Economics of reducing methane emissions from cattle production in central Queensland

Summary

The aim of the project was to build the knowledge capacity of landholders to understand how actions to minimise greenhouse gas emissions that focus on methane emissions from livestock might impact on their production decisions. The project focused on landholders in the Central Highlands and Desert Uplands region of Central Queensland, and was a sister project to one that focuses on estimating carbon budgets at the property level. This project had four main objectives, being to:

Summarise the debate surrounding methane emissions from livestock in ways that are relevant to the grazing industry.
Develop a small workbook to help landholders estimate methane emissions from livestock at the property level.
Conduct an economic analysis of how methane emission reduction strategies might impact on the grazing industry.
Communicate these results to landholders.
The second stage of the project was to develop a property level workbook. Also, the communications strategy began once the first report had been distributed. Arrangements have been made with Agforce to make presentations at the local branch meetings and to contribute to the organisation's publication, Envoy. Arrangements were also been made to distribute results through the Central Highlands Regional Resource Use Planning Project, and some funding secured to hold a research day at Emerald in 2001.