Better Beef 2025: Feedlotting the ‘low-hanging fruit’ for reducing emissions despite not being major emitter

Beef feedlotting has been labelled the ‘low-hanging fruit” for agricultural emissions reduction, despite accounting for just one per cent of all livestock methane emissions. University of New England livestock production associate professor Fran Cowley was among the speakers at the Better Beef 2025 conference in Bunbury on March 20. She leads the Ruminant Research Group, which is the biggest methane research group in Australia and the world’s largest methane research facility. Prof. Cowley told farmers at the conference that short-term feedlotting was an ideal way to reduce emissions from livestock. However, the vast majority of livestock emissions actually were generated by cattle and sheep on pasture. “Feed is the driver of methane production, but that is also the driver of our profits,” she said. “So the more food cattle consume leads to more money … but it also means more emissions. “However, a low quality pasture produces a lot more methane than a high-quality feed. “And a big question is how much marginal benefit do we get for every dollar spent on methane reduction?” WA farmers are producing about 3Mt of Co2-e methane per year. Strategies to reduce emissions through feedlotting included adjusting animals’ diet through methane-inhibiting feed additives and improving production systems. The two most effective feed additives included 3-Nitrooxypropanol and asparagopsis, followed by nitrate, while some low effective additives also spruiked included biochar and essential oils. “The majority of the work in reducing emissions has been focused in the grain-fed sector, which is the low-hanging fruit,” Prof. Cowley said. “In grain-fed beef production we have a manufactured ration … so it is easy to put something else in to help reduce emissions. “That’s why companies like Coles are focusing their emissions reduction on grain-finished products. “Eventually we are going to target the grazing emissions … but that is very hard.” The majority of the methane produced by feedlotted animals comes from burping, followed by manure, which also produces nitrous oxide.