A study published Tuesday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that supplementing beef cattle with a seaweed pellet can safely reduce methane emissions by 40%.
Ermias Kebreab, a professor in the University of California-Davis Department of Animal Science and a senior author of the study, said in a release that since beef cattle spend only three months of their lives in feedlots, the best thing to do is to make the feed additive available earlier to cattle grazing in the open.
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Researchers studied 24 cows and supplied half with the supplement.
“This method paves the way to make a seaweed supplement easily available to grazing animals,” said Kebreab. “Ranchers could even introduce the seaweed through a lick block.”
The researchers acknowledged the supplement could be formulated to be more palatable and avoid a reduction in feed additive intake.
