Summary

There is significant interest in the use of asparagopsis to reduce methane emissions in livestock, however, the capital requirements needed to scale the production of asparagopsis to for the Australia cattle feedlot industry is unknown.  This project will conduct a scoping study, utilising existing data, to determine the capital requirements needed to scale production of asparagopsis to reduce methane the Australia cattle feedlot industry.

This project will:

• Estimate the level of asparagopsis production required to meet the methane reduction requirements of the Australian feedlot cattle industry.
• Identify capital investment and infrastructure required to enable scale-up of asparagopsis production to meet the feed demands of the Australian feedlot industry.
• Identify the potential production systems for asparagopsis in Australia. 
• Identify the production characteristics to service the beef feedlot market with asparagopsis considering factors including:- location, size, processing capacity and logistics
• Estimate the operating costs associated with asparagopsis production on a cost per unit feed basis.
• Identify the rate of production growth required to meet cattle feed demands on a 5 & 10-year time-scale.
• Include a minimum of two sensitised scenarios to your assessment, covering at least one optimistic and one pessimistic scenario, relative to your base assumptions.  The conditions and factors underpinning each scenario should be outlined and the assumptions used detailed.

This project does not include a benefit cost analysis or gross margin analysis of producing asparagopsis and selling into the feedlot cattle industry.
 

Program

New and Emerging Industries

Research Organisation

Forest Hill Consulting

Objective Summary

The aim of this project is to provide the Australian seaweed industry stakeholders and potential investors an understanding of the capital requirements needed to scale production of asparagopsis to reduce methane the Australia cattle feedlot industry and allow stakeholders and investors to identify areas where they could contribute to the growth requirements.