Not so long ago, carbon was a word few farmers mentioned.
Yet producers have always been in the business of carbon farming, as close to half of the pastures and crops grown is carbon.
The real question, says one of the country's leading scientists in climate change Professor Richard Eckard, is how farmers can be more efficient at capturing carbon from the atmosphere and putting it through to animal product in the most profitable way.
Of course, the other key element is to do that in a way that minimises greenhouse gas emissions.
Dr Eckard is Professor of Sustainable Agriculture at the University of Melbourne and Director of the Primary Industries Climate Challenges Centre, a research centre addressing the impacts of a changing climate on agriculture.
His research focuses on sustainable agricultural production, with a recent focus on carbon neutral agriculture. He developed the first GHG accounting tools for agriculture and has provided the science basis for the development of six carbon offset methods in Australia.
He is passionate about the potential agriculture has to drive a climate solution, and is happy to speak endlessly on every facet of this topic.
Fancy word
Yes, sequestration is a fancy word, he agrees, but all it really means is capturing carbon from the atmosphere and storing it in either the soil or in trees.
"It is easy to capture carbon through growing good pastures but the entire purpose of the soil microbial population is to chew through this carbon as their food source, storing water and releasing nutrients to grow better pastures," Prof Eckard said.
"So we want more sequestration but we don't want it to be permanent for productivity outcomes, we want it to be permanent to reduce climate change. These two are not always the same objective."
Carbon cycle in livestock
Carbon is captured from the atmosphere through photosynthesis and used to grow pastures.
"We then put animals onto the pasture and they graze this carbon and convert it into animal products." Prof Eckard explained.
"We then consume that, which is returning that carbon to the atmosphere."
Along the way, some of the carbon is belched out by the animal, also returning it back to the atmosphere.
"If that was all that happened, the carbon cycle would be completely neutral, as all the captured carbon ends up back in the atmosphere within 12 months," Prof Eckard said.
"However, some of the carbon goes into roots where it can be stored as longer-term soil carbon, and some of the carbon is released as methane which will also stay in the atmosphere do damage for about 10 years.
"The flow in this cycle is that soils will eventually saturate in carbon, and no longer be a source of neutrality, while the methane continues to be emitted. In the end, research must deliver low-cost solutions for farmers to reduce methane."
The options emerging from research now were quite promising, Prof Eckard said.
"We know that we can feed animals certain legumes, oils, secondary compounds - products like seaweed - that will reduce methane emissions. These are all coming through in the marketplace now," Prof Eckard said.
"We can also breed animals that produce less methane. That's a very steady gain, but it's cumulative and permanent.
"The real holy grail is to actually produce animals that just don't have methane-producing microbes in their stomach. That's the endpoint we are trying to get to."
Producer response
Just a decade ago, there was fear and a good deal of opposition among producers to the methane story.
"But increasingly, the multinational supply chain companies have set targets for low emissions and so most farmers are now aware that if they want to sell into a supply chain by 2030, they have to demonstrate some action," Prof Eckard said.
"And so they are really keen to engage.
"But at the end of the day, the challenge sits with us in research to come up with cost effective ways to do it because a lot of the options so far are marginal in this regard."
- The Carbon Series was produced in collaboration with the Australian Science Media Centre with support from the META Public Interest Journalism Fund administered by the Walkley Foundation.