SUSTAINABILITY and caring for the environment are a high priority for Mudgegonga beef producer Julian Carroll and the Victorian Government's On–Farm Emissions Action Plan Pilot Program has just the tools to help.
Together with his family, Julian operates Angus seedstock business Stellar Livestock alongside a 300–cow commercial herd in Mudgegonga, on four properties totalling 560ha.
The beef producer said he has been interested in the topic of carbon emissions for a long time.
"When the opportunity came up to be involved in the pilot I was very interested," he said.
"There's been much discussion across all livestock networks about carbon farming, as well as a fair bit of anxiety and confusion.
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"I'm keen to understand the risks and opportunities around emissions as much as possible.
"I want to get a strong idea of what's realistic to reduce the carbon footprint of our beef enterprise and develop those strategies that have a triple bottom line effect of optimised carbon–use efficiency, improved on–farm natural capital and increased profit outcomes."
So far within the program, Julian has been developing his emissions plan.
"We've identified where most of our emissions sit and talked about what can we focus on in both the short term and the longer term and plan," he said.
"Livestock producers are sitting with 80–85 of carbon emissions coming from enteric methane that our cattle are burping so the real focus is to make sure our cattle are as productive as possible.
"We're already got a number of emissions reduction strategies in place; one is a strong genetics focus – all our commercial breeders will have a genomics profile which allows us to make sure we're keeping only the most productive animals.
"From a productivity perspective, we're optimising pasture fertility and perenniality and we've invested in a in–paddock weighing system which allow us to make sure we turn off our steers at the earliest possibility.
"We've planted 17 per cent of farm down to trees and much of that in recent years so we've been able to model what our net emissions will look like as our trees grow over the next 20 years.
"With the On–Farm Emissions Action Plan, we are looking at investing in better confinement feeding infrastructure to improve weight gains in autumn and winter and achieve earlier turn off of young cattle in the spring.
"The program really gives you understanding of where you are currently and sheds light on possible future opportunities."
