Leongatha beef farmer says counting your carbon is a cinch

Some Gippsland farmers come to Nick Dudley’s carbon counting workshops out of curiosity. Others are concerned about climate change or want to use the information to increase their farm’s profitability.

Dudley told the Monitor calculating the amount of carbon a farm produces is not difficult.

What happened: Dudley worked as lecturer at the Victoria College of Agriculture and Horticulture for 17 years before working for the Department of Agriculture for 15 years. 

He now owns a 39-hectare beef farm near Leongatha and wants to share his knowledge on how farms can lower their carbon emissions.

How do you calculate carbon on a farm?

The myriad ways in which farms produce and sequester carbon dioxide include the type of fertiliser used and the amount of cattle on the property.

Dudley said farmers should have access to the required information if they’re keeping a stock book to monitor cattle numbers and filing a Business Activity Statement (BAS) every quarter to the ATO.

Farmers can then input the data into an online carbon calculator.

• Here’s a link to Meat and Livestock Australia’s carbon calculator.

Dudley said adding information about the types of fertiliser employed, and whether the property is powered by renewable energy, will provide a more accurate emissions figure.

• “What chemicals and fertilisers you've applied on your property, you really need to know anyway for compliance purposes,” Dudley said.

More upside

By reducing a farm's carbon output and keeping pollutant in the soil, Dudley said farmers can enjoy knock-on benefits on their property.

“​​If a farmer is improving the amount of carbon and organic matter in the soil, that's going to help the soil's water holding capacity and fertility, which then helps grow trees that provide shade, wind-shelter and a whole range of other things.”

Calculator needs work

Clydebank farmers Sandra Jefford and Wilco Droppert have added up their emissions.

Jefford told the Monitor: “If farmers have got their numbers together, then it's really quick and easy to go through the calculator.”

She said the calculator could be improved by allowing farmers to include data such as feeding cattle methane-reducing microbes.

The way the market is heading

Dr Richard Eckard, Professor of Carbon Farming at the University of Melbourne, told the Monitor international markets are increasingly asking Australian farmers to provide carbon footprint information. 

“In Australia, 75 percent of our produce is exported,” Eckard said. “It's those export markets that are asking for these emissions reduction targets.”

Dudley said it’s only a matter of time before it becomes a requirement for farmers to provide their carbon information.

“If you want to sell cattle into the European Union in the future, the chances are you'll have to either insert your emissions or [buy carbon credits to] offset somehow.”

The next session

Dudley’s carbon accounting workshop for farmers is at the West Gippsland CMA Leongatha Office on Tuesday (March 24) from 10am to 2:30pm. Farmers can register here.