Specially formulated molasses lick blocks are being investigated as a potential solution to reducing methane emissions from livestock.
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Professor Luciano Gonzalez from the University of Sydney said there was significant potential to reduce overall methane emissions for grazing cattle in extensive pastoral systems, but the technology had to focus on production as a priority.
"The research goal is to turn that methane into body weight, rather than allow that energy to go to waste," Prof Gonzalez said.
"We have started on low dose of active ingredients to ensure best animal welfare, with no set back of cattle at this stage of trials."
Prof Gonzalez said early results from a pen trial with young steers saw an average 12 per cent direct abatement of methane, while also allowing bodyweight to increase at 0.78kg/head/day on oaten hay.
The research is part of a collaboration between Meat & Livestock Australia, the University of Sydney and commercial company AgCoTech.
AgCoTech chair Charles 'Chick' Olsson said the plan was to slowly introduce new technology that was safe, cost-effective, and mitigated methane emissions for all ruminants.
"We are currently developing molasses blocks, feed pellets and liquid feed as carriers for our natural range of plant extracts," Mr Olsson said.
CN30 project manager Julia Waite said grazing properties varied in their management regimes and risk appetite, which impacted the kinds of technologies that would be suitable.
"Across the portfolio we have active trials looking at dosing through the water supply, lick-block through to a more out-there biodegradable bolus," Ms Waite said.
"The advantage of lick-blocks as a delivery mechanism is that the technology is familiar to producers, so there's one less unknown when considering adoption and for many, it may fit in with their existing supplementation regime."
The research is also being applied overseas.
Mr Olsson was recently appointed as one of 10 ASEAN Business Champions by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese at the ASEAN-Australia Special Summit held in Mebourne.
The Brisbane-headquartered company has built an impressive factory at Luang Prabang in central Laos that supplies medicated methane supplements at no cost to small holder farmers.
The business is funded through the sale of SDG/carbon credits to sustainably minded businesses in developed countries, including Australia.
In addition to reducing methane emissions from both cattle and buffalo, the supplements are helping to reduce poverty by enabling cattle to grow to marketable weights more quickly, produce more milk and increase the fertility of breeding animals.
"AgCoTech Laos is on track in 2024 to deliver 100,000 20kg emissions blocks to small holder farmers free of charge, which will not only improve beef and dairy production, but will also directly avoid 40,000 tonnes of CO2e being released into the atmosphere," Mr Olsson said.
