Making Moo-ves for the planet — Symbrosia’s new partnership with Midnight’s Farm
Breaking news! Last week, we started an Asparagopsis taxiformis feeding trial with a new partner farm. In fall of 2020, we launched our carbon offsets program to support farmers who want to add our antimethanogenic seaweed feed supplement to the diet of their livestock. This trial has been funded by our carbon offsets program (thank you to our First Moo-vers!), enabling us to provide all seaweed and equipment to our partner farm at no cost to them. We are thrilled to be able to work with innovative farmers, and there will be many more partnerships to come.
Read on to meet our newest partner farm, get the details of the trial, and learn what else Symbrosia has planned for 2021.
Introducing Midnight’s Farm
Midnight’s Farm is a small, diversified operation on Lopez Island in northwest Washington. The farm’s owners, Faith Van De Putte and David Bill, are committed to addressing climate change through their personal choices, advocacy, farming practices, and education.
Faith and David run a community scale compost operation, manage Murray Grey beef cattle with rotational grazing, and produce mixed vegetables year round xin a no-till market garden. Midnight’s Farm regularly hosts interns and school groups and uses the farm as a platform for education and research whenever possible.
The A. taxiformis Feeding Trial
We will be collaborating with Midnight’s Farm to run a pre-implementation trial with 4 of their Murray Gray beef cattle. Midnight’s Farm will add our seaweed feed additive to these 4 cows’ diet at a 0.5% inclusion rate. Throughout the trial, the cows’ methane emissions will be measured every 3 days to gauge methane reduction. These methane emissions will be compared to baseline measurements.
We hope to see livestock methane emissions decrease by 90% during the trial.
“We are so excited about Symbrosia and the possibility of feeding asparagopsis to reduce our herd’s methane emissions,” shared Faith. “We recognize the irony of being climate activists and raising beef cattle. To think that a nutritious seaweed could effectively manage their burps is super exciting.”
Both the trial and the preparation have been incredible learning opportunities for both us and Midnight’s Farm. We’ve worked closely with Midnight’s Farm every step of the way to design the trial, determine product volumes, and choose data collection methods. We have learned so much about how to incorporate A. taxiformis into livestock diet in a way that works well for farmers and their livestock.
We are excited to welcome Midnight’s Farm to our growing community of farmers, scientists, policymakers, and consumers dedicated to reducing livestock methane emissions. We want to give a huge thank you to our First Moo-vers — all of the people who have purchased a carbon offset through Symbrosia. This work would not be happening without your support.
Moo-ving forward
Throughout this year, a major focus for us will be taking our product and our technology from the lab onto more farms. We are currently planning to do a much larger implementation trial of our A. taxiformis feed supplement in fall of 2021. The lessons learned from our collaboration with Midnight’s Farm will be invaluable as we design and execute our largest livestock feeding trial yet.
For now, though, we should celebrate Midnight’s Farm, and their willingness to boldly innovate with us in the face of a massive challenge. Faith and David, we are thrilled and honored to be working with you!
To help us bring the world’s mightiest seaweed to more farmers like Faith and David, offset your emissions through Symbrosia.
