Environmental Credentials for Australian grassfed beef IT platform pilot

Meat & Livestock Australia is seeking grassfed beef producers to take part in the piloting of an online platform that is under development in the Environmental Credentials of Australian grassfed beef project. Piloting this platform is a three-step process:

1. Register for and attend an online webinar which will introduce you to the platform.
2. Be granted access to trial the platform for your own property.
3. Share your feedback via an online survey. 

Register for and attend an online webinar that will introduce you to the platform (a range of webinars are listed in the table below. Please register for the day/time that suits you best by following the Zoom link).

Beef customers and other industry stakeholders are increasingly looking for evidence of sustainable production practices. A challenge for beef producers and supply chains is how to demonstrate their sustainability credentials and achieve recognition in the marketplace.

This project will enable industry to set the agenda, rather this being set by customers and community who are not informed about our production systems. It will enable producers and industry to drive the development of the environmental credentials platform, so it is useful, meaningful minimises industry fragmentation. This project will leverage and add value to proactive industry level programs such as the ABSF and CN30. Producer use of the platform will be completely voluntary. 

The project is funded for three years (until June 2023) through the Australian Government’s Smart Farms program. It is being delivered by a consortium led by Meat & Livestock Australia, with WWF-Australia and the University of Queensland as partners.

What is being developed?

This project will develop a voluntary, on-line tool accessible to all grass-fed beef producers wanting to measure and demonstrate their environmentally sustainable production practices.

The tool will be underpinned by:

• a consistent and practical framework for measuring and monitoring environmental credentials on-farm.
• a voluntary, national ‘platform’ to enable beef producers to demonstrate their environmental credentials to markets.
• learning resources, based on best practice programs and initiatives to help producers improve their knowledge and apply practices on-farm.

Environmental themes to be included on the platform are tree cover, ground cover, carbon balance, biodiversity and drought resilience. These areas were selected due to alignment with the environmental pillar of the Australian Beef Sustainability Framework (ABSF) and demand from customers.

MLA invites interested grassfed beef producers to take part in the platform pilot and provide feedback and insights for the refinement and further development.