Nulla Vale livestock producer Kate Paterson, Woodlands, has a one word answer, when it comes to why she is seeking to reduce the carbon footprint of the property she runs with her father Don.
"Excellence," Ms Paterson said.
"I want to be recognised as a supplier who is putting really hard work in and seeing the rewards, while not being left behind.
"There was an interesting comment made 'if you don't have a plan for your carbon, someone else does'."
Ms Paterson is one of the livestock producers who are presenting their work at an Agriculture Victoria webinar, next week, on its On-Farm Emissions Action Plan.
"We have been interested in reducing our carbon footprint for a few years now, initially driven by a desire to improve the poor reputation that livestock farming is held with, in regard to its impact upon climate change," Ms Paterson said.
Claims by the United Nations and climate activist Greta Thunberg that the 'greenhouse gas footprint of animal agriculture rivals that of every car, truck, bus, ship, aeroplane and rocket ship combined' where significant and "threatening," Ms Paterson said.
"Whether such a statement is true or can be proven is not the point. It is a common narrative amongst consumers, consumers whom we rely upon to sustain our livelihood."
As 2030 came closer, the value chain was working towards net zero/carbon neutral, "so eventually there may be a stick coming," she said.
"What could wielding the stick look like? It may be a carbon tax of sorts, such as what New Zealand will be facing in 2025."
Currently, Woodlands runs a herd of 105 cow and calf units, four bulls and 66 replacement heifers, based on Dollar Angus bloodlines, alongside 7000 Merino wethers.
Woodlands used single sire mating, without AI, and heifers were joined at 2.5 years of age.
'We've found, over many years, that this is the optimal time - it's a key reason we have enjoyed high rates of pregnancy amongst our herd," Ms Paterson said.
The property, of about 1600 hectares, is just north of Lancefield.
Calves were yard weaned on vetch at 7-9 months of age, or above 150 kilograms, and sold through AuctionsPlus or at the February Ballarat Blue Ribbon weaner sales.
Woodlands was part of the Greenham's Never Ever program: in the absence of an industry standard on animal welfare, management practices were audited by Livestock Integrity Solutions Australia, Ms Paterson said.
"Our hope is that this accreditation adds to the credibility of the integrity of our cattle," she said.
Docility and good temperament, key traits, were also encouraged by hand feeding oranges, apples or watermelon, from the time the calves reached six months of age.
"In every paddock we can walk up to the cows and either they won't move or they will come looking for a sweet treat," she said.
"Two out of the three sets of yards on the property are left open to the paddocks adjacent to them," she said. "This allows the cattle free access.
"They can get water and chew on some grass without any fear and this has made a huge difference to the ease of yarding the livestock when required."
Dogs were not used in cattle management.
"That has enormous benefits to our business - not just in reduced costs, in terms of fencing and yards, but also reducing dark cutting because they are not damaged in transit, because they are not flighty and wild."
Neutrality timeline
There was no timeline yet set for carbon neutrality.
"When you look at the figures, it takes an enormous amount of investment - just the tree plantations we are putting in will be around $30,000 and that's across about 1200 trees.
"It's an expensive journey, so when you go down this path, you have to make sure it's going to pay dividends - not just for the environment, but for the business as well.
"But I want to stress that I want our meat to be in a premium market, because of its quality, as well as its carbon-neutral accreditation.
"It's no good having meat that is not going to stand up, on a quality scale, because it will just discredit any carbon neutral line that is out there."
She said moving towards carbon neutrality was not just about planting trees and she would soon be working with Danny Pettingill, of Regen Farmers Mutual, to also look at increasing overall biodiversity on the property.
The aim was to reduce the effects of drought, by improving soil water storage capability, enhance animal welfare, through the planting of trees, and use of dung beetles to bury effluent and reduce the impact of internal parasites.
Ms Paterson said they paused the planting of shelterbelts - first begun in 1983 - in the middle of last year.
But she said they then found they could increase the number of trees and vegetation on the property to 25 per cent of the landmass (currently its 5pc) without affecting productivity.
That was followed by a presentation to the local Landcare group on the Emission Reduction Fund projects, for which Woodlands had now been registered,
It coincided with "almost record rainfall" last spring - "the soil carbon levels were at the highest level they could be, when the soil is saturated.
Pasture was a combination of cocksfoot, phalaris, rye and clover, with 44 tonnes of superphosphate applied in 2021-22.
"If we had gone down the path of taking very expensive measurements, with soil, if you measured again in 12 months time, we would have probably gone backwards," she said.
SHELTERBELT BENEFITS
Mr Paterson said he could see animal welfare benefits from tree plantations, very early on.
"Quite a few sheep would get skin cancer, on their face or their behind, but we haven't had any of that for years now," he said.
"We try to have a plantation at the north end of the paddock, and the other at the south - even though they have got a plantation at the south, if the wind is in the north, they go up there and sit in the sun."
Sheep also used the plantations after first being shorn.
Like his daughter, Mr Paterson said farmers had to keep up with change.
"When I first came home from school, we didn't have a four-wheel drive, we didn't have a tractor - my father had a horse and cart," he said.
"When I started, I got a motorbike - I was the first in the area to get a motorbike, then we got a four-wheel drive and tractor.
"Every year, there is some change on the farm - the ones that don't change get left behind."
Ms Paterson said she hoped she would be able to encourage smaller producers to think about moving towards carbon neutrality.
"I hope they feel it's not a pipe dream, it's something that is achievable for a small producer, as much as a big producer," she said.
"At the moment, we see a lot of producers that are able to achieve carbon neutral status through either agro-forestry projects, or other big scale operations.
"I want a small farmer to think they can come along on this journey, as well, and there is a reason for them to to that, in that there are markets emerging (McDonalds fast food chain) and there will benefits from their own livestock production."
She said she wanted to encourage and support others.
"Becoming carbon neutral is a marathon, not a sprint," she said.
FARM PERSPECTIVE
The other speaker, Rhiannon Sandford, and husband Conrad, are running 70 Angus breeders and 50 weaners in the hill country, above Molesworth.
Ms Sandford is also the Goulburn Broken Catchment Management Authority Land Health project coordinator.
She said she and Conrad lease 440 hectares from family members.
"I set our goal, at the moment, as being in bite sized pieces - aiming for a 30 per cent reduction in our carbon emissions in 10 years," she said.
Ms Sandford said she hoped to give a farmer perspective on the pilot.
"We are in our third year of getting going with farming - we are not completely new, but it's entirely different when you have to work out all the time frames for husbandry," she said.
She said she wanted to understand the farm's "carbon number", in terms of emissions and sequestration.
"The farm itself hasn't had an infrastructure update, for a long time, so our focus is establishing small paddocks - it has really large paddocks, so our grazing management is difficult to get better productivity," she said.
"The beauty of a plan and the phase we are in is that we can look at the types of actions and build those into our infrastructure and improvement programs."
She said she and her husband wanted to improve the farm's carbon use efficiency, which was quite high, due to buying in animals.
"Our pastures are largely unimproved and soils have low fertility, so we need to take a bit longer, at the moment, to grow our own animals.
"We need to focus on screening and breeding for an efficient beef animal.
"One of the first things we will do is baseline soil fertility, acidity and carbon - that represents an opportunity for us if we have a figure now.
"It gives us a base to identify and prioritise where we need to spend money."
There were also plans to revegetate part of the property with biodiverse, carbon sequestering plants.
"Methane is our biggest emission, our ability to offset that on a small parcel of land is potentially limited in terms of increasing soil carbon and sequestration."
More than 20 per cent of the property was under old growth vegetation - which didn't necessarily give a carbon benefit.
The On-Farm Emissions Action Plan aims to provide practical information, tools and services to support farmers understand and reduce emissions.
The three-year pilot is working with up to 250 farm businesses across the state to measure their on-farm emissions profile.
The webinar will be held between 12noon and 1pm on Friday, May 5.
For more information, go to https://agriculture.vic.gov.au/climate-and-weather/climate-updates-newsletters-and-webinars/climate-webinars