A SPECIAL PRODUCERS’ REPORT OF AG ALERT ® C A L I F O R N I A Dairy & Livestock ®
Blue Ocean Barns, a company working with dairy farmers to curb greenhouse emissions, produces a seaweed supplement, left, for feed used in a 50-day trial at Straus Organic Dairy Farm, above. Results from 24 dairy cows indicated their methane output was cut by 52%, thanks to the seaweed.
Seaweed research inspires new diets for dairy cows ByKathyCoatney Research findings in Australia had found that feeding cows a small amount of red seaweed dramatically reduced their methane emissions. Rohnert Park and Straus Organic Dairy Farm in West Marin, provided financial support for the UC Davis seaweed research. Now he is incorporating seaweed into his dairy operations.
Straus said hismission is to provide 100%high-quality, minimally processed organic dairy products tohelp family farms inMarin and Sonoma counties. He has alsobecome an advocate for revitalizing rural communities with sustainable agricultural practices. “What I’m trying to do is create an economically viable organic dairy farmingmodel that’s good for the planet and our communities, while providing high-quality food locally and regionally,” Straus said. About three years ago, Straus gave his sustainability director a goal of making the creamery operation carbon neutral by 2023, with all of its farms achieving that goal by the end of the decade. Organic farming practices are the foundation for his model. His plan includes these features: •Adding amethanedigester that convertsmanure into renewable energy and reduces manure methane emissions by 90.% • Creating a program to feed red seaweed supplements in cow rations to reduce enteric methane emitted by cows.
Joan Salwen, a formermanaging director of the professional services firmAccenture, was fascinated. Salwen grew up on an Iowa farm harvesting cherries and caring for sheep. She said she believed the Australia study was important—and she reached out to Ermias Kebreab, an agricultural researcher at the University of California, Davis. Salwen later helped to secure funding, as she andKebreab created a research agenda to further investigate the concept. Ultimately, the pair published papers collaborating the Australian findings. In 2019, Salwen founded Blue Ocean Barns, a company that works with dairy and beef producers to curb greenhouse emissions from animal agriculture. BlueOcean today operates facilities in SanDiego andHawaii that produce a seaweed product called Brominata for livestock feed. The California facility is now certified organic, and a third site will be open in 2023 as the company seeks to expand globally. The seaweed is grown by pumping nutrient-rich seawater from deep in the ocean and bringing it to the surface through a filtration system. The system then feeds tanks on a land-based farm, where the seaweed is grown. Albert Straus, founder and CEO of Straus Family Creamery in Petaluma and
See SEAWEED, Page 14
April 27, 2022 Ag Alert 13
Powered by FlippingBook