A red seaweed asparagopsis plant in its environment. Photo: Immersion/Nissui

THE Australian Agricultural Co has given an update on its long-fed Wagyu aspargopsis methane reducing additive trial, detecting some promising methane reduction results, no evidence of negative impact on quality, but a ‘slight’ decrease in feed intake and carcase weight.

This week the company released its sustainability report to the ASX, which included the details of its recent carbon and biodiversity projects – along with the preliminary results of its red seaweed asparagopsis trial.

AA Co has teamed up with Meat & Livestock Australia, SeaForest and the University of New England in feeding the methane-reducing additive to 80 head of Wagyu cattle for 300 days. The trial was split into two groups with one group receiving the asparagopsis extract in canola oil as a part of the oil ingredient in the ration.

Tests on eating quality, carcase grading and cattle feedlot performance were also conducted.

AA Co chief executive Dave Harris

“A sensory panel evaluation found that the eating quality was unaffected by the asparagopsis supplement,” the report said.

Feed intakes were slightly lower which led to slightly lighter carcase weights, but carcase grading traits were not affected.

“The study also supported other work demonstrating the safety of feeding asparagopsis to cattle in the human food chain. The results confirmed there are no residues of bromoform, iodine or bromide in meat of offal when an asparagopsis extract is fed at a target dose of 17-35mg bromoform/kg feed dry matter,” the report said.

The physical side of the trial has concluded and an update needed to be published in the company’s financial-year 2023 report – with a lot more results to come when MLA releases the entire report – expected to be some time in July.

In the report’s CEO message, Dave Harris said the trial was one of the company’s notable achievements of FY23.

“As you would expect when research is being conducted for the first time, the trial has raised a number of questions that we will now work our way through,” Mr Harris said.

“A review into the system around Australian Carbon Credit Units was conducted by the government,  with adjustments made that we hope will accelerate our ability to generate ACCUs when using technologies like asparagopsis to reduce our methane emissions, further improving our ability to make significant advances in this area.”

• Beef Central will have more from Meat & Livestock Australia on the asparagopsis trial in coming days.