A holistic cattle farmer from Yea and a Seymour organic vegetable grower say the Federal Government’s commitment to net-zero by 2050 needs to be beefed-up.
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Olivia Lawson runs a bull-breeding business across her Yea and Ballarat properties, focusing on fertility and feed efficiency in her Angus, Charolais and composite cattle.
Mrs Lawson said the government’s net-zero plan “wasn’t much of a plan”.
“For the red meat industry, we’ve (Meat & Livestock Australia) already set a target of being net-zero by 2030,” she said.
“The meat industry has reduced our emissions by 51.6 per cent since 2005. So net-zero by 2050 isn’t very exciting.”
Mrs Lawson said she’d have liked to see less emphasis on cattle methane emissions in the plan.
“Methane from cattle isn’t the issue — it’s methane from the gas industry we need to worry about,” she said.
While agriculture remains the largest source of methane in Australia, livestock emissions have actually been falling since the 1990s, according to the CSIRO.
However, methane levels have been increasing overall thanks to the rise in natural gas extraction.
“Agriculture is the one actually pulling their weight and setting targets,” Mrs Lawson said.
“We’re not seeing that from the mining sector, and ag is our future — not coal and gas.”
Mrs Lawson said the one benefit to the government’s plan was the increase in funding for soil carbon testing.
“At the moment testing is quite costly for farmers.
“It’s a good step forward to help farmers actually follow through with the practices they want to adopt but can’t because of financial barriers.”
She said at the moment engaging in carbon soil programs and carbon projects “can be quite complicated”, especially as most carbon programs remain in their trial phases and were only open to a select number of producers.
Mrs Lawson started holistically grazing 18 years ago with her husband Tom Lawson.
“The way we run our grass is as important to us as how we run the cattle,” she said of their business, Paringa Livestock.
“We use intense grazing pressure, running large mobs of cattle over short periods of time.
“You’re creating a better ecosystem by intensely grazing and giving the pasture longer destocking periods.”
As the grass only has to absorb the stress of grazing over a small window, the vegetation adapts by growing deeper roots and pumping more carbon into the soil.
Multi-species perennial grass paddocks also play a big part in the holistic system.
Chloe Fox runs Somerset Heritage Produce on the outskirts of Seymour.
The market garden is on 1.6 ha of leased land beside the Goulburn River, and sells to farmers’ markets and restaurants.
Ms Fox said the use of organic principles, growing seasonally and avoiding monoculture plantings meant the small but highly productive business was “farming with the environment, not against it”.
“We’ve got great soil and water retention because we encourage diverse microbial and biological activity,” she said.
In one section, a row of radish have gone to seed.
“We don’t need that bed for a while, so we let the radish go,” Ms Fox said.
“The insects love it and it maintains constant groundcover, which we use to protect microorganisms and soil carbon.”
Encouraging insects on the farm means Somerset Heritage Produce never has major pest outbreaks, thanks to the presence of natural predators.
Ms Fox grew up on a dairy farm in New Zealand and got into market gardening after living in Melbourne and discovering permaculture.
She said growing a diverse range of seasonal produce next to towns should be supported more.
“Our stuff is picked the day before you get it. It’s the freshest, most ripe and in-season produce you can get. It doesn’t sit in refrigeration or get trucked across the country.
“We need to be eating more from our local areas, and eating more seasonally too.”
Ms Fox said the Federal Government was “behind the eight-ball” when it came to climate action.
“They aren’t even on the radar,” she said.
“There are farmers like us out here doing this, doing our part, and we’re making more of a difference than the actual government.”
Ms Fox said it was shameful that a wealthy country with such pristine natural resources continued to show no ambition for climate action.
“They need to set clear targets. It’s incredibly important for businesses and investment. They need to know what’s going to be happening.”
Both Mrs Lawson and Ms Fox are members of Farmers for Climate Action.
Journalist