mootral™ (www.mootral.com) - Methanobrievibacter ruminantium is a microbe in big trouble. It has been fingered by scientists as responsible for producing methane, a particularly damaging greenhouse gas, in the guts of ruminant animals - cattle, sheep, deer and the like.

Thus M. ruminantium, and its ilk, was to blame for belching about 24.1 million tonnes of CO2 equivalents into New Zealand's atmosphere in 2006, the latest year figures are available. That's 31% of this country's total greenhouse gas emissions - the biggest single category in our emissions profile and a fraction bigger than transport and energy put together.

The humble microbe's chances of an unmolested future are therefore slim.

Fortunately for M. ruminantium, scientists think they are 10 years away from inhibiting its methane-producing activities. Unfortunately for farmers, the longer it takes, the more it's going to cost them.

According to Sunday Star-Times estimates, when farming enters the emissions trading scheme in January 2013 farmers are looking at a collective liability for belched methane emissions of about $36 million each year until 2018, assuming a carbon price of $15 a tonne. At $50 a tonne, the potential liability is about $120m.

After 2018, the potential liability increases so that by 2030 the annual costs from belched methane alone are in the order of $360m-$1.2 billion. Click here to read the rest of article >>