The Country 11/11/25: Wayne McNee talks to Jamie Mackay

The chief executive of AgriZeroNZ enlightens us on the mystery behind Āmua’s smart device worn by cattle, which aims to turn nitrogen from cows’ urine into an eco-friendly fertiliser.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Kawaan McNee is the chief executive of Agri Zero NZ.
He has been given the task of trying to reduce
our greenhouse gas emissions through the use of new technologies,
one of them Wayane. We talked to Nikola Willis about
last week with the launch in a North Canterbury cow
paddock of the urine spreader that plugs into the back

(00:20):
of the cow. As I said to Nicola, the mind boggles,
how does this work?

Speaker 2 (00:24):
Thanks Jamie, thanks for having me on the show. So
an exciting new technology being developed in Canterbury at Canterbury Startup.
It's a wearable device which will we place at the
back of the cow to spread the urine. And you
know it's still in prototype stage, but they've been trialing
it on farms in Canterbury and they're continuing to develop
the prototype in different ways of attaching it. But yeah,

(00:44):
look at the potential for it to spread the urine,
produce the need for nitrogen fertilizer, reduce nitrate leeching and
reduce nitrogen emissions is great.

Speaker 1 (00:54):
Can I ask a dirty question, no bad pun intended,
Like just straight above where the wheeze comes out, the
poo comes out right so what happens when the shit
hits the fan?

Speaker 2 (01:05):
So the device, as we've seen it and we've seen
prototypes selection is activated when the cow urinates, so otherwise
it stays flat and it sort of comes up when
the cow urinates and spreads the urine, so otherwise it
doesn't come up, but also is deactivated when a cow
goes in a dairy shit. So it is really we've
committed one point two million to accelerate the development, but

(01:27):
there's not much available for nitros oxide emissions and the
potential of this is huge. And but we just love
the fact it's a farmer leading it with a bunch
of local engineers, mekatronics, mechanical engineers, computer engineers out of Canbory. Yeah,
so really great potential way to go yet.

Speaker 1 (01:43):
Yeah, I'm intrigued to have a look at that one
in action. The other one is a company, an Aussie
company that you've invested in called Embryo, and this is
accelerating genetic gain because obviously if you can accelerate genetic gain,
you can accelerate breeding from animals with reduce greenhouse gas submissions.

Speaker 2 (02:04):
That's right, Jamie and Embryo. Look, it's a different technology
completely and it is designed to accelerate genetic gain, so
it's embryo transfer. Embryo transfer is used widely in the
breeding industry, so companies like LIC and C how they
use it widely, beef breaders, sheep breders. The goal of
this is to try and make that technology available to
all farmers, and the key is to be able to

(02:26):
transfer the embryo just like you di inseminate a cow,
and they've been doing that in Australia. They're going to
do a fifteen hundred car trial in Australia this year.
From our perspective, the focus is on accelerating genetic gain
to reduce emissions, but it'll have a lot wider benefits
than that as well.

Speaker 1 (02:42):
How are you going to convince skeptical farmers the likes
of Jane Smith, who's been a real critic of you
and Agri zero en Z to use this technology even
if it is available and even if it works well.

Speaker 2 (02:53):
Look, ultimately it's up to farmers to decide what they
do on their farm, and all we're looking to do
is make the tools available so farmers will of choices.
And with these two examples, like there's massive other benefits,
so the reduction and application of nitrogen, the reduction and
nitrate leaching and in the case an armour and an
embryo accelerating genique gain. So look, at the end of

(03:13):
the day, farmers chose not to use it, that'll be
up to them. But there's two technologies at least have
widespread benefit beyond their emissions reduction tools. And for the
others it'll be about you know, what are the incentives.
Why would a farmer use these, Who's going to be
paying for it? How does it work in the farming system.
Our goal is to make sure farmers have choices of
tools to use and looking to have the first one

(03:34):
available next year reven and biotech bowlusts, another two or
three the year after that, and another two or three
the year after that, and up to the farmer.

Speaker 1 (03:42):
Who is going to pay for a wine McNee.

Speaker 2 (03:45):
So look, there are certainly discussion at the moment worth
the processes, so the dairy and meat processes, about providing
incentives to farmers to take up new technologies, and that's
coming through from customers internationally in the meat sector and
in the dairy sects who want to reduce their scope.
Three emissions and are prepared to pay. So we've certainly
seen early examples of that, but a lot going on

(04:07):
in the background talking about providing further incentives. And yeah,
so we'll see, why don't we when these things are available.
Clearly in New Zealand, there is not going to be
a tax, so it's all going to be about what's
in it for the farmer. And so for the two
things I talked about earlier, armor and embryo. For biolumix,
pasture productivity gain is a big part of that story.
And for some of the probiotics, they are coming the

(04:28):
same So then the farmer will have an incentive because
they'll get more meat or more milk for the same
amount of input.

Speaker 1 (04:34):
Yeah, well, I reckon if you want to change farmer behavior,
put a market premium out.

Speaker 2 (04:37):
There exactly exactly, and that's what there will need to
be in some form or other. And yeah, we'll see
as these things come to market. There's no point in
putting a premium up when there's nothing to use.

Speaker 1 (04:48):
WAYE McNee Chief executive Vague zero in Zid, thanks for
your time and thanks for explaining to me how the
urine spreader works. I can sleep more easily at night
now

Speaker 2 (04:58):
Thanks Jamie, and yeah, looking forward to coming down Canterbury
actually on Friday for the Trots So show Day races
are one of my favorite things to do, so I
might see a few farmers there too,