a new opportunity for emissions reduction, and that it will provide an affordable, commercially viable option to one day be rolled out at scale around the country,” Weckert said.
Bovaer – which is broken down as part of the natural digestive process of the animal – has been shown to successfully reduce methane emissions.
Mort & Co CEO Stephen O’Brien said, “We approached Coles to partner with us in this trial because we believe Bovaer had significant research and science behind it to make it worthy of a trial of this size.”
The trial will be carried out on 9800 cattle, with Coles providing grading data to be analysed. Specialised cattle veterinarians and researchers Bovine Dynamics will produce a research paper outlining the findings of the study to be then published in a scientific peer-reviewed journal, Coles said.
The cattle will be fed at Mort & Co Grassdale Feedlot and processed at the Teys Australia Beenleigh processing plant, Queensland.
“We’re confident that the final outcome will be a game changer for our industry, providing us with scientifically proven results that will hopefully allow us to roll this out across a larger cohort of cattle and certainly change our environmental footprint,” O’Brien said.
Fonterra has been running a similar trial with Royal DSM and Bovaer on cattle in New Zealand. It is exploring whether the feed supplement can work as effectively on pasture-feed cattle as it does with feedlot herds.
The dairy co-op is also trialling the methane reducing potential of Asparagopsis seaweed, with Tasmanian company Sea Forest. For two years it has been feeding small amounts to 900 dairy cows in Australia with promising results. In May it announced it was expanding the trial to a commercial scale.
Australia’s largest integrated cattle and beef producer Australian Agricultural Company (AACo) is also working with Sea Forest on a small methane reduction pilot program with 81 wagyu cattle.
