Reducing methane emissions from Australia's beef herd does not require a reduction in production, according to the University of Melbourne's Professor Richard Eckard.
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Prof Eckard instead said better and more efficient beef production go hand in hand with an emissions cut.
He was speaking to Stock & Land at the recent Better Beef conference in Ballarat.
Mr Eckard was director of the Climate Challenges Centre at the university.
"Not at all," he said, when asked if beef farmers needed to reduce herd numbers to cut methane.
His, and the wider Australian stance, differed from the approach in Europe where farmers were being encouraged to reduce numbers to reduce overall beef emissions.
Mr Eckard said Australian farmers could and should produce more beef, but from less.
"What we want to be is the most efficient producers and that doesn't mean reducing production, that means just being more efficient," he said.
"It's getting weaning rates up to 95 per cent, getting mortality rates down and having better legumes in the pasture."
He said it was important that Australian beef producers realised that while the world was concerned with "absolute" emissions, the only way the supply chain could buy more climate friendly beef was on a unit basis.
"In other words, emissions per unit liveweight," he explained.
"The moment you realise that, you start asking how do you change that ratio?
"You can't reduce the greenhouse gases but you can increase the liveweight going through the system.
"So the faster you turn them off through the system, the better you feed them, the better you breed and wean them, that drops that number."
He said the supply chain would be buying beef on emissions intensity and the lower farmers could reduce this the better.
"It's just mathematics," he quipped.
When asked if beef farmers had been doing this for years anyway, he said they had - breeding more efficient breeds and types of livestock.
He said the credit was in the bank for this work, in that through such breeding, farmers were already more efficient and profitable.
"There are clear trends in the livestock industry, dairy industry, beef industry, of a declining emissions intensity over the last 30 years," he said.
"That's because we bred and fed animals better and we were more aware of animal nutrition.
"That trajectory has been there."
He was asked if the farmers who've made those changes were now at a disadvantage, given they were already at a low emissions intensity starting point and there was less ground for them to make up and be rewarded for.
"The best producers from 10 years ago are still going to be at the head of the queue when the supply chain is buying on emissions intensity," Mr Eckard said.
"Early mover advantage is not a problem in selling low-emissions intensity product."
He also said low emissions intensity cattle could be bred for and that if selected for, there could be about 1pc of genetic gain on the trait a year.
However, he said there was more research and trialling needed on this.
"It's still in the pipeline," he said.
"There are some breed societies claiming it.
"They're saying we've got lower emissions intensity but what they're really saying is we've just got higher growth rate and feed conversion efficiency."
Mr Eckard said this was "pretty obvious".
"In terms of breeding, we already have the research which would say that residual methane production is a selectable and inheritable trait," he said.
"We're just in the process of over the next two years where there will be a multi-trait index which includes an EBV for breeding for residual methane production."
He said this selection criteria was desired amongst cattle breeders because it was also "consistent with feed conversion consistency".
"What you don't want to do is to breed for absolute reduction in methane because then you're just breeding for a less efficient rumen," he said.
Silver bullets
While addressing farmers at the Better Beef event, he said it was also important that they work now to reduce emissions while the industry waited for "silver bullets" which would have a role to play but had uncertain timelines.
He said such silver bullets included feed additives like seaweed and Bovaer which could "reduce methane dramatically tomorrow".
"But they can only do it in a confinement system," he highlighted.
"These are inhibitors where the more present it is in rumen every second of the day, the more effective it is.
"That only works if [the cattle are] eating it in every mouthful."
Mr Eckard said maybe "slow release capsule technology" would allow feed additives to be used on grazing cattle later.
"But for the grazing industry for now we're talking about things like breeding and better pastures with legumes," he said.
He said legumes had secondary compounds in them which reduced methane.
"These are things which can reduce methane now," he said.
"While it might not be 80pc less, if you get a good legume composition, you're not only finishing your animals faster with better quality nutrition but you also reduce their daily methane production by a modest amount, 15pc say," he said.
"A feed supplement might have another 10 years of development to be able to deliver it practically and extensively in a grazing system."
