Beef the true reducetarians: ABSF lunch

Restocked paddocks will lead to increased methane outputs but good seasons also bring more soil cover and increased carbon storage through sequestration.

Science allows enteric methane emissions to be measured and CSIRO-recorded data gives a number for the amount of carbon sequestered in vegetation on red meat properties.

But a precise measurement for soil carbon sequestration on livestock properties is still in the making, leaving a gap in the beef industry's ability to report on its full contribution to the climate solution.

This was called out as the latest report card on the sector's performance in this space, the 2023 Australian Beef Sustainability Framework Update, was unpacked at an industry event last week.

ABSF Sustainability Steering Group chair Mark Davie said better data was needed, through investment in metrics and in the science to underpin those metrics.

The ABSF Update shows carbon sequestered in vegetation on livestock farms is now at its highest recorded amount since 2015, at 28.42 mega tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent.

Net emissions were also at the lowest recorded point in 2020.

"Our carbon reporting story is immensely positive but it's also complicated because it reflects a single point in time where our methane emissions would have been significantly reduced by drought destocking," Mr Davie told a room of beef industry representatives in Melbourne at the launch of the 2023 Update.

"The reverse is now underway - increased methane through the herd rebuild but at the same time we will have more carbon sequestered within our environment.

"The trend and direction of our efforts are positive but it will not be a straight line to CN30. What matters is how we continue to progress, how we bring forward further technologies to reduce emissions and to measure what we are doing."

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Australia was uniquely positioned with its ambitious CN30 goal, with those in the beef sustainability business across the globe now referring to it as world-leading, Mr Davie said.

Agriculture Minister Murray Watt, speaking virtually at the event, backed that.

He said it was a point referred to in trade talks overseas.

"Australian beef producers work in some of the world's harshest environments and we can see before our eyes that the agriculture industry is feeling the effects of climate change," he said.

"At the same time, consumers, financiers and international markets are demanding ever higher standards of sustainability.

"Your industry has taken action to get ahead of this - reducing its emissions and committing to ambitious targets."

Mr Davie said it was important beef producers 'continue to tell our story' as the industry builds up data collection tools and the technology to measure its contribution.

"There is so much integrity and quiet dignity in what our industry is doing," he said.

While mainstream media so often screamed headlines about the so-called reducetarian diet cutting back on red meat, it was the beef industry itself that was the true reducetarian, Mr Davie said.

It had reduced its net carbon dioxide equivalent emissions by 64.1 per cent since 2005.

A baseline year of 2005 has been chosen as it aligns with the Paris Agreement on climate change.

"We were the first movers. We are the emission reduction pioneers," Mr Davie said.

Read the full ABSF Update here.