Olsson, Australia's oldest family-owned and operated salt and lick block manufacturer, has partnered with Sea Forest to create the world's first lick block that cuts methane emissions in cattle.
Made with Sea Forest SeaFeed, and Olsson's wealth of experience in producing nutritional lick blocks, Low & Grow is a simple solution for pioneering farmers looking to reduce enteric methane in grazing cattle.
Olsson Industries operations manager Murray Olsson said we have been at the forefront of multi-nutrient blocks in Australia since 1949.
“We've always strived to innovate, and we've never ignored our responsibility to the environment,” Mr Olsson says.
“So, getting to work with Sea Forest on a globally significant product such as this was exciting,” he says.
“We want to make sure the future of farming is secure, in addition to providing better nutrients for livestock. Low & Grow is the first lick block supplement of its kind for pasture fed ruminants."
The key ingredient in Low & Grow blocks is SeaFeed, made in Australia and based on Asparagopsis, the native seaweed farmed in Tasmania by Sea Forest.
SeaFeed contains compounds that overcome the enzymes in the gut that produce methane during the final stages of digestion.
The milestone of fusing SeaFeed with lick blocks was made possible by the MERiL grant program (Methane Emissions Reduction in Livestock), a multimillion-dollar initiative by the Federal Government, under the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water.
SeaFeed is backed by more than 30 peer-reviewed studies showing substantial methane abatement rates.
Chief scientific officer at Sea Forest Professor Rocky de Nys said the team has been working with Olsson's on this project for over two years.
“We tested many formulations to optimise nutritional supplementation and efficacy in reducing methane. It's exciting to have this new delivery method for SeaFeed and there's no better partner than Olsson's to get it out in paddocks across the country,” he said.
Launched last month at Beef 24 in Rockhampton, and with Australia's first low emission products in the dairy and beef industries starting to take off, Low & Grow represents an easy on ramp into this burgeoning category, which is only going to expand, thanks to increasing consumer demand and improved margins for producers.
