THE beef industry's goal of becoming carbon neutral will be best embraced by industry through improvements in productivity.
MDH chief financial officer Julie McDonald says while the messaging was well understood that methane emissions from livestock had to be reduced for Australia to meet its global climate commitments, there would be little uptake by producers unless it was driven by the bottom line.
"Emissions reductions will only be embraced in the bush if it improves the productivity of cattle businesses," Mrs McDonald said.
"Calls for reductions in emissions isolated from productivity isn't a motivation.
"Change has to be driven by more fertile females, more calves, and more kg of beef per market weight animal at a younger age."
MDH is one of Australia's largest family owned cattle businesses, running about 150,000 head of cattle on 14 properties across Queensland.
The company has been trialling medicated lick blocks developed by AgCoTech/Four Seasons since 2019 on three of its northern cattle stations: Iffley, Rutland and Dunbar.
The molasses energy blocks contains a range of ingredients including phosphates, vegetable oil and natural rumen buffers, with average daily consumption rates of about 150g/head/day.
On average, the blocks are thought to reduce methane emissions indirectly by 300kg CO2 equivalents/head/year.
Mrs McDonald said it was well understood that better fed, more efficient animals produced significantly less methane over a production life cycle.
"We're focused on the condition of the cattle, weaning percentages and what it costs to produce a kilogram of beef, both in terms of financial cost as well as emissions," she said.
"If there is a reduction in emissions, that is great, but the focus is on productivity."
If there is a reduction in emissions, that is great, but the focus is on productivity.
- Julie McDonald, MDH
Using the Clean Energy Regulator's Australian Beef Herd Methodologies, improvements in the productivity of the MDH herd through changed management practices have already created 4000 tonnes of Voluntary Methane Abatement credits.
Those credits are able to be used by MDH to offset its own emissions, or if it chooses, be sold on the open market.
"At this stage we will not be selling the credits," Mrs McDoanald said.
AgCoTech/Four Seasons managing director Chick Olsson said the lick blocks were primarily designed to increase breeder and calf production, while at the same time reducing carbon emissions.
"A major challenge was navigating the complex rules of using the Australian Beef Herd Methodologies system overseen by the Federal Government's Clean Energy Regulator," Mr Olsson said.
"Working with Professor Julian Hill from the RMIT in Melbourne we devised new supplements that met the ABHM additionality rules, that is, something completely new had to be added to the current system of feeding urea formulations in the dry season.
"The goal was to develop high energy supplements in block form containing mitigants and the essential nutrients for young, growing livestock."
Developing a supplement that contained no urea, in line with ABHM rules, was also a major, but perhaps surprisingly, welcome challenge.
"There is now plenty of research suggesting high urea levels in livestock supplements may be a possible cause of ongoing fertility issues across northern Australia," Mr Olsson said.
"Addressing fertility rates is essential if we are to get in front of the emissions issue."
That thinking also saw the popular range of ZM blocks (named in recognition of the late Zanda McDonald) cut back to an average of 10 per cent urea, with the amount of bypass protein increased.
Meat and Livestock Australia managing director Jason Strong said the MDH project was a good demonstration of a pro-active, market driven approach being taken to improve the efficiency of production from the same geographic footprint.
"It's really important for the red meat industry to control both the narrative and the delivery of emissions reductions," Mr Strong said.
"There is no interest in reducing or controlling animal numbers. This is about reducing the amount of emissions generated from the production of each kilogram of red meat.
"The bottom line is we have to feed people and we can best do that by maximising the efficiency of our production systems.
"We need to have a more productive herd, it's about having more fertile females and turning off animals at the required weights at a younger age."
Mr Strong said a challenge was that the cow herd currently represented a large component of Australia's greenhouse gas inventory.
"The pressure is on industry to reduce the amount of emissions livestock produce," Mr Strong said.
"How we ultimately deliver that is still being developed, but it will be done by improving productivity."
"The way forward is for the livestock sector to demonstrate its really positive credentials through improved productivity.
"This will ensure agriculture's contribution to the greenhouse gas inventory is rightly recognised as having been reduced and that will put us in really good shape."
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