The majority of this abstract covers work presented in a previous presentation (ROI #301), describing the curated database of archaeal sequences (RIM-DB). The development of this database will be described in a paper that we have prepared and is under AgResearch internal review at the moment. The new material in this abstract shows that NZ ruminants are dominated by only a few methanogen types (OTUs). In this output, the sequences will not be released, since it will result, if accepted, in a poster or (unlikely) an oral  presentation. I believe that there is little value in protecting this, since we know that these same methanogens are dominant world wide, and very soon, others will also get enough data to point this out. We plan to report this first for NZ ruminants (here, and in a paper that we are preparing now), and then later in the MPI/GRA-funded Global Rumen Census for the worldwide picture (milestone for the Global Rumen Census paper is submission by August 2014).