Agricultural landholders have been encouraged to measure the carbon emissions from their operations to improve enterprise management and capture opportunities for managing carbon emissions and sequestration.
Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPRID) senior development officer Mandy Curnow told the opening day of Grains Research Updates 2022 an onfarm carbon account would be a valuable business tool for farmers in the future.
Ms Curnow said a carbon account provided landholders with a benchmark of emissions to verify the carbon status of the farm and farm products, as well as a baseline from which to capture opportunities to generate carbon credits.
“Western Australian landholders are very familiar with benchmarking in their businesses and carbon benchmarking is no different,” she said.
“Benchmarking allows landholders to consider management decisions with real information – you can’t manage what you don’t measure.”
Examples of four different farming systems were presented to the virtual forum, including a 100 per cent cropping enterprise and a mixed farm in the eastern Wheatbelt, a 100 per cent cropping property in the Mid West and a mixed Woolbelt operation.
Ms Curnow said emissions, as well as the composition of those emissions varied greatly between farms.
“While the Woolbelt mixed farm was the smallest in hectares, it had the largest number of livestock in the system, which contributed to the largest emissions due to the methane generated,” she said.
“The 100 per cent cropping farm had the lowest total emissions, as it had the lowest intensity of fertiliser and no livestock.
“The pulse crop produced the least emissions, mainly due to the absence of nitrogenous fertiliser.
“The wheat crop produced the most emissions, which is to be expected, as it is the largest proportion of the crop grown.”
A farm carbon account includes all level of emissions, from the point of export to the farmgate, including onsite emissions, electricity production and those from inputs, such as fertilisers, herbicides and supplementary feed.
Ms Curnow said knowing a property’s carbon account would enable landholders to consider options to decrease emissions or sequester carbon on-farm, which could also boost on-farm productivity and sustainability.
“Decreasing the emissions intensity of production measured in tonnes of carbon dioxide emitted per tonne of product can be achieved by increasing productivity and efficiency,” she said.
“However, it must be remembered that growing more produce, more efficiently will not necessarily reduce a farm’s overall emissions total.”
There are a number of online tools to available via the DPIRD website to assist landholders to begin the process of calculating on-farm carbon emissions.
Ms Curnow’s talk to the forum is available via the GRDC website.
Grains Research Update continues online next month, on 1, 3, 8 and 10 March. To participate visit the GRDC Updates and events page.
For more tools and information about onfarm carbon accounting visit www.agric.wa.gov.au/climate-change/how-calculate-carbon-emissions-your-….
Picture caption: DPIRD senior development officer Mandy Curnow provided an insight into onfarm carbon accounting at the recent Grains Research Updates.
Media contacts:
Mandy Curnow, senior development officer, DPIRD
Megan Broad/Katrina Bowers, media liaison +61 (0)8 9368 3937
