Cattle on feed at Avondale Agriculture’s 5000-head feedlot in NSW, where methane-reducing feed additives will be introduced by October this year

PUBLICLY-LISTED Sea Forest has signed new supply agreements with two large beef supply chains and delivered revenue growth up 83 percent for its SeaFeed methane-inhibiting feed additive.

In its quarterly report to the ASX delivered last week, Sea Forest said product sales last quarter had reached $2.1 million, reflecting continued growth in supplementation volumes across the industry.

Sea Forest said that as at 30 June, it had 131,000 grainfed cattle ‘under agreement’, up 11pc on the previous quarter, following new supply arrangements with two beef supply chains:

Avondale Agriculture is a family-owned cotton, grain and cattle enterprise located near Rowena NSW, intending to supplement about 5000 feedlot cattle. Avondale expected this cohort to be fully-inducted on the SeaFeed supplement by October.

Sea Forest has also entered into a three-year contract with New Agriculture, a Canadian-backed global investment manager with a growing cattle portfolio in Australia. The first phase will see the company use SeaFeed in its 8000-head capacity feedlot run as part of Benditi Pastoral Co based at Yarrowitch, NSW, bought by New Agriculture last year.

The supply agreement also ‘extends the supplementation opportunity’ to two further New Agriculture operations – a 25,000 head Wagyu grazing enterprise and the 198,000 head Kimberley Cattle Portfolio, comprising Yougawalla Pastoral Co, Argyle Cattle Co and the Kimberley Meat Co processing plant, bought by New Agriculture in 2023 for more than $300 million.

This would represent a significant expansion of the use of the feed additive into the Australian grazing sector, Sea Forest told shareholders.

It was not made clear whether the agreements cover the use of the Sea Forest’s original naturally-harvested sea-grown dried asparagopsis seaweed product, or the more recently developed synthetically produced compound that uses the same bromoform actives.