Latest / Best of Business / Jamie Mackay: The Country host on the Government's new joint project designed to cut down emissions

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Jamie Mackay: The Country host on the Government's new joint project designed to cut down emissions · Best of Business

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from News Talk ZEDB. Follow
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• 0:18
  Speaker 1: The Rural Report on hither do for see Alan.
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  Speaker 2: Drive Alternative Explanations. The tickets were too expensive, Jamie mckaye,
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  Speaker 2: host of the Countries with us Alo, Jamie good I,
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  Speaker 2: Heather Right, So the government's putting money into what to
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  Speaker 2: do what with agricultural emissions?
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  Speaker 3: Well it's the proverbial. Well the shite hit the fan
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  Speaker 3: here because Nikola Willis I chatted to it today in
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  Speaker 3: a North Canterbury dairy paddock or dairy farm paddock and
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  Speaker 3: there they've got this thing called Agri Zero n Z.
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  Speaker 3: It's a joint venture between the government and leading agri businesses,
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  Speaker 3: you know, Fonterra, silver, fern farms, all these sorts of people.
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  Speaker 3: They're jointly funding it with the government and it's ways
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  Speaker 3: to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions. Now, there's all sorts
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  Speaker 3: of good ideas out there that like some methane vaccine, vaccines, inhibitors,
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  Speaker 3: probiotics and even pasture species that when consumed by the
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  Speaker 3: animals will make them a less methane. But here's a
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  Speaker 3: really good one and this one that've been pondering on
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  Speaker 3: for ages. Now, this is a wearable device, Heather. Sometimes
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  Speaker 3: cows wear collars like they do for halter, and they
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  Speaker 3: can have virtual fencing. This is a wearable device at
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  Speaker 3: the other end of the cow, at the back end
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  Speaker 3: of the cow.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, So the idea is that this wearable device, which
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  Speaker 3: they're sort of under avail of secrecy because they're still
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  Speaker 3: going through the IP and patent process. So what it does,
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  Speaker 3: because cows are a big problem. They drink a lot
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  Speaker 3: of water, they create a lot of milk. They also
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  Speaker 3: pee a lot of urine, very high concentrations. Basically, they
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  Speaker 3: stand still and planket in one place. Not good. Now,
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  Speaker 3: these people have quite rightly thought, if we can somehow
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  Speaker 3: tweak mother nature and get that high nitrogen urine spread
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  Speaker 3: around the pasture or the paddock evenly, problem solved. So
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  Speaker 3: how do you do that? You put a wearable device
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  Speaker 3: on the back of the cow that when she peas,
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  Speaker 3: somehow it spreads the urine like we fertilize a spreader.
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  Speaker 3: But if you think about it, Caather, and I'm sure
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  Speaker 3: you lay awake at night thinking about this, and you
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  Speaker 3: think of the geometry or the geography of a cow.
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  Speaker 3: Just above where the pea comes out, something else comes out,
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  Speaker 3: and that's where I think. I'm just not quite sure
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  Speaker 3: how this is going to work. I think the shit
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  Speaker 3: could really hit the fan. But it's a unique idea
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  Speaker 3: and if it works, it could be a real game breaker.
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  Speaker 3: So good luck to them. This is a startup Canterbury Country.
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  Speaker 3: North Canterbury farmer called Moa. Nicola was down there along
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  Speaker 3: with Shane Retty, the Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology.
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  Speaker 3: They're very well. Nikola was very excited about it, so
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  Speaker 3: watch this space.
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  Speaker 2: That was interesting, Jane, thanks very much.
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  Speaker 3: I may have been clumsy in my explanation.
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  Speaker 2: You got there.
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  Speaker 3: I got there in the end, but you just need
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  Speaker 3: to go home and look at a picture of a
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  Speaker 3: cow tonight what I figure out how this could go
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  Speaker 3: badly wrong.
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  Speaker 2: What was more interesting was how awkward you were as
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  Speaker 2: a farmer talking about cowpo But anyway, listen, beef and
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  Speaker 2: lamb right. It's the latest of a whole bunch of
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  Speaker 2: global organizations now that want a new approach re methane.
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  Speaker 2: Are they going to be able to put enough pressure
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  Speaker 2: on the government to come around to this, Well.
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  Speaker 3: They've you know, how we had just Cindus christ Church call.
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  Speaker 3: This is sort of Kate Ackland's split gas call to
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  Speaker 3: other countries Beef and Lamb New Zealand, and it started
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  Speaker 3: with the conversation that Kate Ackland had a number of
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  Speaker 3: years ago, apparently in the UK with the Irish or
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  Speaker 3: someone like that. So what they've got is they've got
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  Speaker 3: thirty organizations again across fourteen countries and they're going to
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  Speaker 3: petition the UN and petition their own governments to take
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  Speaker 3: a split gas approach to measuring greenhouse gas submissions i e.
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  Speaker 3: Carbon dioxide on one side and methane on the other
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  Speaker 3: and treat them differently and measure them differently. They've got,
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  Speaker 3: as I said, fourteen countries have signed up. When I
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  Speaker 3: look through the signatories of the joint statement, it was
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  Speaker 3: interesting that the United States was in there, and with
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  Speaker 3: everything Trump's saying at the moment, it's rather interesting that
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  Speaker 3: they're signing up for this one. But I guess they
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  Speaker 3: want to protect their farmers as well. And just before
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  Speaker 3: you cut me off, either because I know you're going
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  Speaker 3: to keep an eye out for the Global Dairy Trade
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  Speaker 3: auction tonight. We haven't had a positive auction for three months,
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  Speaker 3: not since August the fifth futures market picking two to
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  Speaker 3: three percent drop. Here's my question for you, other than
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  Speaker 3: look at the geometry of the cow or the geography
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  Speaker 3: of the cow, there's nine dollars fifty on the cards.
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  Speaker 3: Do you think about that ever?
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  Speaker 2: Jamie, thank you. I appreciate it. Jamie McKay, host of
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  Speaker 2: the Country. I didn't to say it the entire time,
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  Speaker 2: but it's the biology of the cow, isn't it. When
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  Speaker 2: you're talking about where things are, it's what's the geography
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  Speaker 2: of the cow.
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