Big players like Paraway Pastoral must do their bit on climate, says CEO

Speaking to Stock & Land at the company's 'Net Zero: Better for Business' field day in Moyston last week, Mr Gaynor suggested farms of his scale could not sit back and do nothing when it came to reducing emissions.

"I think with our scale comes a responsibility to do our bit," he said.

"It doesn't mean we are the most innovative or the clear leaders.

"There are a lot of small producers who do great stuff that we learn from but we can't sit back and do nothing and say nothing, that's for sure."

Paraway Pastoral ran 515,000 cattle and sheep on 4.5 million hectares across 25 farms in Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland.

In 2023, the business laid out a series of carbon emissions reduction targets for its farms, aligned to the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTI) climate targets, adopted globally.

Paraway also looked at the Global Methane Pledge.

"It's an aspirational global target of reducing methane by 30 per cent by 2030," explained its natural capital manager Paul McDougall.

The company set a target of reducing its non-livestock emissions, which make up just 4pc of its total emissions, by 15pc by 2030.

"The 2040 target would be to reduce it by 55pc," he added.

On the livestock side, the farms planned to reduce their emissions intensity (the emissions produced per kilogram of meat).

"By 2030, we believe we can get to 30pc [reduction] across the board and potentially further," he said.

Mr McDougell demonstrated how the farms were well on their way to achieving this.

Mr Gaynor said this work was "really interesting".

"The conversations are slowly starting to include the carbon impact of what we do, as well as the production impact and the financial impact," he said.

"Everyone has a choice but if you look at the evidence on our collective impact on the planet, the choice to do nothing is not a very good choice to make."

He said it was feasible for a large livestock producer such as Paraway Pastoral, to strive for and then maintain a net zero impact on the climate.

"That's feasible over time but we'll need some help from technology," he said.

"We just need to be better at measuring and being able to report on where we're at on that sustainability journey."

Mr Gaynor said the government needed to set a reasonable environment for agriculture, like any other business, to operate in, and that this was still possible while reducing emissions.

"I don't think that regulation on its own can solve these problems but the regulatory environment should support good practice on farms," he said.

"We take our signals from our customers in the market and our supply chain."

Some of the talk at the Paraway Pastoral field day also looked at the potentially additional income that could be generated for the farm through improving its climate impact.

Speakers sought to hammer home the message to farmers in attendance that more climate friendly farming also meant more efficient and productive farming.

"I actually think that farmers have been providing ecosystem services for the wider community and industry for many, many years, hundreds of years really," Mr Gaynor said.

"I think it's fantastic that now governments and markets are recognising the value of those ecosystem services for farmers and starting to reward us for them, maybe in some small ways."

He said the company would first look at meeting its own climate and carbon commitments internally before moving to engage with others, through selling carbon credits.

He also said much of farmers' climate work was being led by consumer preference and choices.

"I think consumers and everyone in the supply chain are looking for all sorts of information about how their food or fibre, or other products, are produced," he said.

"Whether that's carbon neutrality, animal welfare, environmental management, worker safety, all of us need to be able to stand behind our production system and provide the information to our customers."