Reducing emissions and adapting to climate change for grass fed production
Sheep and cattle have a very important role in the human food chain. They convert low quality grass to high quality meat, a role which other species such as pigs and chickens cannot perform. In Australia a large proportion of red meat production is sourced from extensive rangeland areas where few other food products could be viably grown, meaning there are few, if any, viable alternatives for producing food on this land.
Through Meat & Livestock Australia and other research organisations, the Australian livestock industry is helping to create more diverse, responsive and resilient farming systems to help farmers adapt to increased climate variability and to reduce the industry's environmental impact.
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Farmland can absorb carbon
Australia's livestock farmers manage not only their cattle and sheep, but all other living organisms on their property. The health of the soil, trees, micro-organisms, native animals and vegetation is essential to farmers' livelihoods and is why farmers spend considerable time and effort ensuring they are well managed. This is also important also for Australia's overall emissions profile as a worldwide analysis of the effects of land management on soil carbon showed that there is on average about 8% more soil carbon under well-managed pasture than under native forests.
Source of emissions
Methane is the main contributor to the industry's greenhouse gas emissions profile. Livestock emissions arise primarily from enteric fermentation - the digestive process in ruminant animals that produces methane - but also from manure and prescribed burning of savannas (grassland ecosystems characterised by trees being sufficiently small or widely spaced so that the canopy does not close over).
The livestock industry's contribution to greenhouse gas emissions is best understood within the context of the carbon cycle. The carbon cycle is the movement of carbon between the earth's four major carbon stores, its atmosphere, oceans, living organisms and the earth's crust.
The figures
A life cycle assessment undertaken by the University of New South Wales found that total emissions to produce sheep meat in a southern Australian production system was 7 to 8 kg CO2-e per kilogram HSCW (standard carcase weight unit of product used for red meat) while for two beef production case studies in southern Australia, values ranged from 8 to 11 kg CO2-e per kg HSCW . This figure includes all emissions associated with the growth of the animal, feed and transport up until the point the meat leaves the processing plant. This study demonstrated that the Australian red meat production systems has one of the lowest carbon emission profiles of any major meat producing country.
Investing in research
The Australian livestock industry, through Meat & Livestock Australia, invests in research and development programs to reduce emissions from across the red meat supply chain . This includes livestock, fossil fuel combustion and fertilisers to help mitigate the impacts of climate change.
A key to reducing livestock emissions is maximising an animals' growth rate and converting as much as possible of its energy intake into meat, which can be achieved through selective breeding, improved feed management and maximising animal health. Improving livestock genetics is essential to the future profitability and sustainability of the livestock industry and the environment.
The key programs that Meat & Livestock Australia is investing in to reduce our emissions profile and to adapt to our variable and changing climate are:
- Evaluating whether we can select genetic lines of sheep and cattle with lower methane emissions but high animal performance
- Manipulation of rumen function and activity for lower emissions using dietary supplements such as oils, tannins, and native forage or legume mixes, or more novel strategies such as nitrate supplementation, phage (virus) applications, and alternative pathways to methane production for the hydrogen produced in digestion
- Whole farm systems approaches including understanding animal foraging in the paddock and use of different measurement systems such as open path laser
To find out about the programs Meat & Livestock Australia is coordinating in this area please look at our emissions research programs.