New 'methane vaccine' startup announces seed funding
Arkea Bio Corp., a pioneer in developing technology to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the agricultural sector, recently announced the successful close of a $12 million Seed Series financing round led by Breakthrough Energy Ventures (BEV).
The new company is developing an innovative vaccine to drastically reduce methane emissions from ruminant animals (including cattle, sheep, and goats) and expects ruminant vaccinations to be one of the most scalable and cost-effective solutions to rapidly decarbonize global meat and dairy production.
Read more about methane vaccine technology development in this story I published last year.
New research confirms methane-reduction feed supplement also improves milk production, feed efficiency
A Swiss-based manufacturer recently completed seven large-scale, split-herd trials measuring milk performance by cow and feed efficiency by pen over three- to four-month periods. There were more than 6,000 cows included in the summary with half receiving a diet containing Agolin Ruminant and half a control diet. Only data collected from cows that remained in the test pens for the duration of the trial were used in the analyses. Results show an average 2.57-pound improvement in energy corrected milk (ECM) with a 1.45-pound decrease in dry matter intake (DMI) for the Agolin-fed cows.
“These trials demonstrate an average 12:1 benefit-to-cost ratio or a profit of $0.60 per cow per day,” says Peter Williams, the product manager for Agolin Ruminant. “The potential gains of more milk and less feed dwarf the approximate $0.05 cost per cow per day.”
Fed to more than 2 million dairy cows worldwide, including more than 300,000 cows in the U.S., the product tested in the recent trials is a plant-based feed additive that harnesses a blend of scientifically selected essential oils. It was originally introduced in 2007 as a product to improve milk production and feed efficiency; however, researchers were also able to demonstrate that it lowered enteric (belched) methane emissions, diverting the saved energy into milk production. It is the only feed additive currently certified to reduce enteric methane while also improving feed efficiency.
Read more – and see the trial details – here.
Data is not magic, it’s …
I recently listened to a podcast with Andrea Jones-Rooy, a data science professor at NYU, and Adam Grant, an organizational psychologist and bestselling author.
I really liked how Jones-Rooy defined what data is and what it is not:
Data is not magic. It is but a partial, imperfect snapshot of the past that we hope will tell us about the future.
It doesn’t tell a story. It’s a map that we look at as human beings to make choices about where we want to go.
You have to have a question about the world. And then you can look for evidence [with data] to see if it’s consistent with what you think is going on.
Having data just by itself isn’t going to make your farm or ranch better. It’s the questions you ask and then try to answer with data that will. Are you asking enough of the right questions to improve?
Listen to the full podcast here.
Tech funder, accelerator releases new book
Aidan Connolly of AgriTech Capital, and formerly CEO of Cainthus, has just released a new book titled The Future of Agriculture.
The book is a collection of essays reflecting the challenges and trends in a rapidly changing agriculture. The aim is to offer information that will help readers from a range of backgrounds to:
· Identify innovations and technologies to protect, maintain and prudently deploy limited resources
· Map technological innovation to produce products to meet the health and nutrition needs of a burgeoning population
· Ensure that their operation evolves in ways that will also ensure the sustainability of the planet’s natural resources
Chapters include coverage of robotics, augmented reality, 3D printing, IoT, virtual reality, artificial intelligence, insect farming, cellular meats, nutrigenomics, CRISPR gene-editing, vertical farming and food waste.
Sorted by both technologies and species, with local examples and a global perspective, the book offers readers a unique snapshot of agri-food in mid-evolution, providing insight, context and framing of predicted changes yet to come.
The Future of Agriculture can be downloaded for FREE here.
Do you remember where you were when ChatGPT was released?
I was at a hockey tournament for my son in Victor, Idaho, when I learned of ChatGPT on TikTok.
If you didn’t know already, the world changed in the last two weeks.
OpenAI recently released its new artificial intelligence chatbot. Within six days, the platform had more than 1 million users. For comparison, it took the first iPhone several months to gain 1 million users. And it took years for television to gain that level of adoption. The speed at which this new technology is spreading is amazing.
Ask ChatGPT a question and it provides an answer.
For example, I asked it to tell me about what’s possible with a methane vaccine for cattle, and this is what it wrote back. (What follows is a direct copy and paste – no editing from me.)
A methane vaccine for cattle is a potential solution to the issue of methane emissions from livestock farming. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas, and the digestive processes of ruminant animals such as cattle are a significant source of methane emissions. A methane vaccine could potentially reduce methane emissions from cattle by altering the microbes in the animals’ digestive systems, leading to a reduction in the amount of methane produced during digestion. This could have a significant impact on reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the agriculture sector and help mitigate the effects of climate change. However, it is important to note that the development and effectiveness of a methane vaccine for cattle is still being researched and is not yet widely available.
College students finishing their fall semesters have already been warned about plagiarizing with ChatGPT. But I tend to agree that the genie is out of the bottle and ChatGPT is now just the ‘new spellcheck’ for students and the rising generation.
Here’s a few of my favorite TikTok accounts explaining ChatGPT:
What ChatGPT means for an English teacher?
Tiktok failed to load.Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browser
What ChatGPT means for moms of picky eaters?
Tiktok failed to load.Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browser
What ChatGPT means for economic systems worldwide?
Tiktok failed to load.Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browser
We are living in the future.
Dairy profit projections from ZISK
Projected profitability for the next 12-month for two dairy herd sizes HAVE INCREASED in recent profit projections from ZISK.
ZISK is a profit-projection smartphone app that tracks individual dairy farm profitability based on current CME board prices. Projections for a 1,000-cow dairy producing an average of 80 pounds of milk per cow and a 2,500-cow dairy producing an average of 85 pounds of milk per cow are provided.
12-month dairy farm profit projections (as of Dec. 16, 2022):
1,000-cow dairy = $501,000 (UP about $79,000 since the end of October)
2,500-cow dairy = $2.047 million (UP about $157,000 since the end of October)