Methane is 25 times more effective than CO2 at trapping heat in the atmosphere and one of the biggest sources is the gas expelled by cattle.

It has been discovered that a seaweed which grows prolifically off the Queensland coast stops cattle producing methane if it’s added to their feed.

Assoc Prof Nicholas Paul from the University of Southern Queensland is leading a project by the Seaweed Research Group on Bribie Island to find ways of farming the seaweed.

He tells Mark the cattle love it and if it can be scaled up it could one day cut Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions by ten per cent.

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