Opportunity for

• Innovators, solution providers and startups/scaleups/SME’s to investigate novel technologies that reduce methane production in dairy cattle.

Opportunity description

Industry challenge:

The Australian dairy industry accounts for 10 per cent of agricultural GHG, or about 2 per cent of total national emissions. For dairy, 57 per cent of on-farm emissions come from methane. Greenhouse gases include carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and water vapour. In Australia 90-95% of dairy industry GHGs are coming from farms, with approximately 5-10% coming from manufacturing.

Dairy Australia modelling indicates there has been a loss of dairy farm business productivity in the order of 0.6-0.9 per cent per year since 2000 as a direct result of climate change. Impacts are being felt through changing pasture growth patterns, reduced rainfall, heat impacts on milk production and an increase in extreme events like fire, flood and drought.

Many companies, governments, and industries have established or are establishing targets to reduce GHG emissions, with many targeting carbon neutrality or net-zero emissions by 2050. The Australian dairy industry has committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions intensity (emissions per litre of milk produced) by 30% by 2020.

Dairy Australia seeks to accelerate the availability of methane reducing practices and technologies relevant to pasture-dominated grazing systems for dairy farmers in Australia, leveraging work already done here and overseas.

Current opportunity:

Dairy Australia is seeking applications for proof-of-concept research projects from innovators, solution providers and startups/scaleups/SME’s to investigate novel technologies that reduce methane production in dairy cattle and/or reduce net methane emissions at the farm level without adverse impacts on animal health, feed conversion efficiency, milk quality or milk production.

Solutions within scope include:

• A technology that has as its stated primary (or secondary) purpose, reduction in methane production from the yearling/heifer/adult cow rumen; That is
• A delivery mechanism for an existing enteric methane reduction treatment that wearable or slow-release technology for pasture based grazing systems.
• Novel devices which enable enhanced methane collection, neutralisation, conversion or destruction of produced methane at the individual animal or farm level. These may be mechanical or chemical.

Dairy Australia welcomes expressions of interest from diverse industries beyond the dairy and agricultural sectors. This includes but isn't limited to fields like engineering, mining, material science, waste management, and more.

Solutions out of scope include:

• Vaccines
• Genetic pathways (e.g. improved breeding for reduced lifetime emissions)

Benefits may include, but are not limited to:

• Access to real farms and market situations for testing/commercialisation of solutions
• Access to industry knowledge
• Connections to industry including farmers, processors, research institutes, related industries, policy and regulatory agencies
• Mentoring and Guidance.

Desired outcomes include:

• A significant reduction in methane production from dairy cattle and/or reduced net methane emissions at the farm level without adverse impacts on animal health, feed conversion efficiency, milk quality or milk production.
• The technology and the study design must be able to pass review by a suitably qualified and commissioned animal ethics committee.
• Feasibility, cost and implementation data for the technology in Australian dairy systems.
• Information relating to the scalability and field application of the technology.

The method of methane output measurement should be specified in the application, along with verification of the robustness of the measurement method.

To find out more about this opportunity or to express your interest got to "Enquire now".