Asparagopsis, a genus of red algae, had the extraordinary ability to reduce methane production in cattle by as much as 99%. It was found to contain a high amount of bromoform that was particularly well suited to reducing methane production in the gut of ruminant animals. Better yet, this result was achieved by adding as little 0.4% of asparagopsis to the total feed. The implications were profound. Cattle are agriculture’s leading contributor of greenhouse gases. The ability to reduce those emissions by such a significant amount would have ramifications across the entire industry.

There are two main varieties of Asparagopsis, Armata which grows in temperate waters and Taxiformis which prefers tropical and subtropical waters. There’s only one place in the world where both varieties grow. South Australia’s Eyre peninsula. As France’s “Burgundy” region is to wine, the Eyre Peninsula is to seaweed cultivation, a location that offers the high salinity, high calcium waters that Asparagopsis thrive in. There could be no better environment for researching cultivars of this algae. But what makes this place even more appealing was the large scale shellfish industry that had already put in place the infrastructure needed for the cultivation of algae. With hatchery facilities in Franklin Harbour and Coffin Bay, the opportunity to successfully propagate and access producers at scale led to the development of CleanEyre Global.

Our story starts on Prince Edward island in Canada, back in 2006 when a local farmer noticed that his stock had been grazing on the kelp that washed up on his coastal farm. Curiously, his cows not only enjoyed the seaweed, they seemed to gain weight more quickly. So he began introducing the kelp as a regular part of their feed. The results were encouraging, his herd readily accepted the kelp, gave better yields and were more fertile while the frequency of mastitis and other diseases was reduced. Encouraged by the results, he reached out to Ag scientist Rob Kinley who jumped at the chance to find out more. His early research quickly established that seaweed wasn’t just producing better outcomes for the cattle, it was reducing their methane emissions by as much as twenty percent. Intrigued at what he discovered, he knew that other seaweeds could potentially have even better results. With that in mind he began a research project with the CSIRO and James Cook university in the far North of Australia’s Queensland. A research facility beside the Great Barrier Reef where he had the opportunity to test a range of seaweeds as cattle feed to see if he could replicate the findings in a scientific setting. What he discovered confirmed the Canadian farmer’s observations. Not only were the feeds well received by the stock, they delivered better yields with reduced methane outputs. But the true surprise arrived with one particular variety of seaweed.