Looking to improve milk production, California farmer John Verwey turned to a Swiss-made feed additive designed to make a cow more efficient while reducing methane emissions from cattle burps.
"We think we're ahead of the curve," he said from Fresno, California."Everyone should be trying their best to prevent pollution." Livestock emit 14.5per cent of the world's greenhouse gases that are related to human activity such as farming, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. Nearly two-thirds of those emissions come from cattle, including through burps, flatulence and manure.Ruminant animals like cattle produce methane as microbes ferment fibrous carbohydrates in their stomachs into digestible form.
Within two years, feed company DSM intends to launch sales in Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Latin America. Mootral, another Swiss startup, plans to launch commercial sales in 2021, feeding 300,000 head of cattle, and adding at least another 1 million head by 2022, said Chief Executive Thomas Hafner.
While global sales of methane-reducing feed may amount to just US$30 million in 2021, such sales may hit several billion dollars within five years, Hafner said.Cattle methane-reducing efforts made headlines when Restaurant Brands began selling lower-methane Whoppers.
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