The University of New England (UNE) is doing its bit to help Australia reach its net zero emissions target through equipping the New England region’s farmers with the skills needed to adopt sustainable practices.
As part of the Drought Resilient Pasture Landscapes (DRPL) project, UNE delivered a series of Calculating Carbon workshops alongside Southern New England Landcare and GLENRAC Inc. that educated landholders on sustainable farming and the potential benefits it can have on productivity, profits and emissions.
“Practices that lower greenhouse gas emissions form part of good farm management and have benefits for both sustainability and productivity,” says project lead Professor Lewis Kahn.
Hosted by Dr Tom Davison, who is a leading expert in livestock production and methane reduction research, the workshops taught participants from the Walcha, Armidale and Glen Innes regions how to calculate greenhouse gas emissions from their farm and estimate their annual output.
Image: Professor Lewis Kahn (DRPL project lead) and Dr Tom Davison (host of the workshops).
“The topic of carbon is complex and farmers need to understand not only the drivers of change but the various practices to reduce emissions and the international and local regulations, financial markets, and supply chain pressures,” says Professor Kahn.
“These workshops aimed to better equip farmers with improved knowledge to make informed decisions about participating in the carbon economy.”
Participants were also provided with practical carbon-reduction strategies to implement on farm.
“These strategies include better efficiency of production through higher rates of reproduction and growth rates in beef cattle herds, using feed additives such as nitrate, anti-methane products, oils and tannins, breeding for lower methane emissions, using legumes and novel forages, environmental plantings, and storing soil carbon,” says Professor Kahn.
Image: Participant at Glen Innes workshop
“Growers gave a very positive review of the workshops, identifying how much they learned and the value of having calculated their annual farm greenhouse gas emissions.”
Since December 2022, the DRPL project has worked with farmers across the Northern Tablelands through an on-farm coaching program that has better equipped them to navigate climate variability and drought conditions using a range of indicators for productivity success, including pasture herbage mass, ground cover, and soil organic matter that also provide public benefit through reduced weeds, erosion and rainfall runoff.
With the project ending in June 2024, key information will be transferred into a free online resource that will be publicly available from July.
In the meantime, watch a case study on how the project has helped local producers, Ian and Julie Firth, strengthen their grazing enterprise here
This project received funding from the Australian Government’s Future Drought Fund, and is a partnership between UNE, GLENRAC Inc., and Southern New England Landcare Ltd.
Image: Attendees at the Glen Innes Calculating Carbon workshop.
