Wayne McNee: AgriZeroNZ CEO on the New Zealand trials to see if daffodil extract can cut livestock methane emissions

A common yellow flower could be the secret to cutting methane emissions. 

AgrizeroNZ is partnering with Welsh company Agroceutical Products, trialling the use of daffodil extract to cut the methane emissions from livestock. 

AgriZeroNZ CEO Wayne McNee told Mike Hosking that it’s early stages still, but they’re excited about the potential of it. 

He said that it’s been proven to work in a lab to reduce emissions of ruminant animals, and the work they’re funding is to see if the product will work in the New Zealand farming system. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
From our science Will Sabers file. It's being discovered that
an extract of daffodils no less could help cut methane emission.
So this is AGRA zero en Z. They're partnering with
a Welsh company to try the potentially groundbreaking tech on animals.
Here now, the Agra zero New Zealand Chief executive WAYN McNee.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
Is with us.

Speaker 1 (00:16):
Wayne Morning, Good morning Mike. On an excitement scale ten,
you're fizzing beyond anything you're fizzed about before. Where are
you on this?

Speaker 2 (00:25):
I like this as early stage work, but we're excited
about the potential of it. It's been proven to work
in a lab to reduce emissions and remnant animals, and
the work we're funding is to do trials in New
Zealand on the product to see if it will work
in a New Zealand farming system. So excited, but you
know it's one of a number of things we're investing in.

Speaker 1 (00:43):
Can I ask a really basic question, why wouldn't you
just plant the field with daffodils, have the cows eat
them and see if it works.

Speaker 2 (00:50):
Yeah, Well, you have to extract the homentomine, which is
the active ingredient, and as in very small quantities in
the daffodils. Daffodils also have to be grown in a
harsh environment. That's why they'll be suited to being grownd
in high country New Zealand and why they were originally
grown and whales.

Speaker 1 (01:05):
But but why do you have to extract? If I
consider does something happen when you extract it? Because if
I consume it as a flower, is it not in
there anyway?

Speaker 2 (01:13):
Well, for a start, they don't particularly like eating daffodils,
sheep and cattle and the active You need to concentrate it,
you know, in much larger quantities than you get if
you just state the deafitil. So definitely need to extract it.
And the trials that we're funding will be at Lincoln
University in the South Island looking at how this product
actually works and animals.

Speaker 1 (01:32):
So you've got a twofold thing, correct me if I'm wrong. One,
you've got the growing and extraction process, because I mean
presumably if it works in the hills of whales, you
can just sell it around the world. And then two,
how do you feed the cows once you've extracted? Is
it just put into feed?

Speaker 2 (01:47):
Yeah, it's put in as a feed additive, it'll be
put in as a feed additive. Alternatively, it could potentially
be used in a bowlus so you could put it
inside the room and of the animal that's later work.
Let's see if it works in the animals first, as
opposed to to the lab.

Speaker 1 (02:00):
And when you say the animals, is it just cows
or if it works and cows, could it work in
sheep and goats and all that?

Speaker 2 (02:05):
Yeah? Yeah, no, if it works and cows, it should
also work in sheep and goats and deer.

Speaker 1 (02:09):
Fantastic. How long before we know?

Speaker 2 (02:12):
So this trial is February next year, Febry twenty twenty five.
We'll know pretty soon after that whether or not it'll
working animals, and then after that we'll scale up the work.
And the other advantage is that if we grow the
death it was in New Zealand, then there'll be an
income for farmers as well from that.

Speaker 1 (02:27):
So you can grow and feed the cows and the
whole thing's fantastic. See this is what I love about
the whole climate debate. It's this sort of thing that
we don't know about until we know about it that
eventually is going to help, isn't it?

Speaker 2 (02:39):
Yeah, and look, we're investing in a whole range of
different tools and hoping to have two or three that
farmers can use by sort of twenty six, twenty seven,
and you know, maybe this will be one of them,
but early days, but yeah, we are excited about the
potential of it.

Speaker 1 (02:51):
Good stuff. Go well, Wayne, We'll stay in touch on
this one wayn McNee who's the Agri zero New Zealand
chief exept. See no need to panic. We'll get there
in the end.

Speaker 2 (02:59):
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