Organic Valley Partners Up on Seaweed Feed
Organic Valley, the nation’s largest farmer-owned organic cooperative, is partnering with Hawaiian seaweed grower, Symbrosia, to test the viability of feeding seaweed as a means of mitigating livestock methane emissions.
In September 2022, LaFarge, Wis.-based Organic Valley received a $25 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture through the USDA’s Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities program to ramp up the Organic Valley Carbon Insetting Program (OVCIP). The cooperative said its OVCIP will provide technical and financial resources to accelerate the adoption of 1,200 new carbon-reduction and -removal projects over the next 5 years.
Through this program, Organic Valley will become the first U.S. milk cooperative to offer direct farmer payments for carbon reduction and removal, as well as cost sharing for the design and implementation of climate-conscious agricultural practices.
One such practice is feeding seaweed. “Research and commercial trials have shown that adding a small amount of the red seaweed, Asparagopsis taxiformis, to livestock feed can reduce enteric methane emissions by over 50% in dairy cattle and over 80% in beef cattle,” Organic Valley officials noted.
The seaweed is native to Hawaii, where the Symbrosia team has been cultivating select strains that they said are significantly more productive, potent, and resilient than wild populations. Their branded product, SeaGrazeTM, was approved for USDA organic certification in July 2023.
Symbrosia grinds the dried seaweed into a powder that is used as a feed additive in small doses to reduce methane emissions. According to the company, “during enteric fermentation in the cow’s digestive process, SeaGraze inhibits the formation of methane without impacting the overall digestion that helps the cow gain weight and produce milk.”
They continued: “In a typical fermentation process, hydrogen (H2) and carbon dioxide (CO2) combine within the stomach to create an output of methane that is released whenever the cow burps. However, with SeaGraze, the hydrogen is blocked from the carbon, reducing methanogens naturally through digestion.”
A pilot program has been developed between Organic Valley and Symbrosia to evaluate the impact of the additive. The 6-month trial began in early July, utilizing the organic dairy research herd at the University of Minnesota’s West Central Research and Outreach Center near Morris, Minn. University of Minnesota researcher Dr. Bradley Heins is supervising the project.
“I am excited about what SeaGraze means for the future of organic dairy farms and its effect on reducing enteric methane production of dairy cattle,” said Heins. “It will help us make a more sustainable organic industry.”
Pending the outcome of the project, Organic Valley will look to scale the use of SeaGraze within its carbon insetting program in the coming years. “Natural options that substantially reduce enteric methane emissions – and pay farmers to do so – are rare, but we are building those platforms with the help of innovators like Symbrosia,” said Nicole Rakobitsch, Director of Sustainability at Organic Valley.
Organic Valley has more than 1,600 organic family farm members, supplying more than 30% of the organic milk sold in the United States.
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