Low methane meat: exporting lower methane beef

CH4 Global and CirPro Australia have signed an agreement that will see the first shipment of Australian ‘reduced methane’ beef exported later this year following successful feedlot trials of CH4 Global’s ‘Methane Tamer’, a natural asparagopsis seaweed-based supplement fed to cattle in South Australia.

CirPro Australia CEO Reg Smyth said: “We’ve been able to lower methane emissions and significantly lower the carbon footprint of the beef from these cows.

“We have shown that feeding cattle Methane Tamer at a commercial scale improves efficiency and is 100% safe for the animals, and there is no difference to the beef’s taste,” Smyth said.

CirPro claims the cattle achieved the same weight gain as the control group while consuming less feed per day.

“Based on 100 cattle in a feedlot for 100 days, we can eliminate the equivalent GHG emissions of driving a petrol-powered passenger vehicle at least 100 times between Sydney and Perth, or the equivalent amount of carbon sequestered by 1500 tree seedlings grown for 10 years,” Smyth said.

“This historic agreement will enable CirPro and its partners to scale to at least 100,000 cattle per day with much of that being to export markets where partners there are seeing an increased demand for low-carbon beef products and our focus is to meet that demand.”

CH4 Global CEO Dr Steve Meller said the company was well on its way to commence large-scale production of the supplement from early 2025 in Port Lincoln.

“Following the first sod-turning in January this year, we are pushing forward with construction of the EcoPark as fast as possible to meet what we are now seeing as a significant global demand for beef that can demonstrate direct, meaningful methane emissions reductions using an all-natural product in Methane Tamer and not an extract or a synthetic material,” Meller said.

Image credit: iStock.com/SlavkoSereda