STATE government funding has helped kickstart an emission data capture and reduction trial, which will be conducted on two SA dairy farms.
Beston Global Food Company will lead the trials with Asset Development general manager Alistair McFarlane saying the project will monitor the impact of controlled feeding of a natural feed supplement, such as Asparagopsis, as a daily feed supplement.
Emissions with be measured via electronic meters installed in trial milking bails in a robotic milking and moving platform shed, which will read the RFID or NLIS tag of each cow.
Mr McFarlane said results from independent overseas studies suggested a reduction of between 80 per cent in a loafing barn and 40pc in open grazing may be obtainable on SA dairy farms
"Environmental and financial reward for farmers can be created and offer incentives for progressive adoption," he said.
"The extent of what could be achievable will be analysed."
An initial cow methane emission baseline will be measured, a feed change implemented, then any changes occurring monitored.
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"The farm computer's data will be captured and stored in an Azure data base in the cloud and placed onto a developed OZIRIS Distributed Ledger Platform to ensure indisputable Chain of Custody for each cow on each farm," Mr McFarlane said.
"This will enable compliance to all government standards for potential carbon credit creation.
"Digitisation and measurement will enable data traceability, verification, continuous regulatory compliance and a possible mechanism for monetarisation - by and for the owner of the credits."
With direct livestock emission accounting for about 70pc of greenhouse gas emissions by the agricultural sector and 11pc of total emissions, Dairy Australia has set a target of a 30pc greenhouse gas emission reduction by 2030.
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Mr McFarlane said this project would help identify farming changes and benefits on the path to that goal, which would be shared with the company's suppliers and assist them in benefiting from the industry's technology push.
One of the dairy farms to be involved in the emissions trial is the Smart family's operation at Mypolonga.
The farm already boasts eight robotic milkers, a rooftop solar power supply and gravity-fed watering system for paddocks.
