Breakout
Kiwi ag-tech company, Āmua, has secured $1.2million from
AgriZeroNZ to accelerate development of its cow wearable
technology.
The Canterbury start-up, based on a hill
country farm near Waiau, is developing a smart device that
enables the rich nitrogen in cow urine to be used as
fertiliser – potentially solving freshwater nitrate leaching
and nitrous oxide emissions at their source.
By
spreading the concentrated urine patches out across the
paddock, data modelling by AgResearch in the Bioeconomy
Science Institute (BSI), has indicated the patented device
could provide comparable pasture growth to synthetic
nitrogen, reduce nitrous oxide emissions by up to 95% and
nitrate leaching by up to 93%.
Āmua CEO and
co-founder, Roger Johnson, who farms in North Canterbury,
says they’ve developed the technology to transform the
naturally abundant on-farm nitrogen (N) resource into an
eco-friendly and cost-effective
fertiliser.
“Nitrogen is a key nutrient for grass
growth and there’s plenty of it naturally available
on-farm, yet as a farmer I can spend around $150 per cow on
synthetic fertiliser and a lot of it is being lost into the
groundwater or air.
“By spreading the cow-produced
nitrogen across the paddock, we can increase the
effectiveness of this natural fertiliser.”
At
present, a single nitrate patch can contain the equivalent
of 600-1000 kg of nitrogen per hectare, while synthetic
fertiliser application rates are typically 30-50 kg per
hectare[1].
These small, highly concentrated nitrogen patches leach into
groundwater and escape into the atmosphere as nitrous oxide,
a potent greenhouse gas that accounts for 15.9 per cent of
New Zealand’s agricultural emissions[2].
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“We’re
supporting farmers to grow pasture for half of the cost and
significantly reduce the environmental impact – that’s a
win-win,” Johnson said.
AgriZeroNZ chief executive,
Wayne McNee, says they’re pleased to back the unique
solution which marks their first equity investment in
nitrous oxide mitigation.
“Āmua is a brilliant
example of Kiwi ingenuity to tackle a common challenge
on-farm and potentially deliver a range of environmental and
economic benefits.
“Methane gets a lot of attention
in the emissions landscape, but cutting back nitrous oxide
can also play an important role in lowering our overall
emissions and meeting the targets set by some of our biggest
export customers.
“High-impact, scalable innovations
like Āmua will be vital to meet global demand for emissions
reduction and safeguard the export economy we all rely
on,” McNee said.
A prototype device, developed with
support from the Ministry for Primary Industries’ Māori
Agribusiness Innovation Fund, has been validated in trials
on Ngāi Tahu Farming’s Te Whenua Hou dairy
farms.
Āmua also recently sought feedback from
AgriZeroNZ’s Farmer Focus Group to guide future
development.
“I admired Roger’s thought process on
this and his desire to deliver a practical solution for
farmers,” said Phil Sherwood, a third-generation dairy
farmer in the Waikato and focus group member.
“We
know the response rate to nitrogen is pretty standard based
on soil temperature, regardless of whether it’s out of a
cow or from a bag but there’s much more value in growing
pasture with the nutrients we already have on farm, as well
as the clear environmental benefits, so I’m all for
it.”
The investment from AgriZeroNZ is part of a
seed funding round and will support the next stage of
development to a minimum viable product for pilot trials in
2026.
Notes
[1] AgEmissions Centre [2] Greenhouse Gas Inventory Report
1999-2023
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