Australia's red meat industry should see carbon farming as an opportunity not a threat, according to Meat & Livestock Australia's CN30 manager Margaret Jewell.
Speaking at Meat Up Forum in Naracoorte last week, she also stressed that the carbon neutral position by 2030 was an industry target, not necessarily something for every producer to achieve.
As custodians of 335 million hectares (around half of Australia's landmass), the red meat industry was in a unique position to be able to store a lot of carbon in the soil and use it to offset emissions, she said.
There were also efficiency gains from reducing emissions and converting more feed energy into weight gain rather than methane.
The average cow emits 50 kilograms to 90kg of methane every year - equivalent to 33 to 60 grazing days lost and the average sheep emits 6-7kg of methane annually, equivalent to 30-31 grazing days.
"Carbon makes up about 50 per cent of the products we are producing as red meat producers, so if we can maximise the amount of carbon that we are converting through photosynthesis from atmospheric carbon dioxide into pasture biomass and then either into soil carbon or animal liveweight gains, then we are building efficiencies into our production systems," Dr Jewell said.
The two main opportunities available to producers were trading carbon credits on the Australian or international carbon market, or demonstrating carbon neutral or low carbon position at farm level or brand.
Dr Jewell said the best option would differ from farm to farm.
"From what I have seen, it is probably going to be a good return on investment for about 20pc to enter into a carbon trading project, but demand for carbon neutral and low carbon products is there already and it is going to grow, if you sell those credits they won't be available to you in the future to demonstrate a carbon neutral or low carbon emission position," she said.
There are four carbon neutral red meat brands and Dr Jewell expected more to follow, with a recent survey finding that one in four consumers would pay 15pc more for it.
These brands have undertaken carbon accounting and then purchased offsets to achieve carbon neutrality, but Dr Jewell said in the longer term were working towards net zero in their own systems.
"They have been able to get into the market early though purchasing offsets, but all have plans to implement new technologies as they become available so they can reduce their reliance on those purchased offsets over time," she said.
She said a couple of feed additives - 3NOP (which had been found to reduce emissions by 90pc in a feedlot trial) and red asparagopsis seaweed were among the many projects showing promise.
"It is pretty straight forward to get these feed additives into feedlots as part of a ration, but the big nut we need to crack is being able to deliver them to grazing systems," she said.
"We have a lot of work on loose licks and boluses and delivering these additives in reticulated water systems."
Also being developed are ASBVs and EBVs for methane production.
- Details:mla.com.au/cn30
SEEK ADVICE BEFORE SIGNING UP TO EMISSION SCHEMES
MEAT & Livestock Australia CN30 manager Margaret Jewell encouraged producers to start collecting the information needed to calculate their carbon emissions, including livestock inventories, outputs of fuel, energy and fertiliser and any data they have on carbon stored in trees or soil on their farms.
"If nothing else, think do I have the data for my property, so if and when you want to do a baseline measurement, you can start from that year," she said.
MLA has a carbon calculator to assist producers.
Dr Jewell said with inconsistencies in previous research, they were taking another look at measuring the level of emissions from time-controlled grazing, fertilising at-depth, moving from cropping to continuous pastures, and how best to integrate trees on-farm.
Before signing up to any programs, Dr Jewell urged all producers to do a thorough business plan on risks and opportunities and have their "eyes wide open", including understanding what happens if soil carbon is lost in a drought, fire or flood.
"While there some good opportunities in trading carbon, please get a few quotes from the carbon aggregators and developers and please also get a trusted advisor or lawyer to look over any contracts - there are some good ones and some bad ones out there," she said.
"Soil carbon is a little uncertain and some of the claims being made by some people overexaggerate what is achievable."
