Dairy Innovation Day: WA industry is halfway towards knowing its total carbon emissions

Enough data to establish an emissions baseline for the dairy industry has been collected on almost half the State’s farms as part of a WA-specific Carbon Calculator pilot project. Progress on the project’s first 12 months was presented by Dairy Australia’s regional climate adaptation lead, Cathy Ashby, at this year’s Dairy Innovation Day, held last Friday at Brunswick Junction. The pilot project is a significant step and a national first for the dairy industry with regards to farm-level emissions baselining. “Our goal is for 80 per cent of the WA milk pool to have completed their carbon emissions baseline by July 2024,” Ms Ashby said. “Currently 47 per cent of milk produced in WA has been completed. Results are showing we are on the right track.” To date the average calculation of WA dairy farm emissions for the 2022-23 period is 0.93kg CO2e/kg of fat and protein corrected milk (FPCM). Ms Ashby said results collected so far showed the industry was on track, with calculations varying from 0.79kg CO2e/kg FPCM to 1.1kg CO2e/kg FPCM. She said dairy producers should contact her if they had not yet calculated their baseline emissions. “Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence,” Ms Ashby said. “You need to start thinking about your records.” She said if nothing else, producers needed to stay on top of record management — especially the number of livestock they own across all classes, sales records and weights. “Ninety six per cent of dairy farmers have implemented practices to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions,” Ms Ashby said. “Eighty nine per cent of farms are using renewable energy.” She said transitioning to net zero required considerable heavy lifting and this should not just be the job of livestock producers. In order to ensure the dairy industry was supported, it needed to have reliable records which a baseline was critically important for. Ms Ashby said going forward, Australia’s dairy carbon emission records would be compared with global competitors such as America and Europe. The Australian Dairy Carbon Calculator is available on the Dairy Australia website, with versions one to four developed by staff from the University of Tasmania, University of Melbourne and Victoria’s Department of Environment and Primary Industries. The calculator was funded by the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, Dairy Australia, Meat and Livestock Australia and Australian Wool Innovation as part of the Whole Farm Systems Analysis of Mitigation project. Ms Ashby said carbon calculations looked at components such as nitrogen fertiliser use, energy use, effluent management, livestock, trees and soil. She said once producers had calculated their carbon number, additional options included exploring carbon farming, becoming involved in profitability and emissions intensity projects as well as collaboration opportunities, discussion groups and farmer-led on-ground projects.