{"id":23476,"date":"2021-11-16T13:14:22","date_gmt":"2021-11-16T13:14:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.grocerygazette.co.uk\/?p=23476"},"modified":"2021-11-17T08:53:09","modified_gmt":"2021-11-17T08:53:09","slug":"morrisons-trials-climate-friendly-seaweed-cattle-feed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.grocerygazette.co.uk\/2021\/11\/16\/morrisons-trials-climate-friendly-seaweed-cattle-feed\/","title":{"rendered":"Morrisons trials \u2018climate-friendly\u2019 seaweed cattle feed"},"content":{"rendered":"


\nMorrisons\u00a0hopes to reduce the \u201cburps and flatulence\u201d of cows with a\u00a0seaweed-based\u00a0\u201cclimate-friendly\u201d cattle feed.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Big 4 grocer will be the first supermarket to test the alternative feed, with early findings suggesting it reduces methane emissions.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The retailer has announced that it will be funding a PhD project at Queen\u2019s University, Belfast over a three-year trial. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u00a0is testing the nutritional content, effect on meat and milk quality, methane reduction and animal health of native UK coastal seaweed throughout the process.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The\u00a0findings\u00a0have not been published yet,\u00a0but\u00a0Morrisons claims the early\u00a0results\u00a0are \u201cpromising.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Reports this year revealed that cows belched 82 per cent less methane following a small level of imported red seaweed distributed in their feed. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

READ MORE:\u00a0Morrisons becomes \u2018first supermarket\u2019 to own recycling centre<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

However, the\u00a0grocer\u00a0hopes to work with native seaweed, which\u00a0displays a higher rate of success in results and\u00a0lacks the ozone-destructive compound bromoform which is found in red seaweed.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

According to current data, UK agriculture accounts for 10 per cent of all nationwide greenhouse gas emissions, with beef farming contributing 45 per cent of emissions\u00a0but\u00a0only five per cent of products.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

An estimated 50 per cent of the emissions can reportedly be traced back to cattle.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAs British farming\u2019s biggest customer, we\u2019re very mindful of our role in supporting and inspiring the farmers we work with to help them achieve goals in sustainable farming,\u201d Morrisons head of agriculture Sophie\u00a0Throup said.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBy supporting this PhD studentship and wider research we are\u00a0trialling\u00a0this natural approach to reducing the environmental emissions caused by burps and flatulence from cows, as well as improving the quality of beef products.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Queen\u2019s University professor of animal science and microbiology Sharon Huws added: \u201cThis is a truly innovative partnership between a retailer and researchers.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe involvement of Morrisons means that effective methane reduction can be rolled out to Morrisons farmers\u2019 herds of beef cows, and the seaweed needed can be sourced through its relationship with fisheries.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Click here to sign up to Grocery Gazette\u2019s free daily email newsletter<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Morrisons\u00a0hopes to reduce the \u201cburps and flatulence\u201d of cows with a\u00a0seaweed-based\u00a0\u201cclimate-friendly\u201d cattle feed.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":23478,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4870,3928,4871],"tags":[5982,7315,2770,7317,2371,7313,4225,1760,7316,461,7314,7312,7311,7318,4740,2769,2127],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grocerygazette.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23476"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grocerygazette.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grocerygazette.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grocerygazette.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/62"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grocerygazette.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23476"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.grocerygazette.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23476\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23480,"href":"https:\/\/www.grocerygazette.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23476\/revisions\/23480"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grocerygazette.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grocerygazette.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grocerygazette.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grocerygazette.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}