Supporting Livestock Producers to Reduce Emissions Intensity

In addition to the work being undertaken by partners in Future-Ready South Coast, South Coast NRM is coordinating workshops and working with farmers to raise awareness about the options available for accounting for natural resources and carbon on farm.

Know Your Number

Some parts of the agricultural supply chain and finance sector are beginning to report the emissions intensity associated with agricultural products. Emissions intensity refers to the amount of greenhouse gas emissions produced per kilogram of product (e.g. meat or wool).

For farmers, knowing this number can be really useful for business management because it is also a measure of production efficiency. For example, inefficient fertilizer application not only increases emissions, but also costs a business money.

As a farmer, even if your supply chain or bank isn’t asking you for these numbers, it’s worth getting started with a straightforward carbon account, or carbon profile. There are several tools available, and most of the figure required are collected as part of farm management anyway. Doing this yearly can give you a sense of how these efficiencies change over time. Get in touch with us if you’d like some advice or information on getting started with a carbon profile: ag@southcoastnrm.com.au

Natural Capital Accounting

Agricultural production depends on natural resources (part of “natural capital”) such as soil, water and biodiversity. These aspects of natural capital provide “services” such as pollination, pest control, nutrients, etc.

However, assets such as soil and water are not generally counted on the farm balance sheet, which means that the services these provide aren’t accounted for. In other words, the benefit these assets provide to the business (or the loss that occurs if an asset such as soil degrades) are not being accounted for.

The rule applies – you can’t manage what you can’t measure! Thus, natural capital accounting provides a way to measure the extent and condition of these natural assets, as well as the benefit they provide to the farm business.