Latest news with #CalmACattleBolus
Scoop
3 days ago
- Business
- Scoop
Cure Worse Than The Cause?
'We are going down a dangerous and totally unnecessary road using bromoform', said Jane Smith, leading North Otago farmer and environmentalist. Jane is a co-founder of the Methane Science Accord that questions the promotion of methane-reducing products containing tribromomethane (bromoform) — a chemical compound found in seaweed and chlorinated water — now set to be unleashed on pastoral farming. Bromoform is ozone-depleting, classified as a volatile organic compound (VOC), and in some jurisdictions like the USA, is banned from use in livestock destined for human consumption. Here in New Zealand, these products are restricted from use in breeding or dairy cattle. The Methane Science Accord has fears around food safety, questions about animal welfare, and doubts that such intensive, expensive interference in the natural biogenic rumination process is either necessary or justified. 'The mere fact it has been suggested these products be used only on prime stock destined for slaughter, and not on lactating or reproducing animals, is concerning in itself,' says Smith. A slow-release methane-reducing bolus developed by Ruminant BioTech and backed by AgriZero, (a joint taxpayer-industry venture) reportedly show methane reductions of up to 70 percent over 100 days. Ruminant BioTech's other investors include Rosrain Investments and NZ Green Investment Finance (a government-backed fund set to be shut down). One product, called Emitless, is designed for cattle weighing between 350 and 450 kilograms. A second product, Calm A Cattle Bolus, aims to reduce methane emissions for up to four months. These contain a halogenated methane analogue (three bromines replacing hydrogens on methane). It has strong anti-methanogenic properties and inhibits methane production by interfering with enzymes in methanogenic archaea in the rumen (particularly methyl-coenzyme M reductase). The Environmental Protection Authority said the active ingredient fits within existing veterinary standards and does not require individual approval under hazardous substance law, however the product still awaits sign-off under the Agricultural Compounds and Veterinary Medicines Act. The Methane Science Accord states that not only is the cost of these is unknown but there is no measurable benefit to global climate temperatures and the return on investment is far outweighed by a myriad of risks. 'Having to round up stock every 120 days to force a bolus down their throat raises serious issues around safety for our farmers, particularly as there is absolutely no calculable gain to be achieved by this proposal', states Jane Smith. Methane Science Accord (MSA) co-founder Owen Jennings questions 'Why would we interfere with the natural biogenic process of rumination, why would we risk our naturally pasture-raised global status, why would we add further stress, risk and cost to our farmers and their livestock?' AgriZero CEO Wayne McNee admits 'farmers will need financial incentives to adopt them'. Smith suggests 'there are a lot people set to make a lot of money out of selling methane mitigation pills and potions into our sector, at the cost to the taxpayer, farmers and the risk to our naturally-raised livestock status. I'm assuming this is a knee-jerk reaction to justify the millions of taxpayer and ag sector dollars that have been squandered so far on these products.'. 'The lack of public transparency around safety, testing and environmental modeling is concerning not only for the farmers themselves but our sensitive global markets such as the EU don't even allow for grain-feeding. The cure is certainly worse than the cause'. A survey carried out by NZ Farming, The Methane Science Accord and Groundswell in May 2025 showed that 95% of the 1460 farmer responses would not use methane mitigation boluses, vaccines or feed additives in their livestock.
Scoop
31-07-2025
- Business
- Scoop
Beef Farmers Likely First In Line For Emissions-Reducing Livestock Pill
Industry-government venture AgriZero is hinting that New Zealand beef may be the first agricultural sector to gain access to tools like a new methane-reducing pill for livestock - and soon. Ruminant BioTech was developing a slow-release bolus, or pill, to be fed to livestock. Recent trials on New Zealand farms resulted in a reduction of methane emissions. It was one of AgriZero's 10 investments towards reducing agricultural emissions. AgriZero first invested $1.8 million into Ruminant BioTech's product in April 2023, followed by $4m to accelerate its commercialisation in August. Chief executive Wayne McNee said the company was planning a limited release for beef cattle, once it was approved by the regulator. "Ruminant BioTech, so likely to be the first of these products in the market. It's a bolus, many of you will have heard of, containing bromoform," he said. "The benefit of a bolus, obviously is that you can administer it once, it lasts for at least 100 days, reduces methane by 70 percent or so over that period. "And the current thinking is to probably administer one of these [boluses] to an animal during its lifetime, and you average out the benefit of that over the period of that beef animal's life." Ruminant BioTech's bolus won a protype category innovation award at Fieldays near Hamilton in June. Assessing new bolus for use on-farm Ruminant BioTech's bolus contained Tribromomethane (bromoform), a chemical compound that could be found in marine algae, phytoplankton or as a by-product of chlorinated drinking water. It applied to register trade names for two products, the "Calm A Cattle Bolus" in September and "Emitless" more recently in May. Department of Internal Affairs information showed Emitless was a 172g oral bolus containing 48g of Tribromomethane, and users were instructed not to use the product in cattle intended for reproduction, or cattle intended to produce milk for human consumption. Whereas, Calm A Cattle Bolus was a 165g bolus containing 36g of Tribromomethane, intended to reduce enteric methane emissions in cattle for up to 4 months. Last week, the Environmental Protection Authority said it determined that the inhibitor - containing 50-70 percent tribromomethane as the active ingredient - fit within the scope of the veterinary medicines group standard, under the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act (1996), and did not require an individual approval. Before the product could be used in New Zealand though, it would require registration under the Agricultural Compounds and Veterinary Medicines Act (1997), which was administered by the Ministry for Primary Industries. New Zealand Food Safety deputy director-general, Vincent Arbuckle said it had received and was assessing the application for registering Ruminant BioTech's "Emitless" product. Arbuckle said the product was an intraruminal bolus for reducing enteric methane in cattle weighing between 350 kilograms and 450kg for up to 4 months. ruralnews@ McNee said it expected a result from the regulator soon. "It's going through regulatory process at the moment and hoping to be available later this year or worst case early next year," he said. "Certainly by next year and over the next few years, we'll see one or two products, maybe three products come into the market each year. That's what the companies are telling us." New emissions reduction tools 'coming fast' McNee said in future, farmers will have a range of emissions-reduction tools to choose from. "If there's a productivity improvement, it may be relatively straightforward to get uptake. "But in other cases, if it's pure methane reduction, then at the end of the day, somebody's going to have to pay for that," he said. "There are a number of processors, certainly the ones that have invested in us, who are talking with companies offshore to look at the potential to provide incentives to farmers to take up those tools." Also speaking at the red meat sector conference in Christchurch this month, Dr John Roche the chief science advisor for the Prime Minister and the Ministry for Primary Industries, said progress had accelerated. "Incredibly exciting. I've sat in front of Select Committee for the last several years talking about these technologies and I kid you not, two or three years ago I was promising I'm reasonably confident they'll be here by 2030. "Two years later, I'm saying we will have a bolus that reduces methane by 70 percent in dry stock, slow release over 120 days, and it will be released either later this year or early next year," he said. "These technologies are coming fast and more of them are becoming available." Company records showed Ruminant BioTech Corp's main shareholders were Rosrain Investments, which owned 44 percent of the business. It had two company directors from New Zealand and two from Australia. Other backers included New Zealand Trustee Services, Crown Terrace Investments and New Zealand Green Investment Finance, the latter a government fund towards low-emissions projects that the government announced in April it will shut down.
NZ Herald
31-07-2025
- Business
- NZ Herald
Climate change and farming: New Zealand beef sector likely first in line for emissions-reducing livestock pill
AgriZeroNZ first invested $1.8 million into Ruminant BioTech's product in April 2023, followed by $4m to accelerate its commercialisation in August. AgriZeroNZ chief executive Wayne McNee said the company was planning a limited release for beef cattle, once it was approved by the regulator. McNee said Ruminant BioTech was likely to be the first of these products in the market. 'It's a bolus many of you will have heard of, containing bromoform. 'The benefit of a bolus, obviously, is that you can administer it once, it lasts for at least 100 days and reduces methane by 70% or so over that period. 'And the current thinking is to probably administer one of these [boluses] to an animal during its lifetime and you average out the benefit of that over the period of that beef animal's life.' Ruminant BioTech's bolus won a prototype category innovation award at Fieldays near Hamilton in June. Assessing new bolus for use on-farm Ruminant BioTech's bolus contained Tribromomethane (bromoform), a chemical compound that could be found in marine algae, phytoplankton or as a byproduct of chlorinated drinking water. It applied to register trade names for two products, the 'Calm A Cattle Bolus' last September and 'Emitless' in May. Ruminant Bio Tech's R&D team holding boluses, designed to curb methane emissions in cattle, in front of the lab team producing a batch of boluses. Department of Internal Affairs information showed Emitless was a 172g oral bolus containing 48g of Tribromomethane. Users were instructed not to use the product in cattle intended for reproduction, or in cattle intended to produce milk for human consumption – whereas Calm A Cattle Bolus was a 165g bolus containing 36g of Tribromomethane, intended to reduce enteric methane emissions in cattle for up to four months. Last week, the Environmental Protection Authority said it determined that the inhibitor – containing 50-70% tribromomethane as the active ingredient – fit within the scope of the veterinary medicines group standard, under the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act (1996), and did not require an individual approval. Before the product could be used in New Zealand, though, it would require registration under the Agricultural Compounds and Veterinary Medicines Act (1997), which was administered by the Ministry for Primary Industries. New Zealand Food Safety deputy director-general Vincent Arbuckle said it had received and was assessing the application for registering Ruminant BioTech's 'Emitless' product. Arbuckle said the product was an intraruminal bolus for reducing enteric methane in cattle weighing between 350kg and 450kg for up to four months. McNee said it expected a result from the regulator soon. 'It's going through regulatory process at the moment and hoping to be available later this year or, worst case, early next year,' he said. 'Certainly by next year and over the next few years, we'll see one or two products, maybe three products come into the market each year. 'That's what the companies are telling us.' New emissions reduction tools 'coming fast' McNee said that in future, farmers will have a range of emissions-reduction tools to choose from. 'If there's a productivity improvement, it may be relatively straightforward to get uptake,' he said. 'But in other cases, if it's pure methane reduction, then at the end of the day, somebody's going to have to pay for that. 'There are a number of processors, certainly the ones that have invested in us, who are talking with companies offshore to look at the potential to provide incentives to farmers to take up those tools.' Also speaking at the red meat sector conference in Christchurch this month, Dr John Roche, the chief science advisor for the Prime Minister and the Ministry for Primary Industries, said progress had accelerated. 'Incredibly exciting,' Roche said. 'I've sat in front of select committee[s] [at Parliament] for the last several years talking about these technologies, and I kid you not, two or three years ago I was promising I'm reasonably confident they'll be here by 2030. 'Two years later, I'm saying we will have a bolus that reduces methane by 70% in dry stock, slow-release over 120 days and it will be released either later this year or early next year. 'These technologies are coming fast and more of them are becoming available.' Company records showed Ruminant BioTech Corp's main shareholders were Rosrain Investments, which owned 44% of the business. It had two company directors from New Zealand and two from Australia. Other backers included New Zealand Trustee Services, Crown Terrace Investments and New Zealand Green Investment Finance. The latter is a government fund towards low-emissions projects that the Government announced in April that it will shut down. – RNZ
