Modelling greenhouse gas emissions abatement options for beef and sheep farm businesses

Modelling greenhouse gas emissions abatement options for beef and sheep farm businesses

The Carbon Farming Initiative (CFI), introduced by the Australian Government in 2011, has been developed to provide an opportunity for Australian farmers to undertake greenhouse gas (GHG) abatement projects on farm, and to generate revenue from the sale of carbon credits generated by such projects. While a substantial research effort is underway to better understand the technologies and management systems that may be available for farm businesses to abate GHG, only very limited research has been carried out on the financial implications of the adoption of these options, especially when integrated into a multi-enterprise farm business, and especially over the long timeframes that will be associated with sequestration options.
Using a comparative case study approach, this project developed marginal abatement cost curves (MACC) for specific farm enterprises so that comparisons could be made between similar farms within a geographic region, and between different production regions. This preliminary analysis identified that six key areas of the farm management scenarios assessed have the potential to consistently reduce overall farm GHG emissions with four of these main scenarios also providing a positive financial return. The four main scenarios include faster beef cattle turn off, changing the enterprise mix, improving beef cattle genetics and implementing earlier weaning.

© Australian Farm Institute 2013. Research commissioned by Meat and Livestock Australia.
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