24 NZP slams emissions policy Vol 19 No 14, April 12, 2021
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Hitting our targets The Climate Change Commission is suggesting we need to reduce livestock numbers by up to 15% to enable agriculture to meet its methane emission targets. This week Farmers Weekly begins a series looking at the implications of such a drop and what options are available. Richard Rennie and Neal Wallace report.
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REDUCTION in livestock numbers may be the only way to meet tough new methane targets being recommended by the Climate Change Commission (CCC), as there is no silver bullet yet available. Researchers are working on breeding, farm systems and feed technology, and the impact of new nitrogen limits will help, but the consensus is it will be tough to meet the commission’s 15.9% reduction by 2035 without some lowering of stock numbers.
It has to be good for the planet, but also good for the farmer in that it is cost effective and practical. Dr Jeremy Hill Fonterra The commission claims that better feeding, breeding and landuse change to horticulture, exotic and native forestry, will see farm livestock numbers fall 15% below 2018 levels by 2030, enabling biogenic methane targets to be met without new technology.
Commission chair Dr Rod Carr says under current trends methane emissions will fall short of the 10% reduction by 2030 set in the Zero Carbon Act. His committee has set even more challenging targets and by following their formula, emissions could be 6.5% below 2018 levels by 2025, 11.4% by 2030 and 15.9% by 2035. DairyNZ chief executive Tim Mackle is concerned the commission’s suggested target could become government policy, warning, if implemented, it will reduce farm profitability by 17% and cause financial hardship to a third of dairy farmers. Genetics and smart feeding projects by the Pastoral Greenhouse Gas Research Consortium, AgResearch and genetics companies could allow farmers to achieve lower greenhouse gas emissions without a similar loss of productivity. Scientists have spent a decade identifying sheep that emit 11% less gas than their average flock mates without sacrificing their ability to produce quality meat, milk and wool. Lead scientist Dr Suzanne Rowe from AgResearch says scientists are now at a point where they can predict by identifying gut bacteria which sheep will be high gas offenders and those that will be low.
OPTIONS: AgResearch forage scientist Arjan Jonker says a trial feeding sheep almost entirely rape and turnip crops can almost slice a third off emissions without compromising health.
Rowe and her colleagues are now applying their understanding to cattle, aiming to screen dairy herds to find low-methane gut profiles. Dozens of high genetic worth bulls owned by Ambreed and LIC, capable of spreading tens of thousands of daughters through the population every year, offer significant potential for rapid
deployment of low-methane dairy genetics. What is fed to those lowemitting animals may enhance those genetics and some simple cropping solutions are offering encouraging results. AgResearch forage scientist Arjan Jonker says a trial feeding sheep almost entirely rape and turnip crops can almost slice
a third off emissions without compromising health. “This is definitely proving to be a viable option, but is still obviously at the research end of the spectrum,” Jonker said. Work on condensed tannin clovers is also looking promising, with clovers contributing as much
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