Back climate science to back SA farmers, growers say

Populist climate change solutions are shaking one of the pillars of SA’s economy at a time when it could be making great advances for the future, farming lobbyists are warning.

The leaders of South Australia’s peak agriculture bodies have urged governments to pour money into research and development to help farmers lower their greenhouse gas emissions.

Grainproducers SA chairman Adrian McCabe, Livestock SA president Joe Keynes and SA Dairyfarmers Association president John Hunt say the state’s farmers are ready and willing play their part to reduce emissions.

But they say government investment in agricultural research is critical.

“Governments need to look at the really exciting, cutting edge science of plant growth, and invest in that,” Mr McCabe, a grain grower near Tarlee, said.

“This is no the time to be continually cutting research in agriculture, this is absolutely the time to get behind it. We need to get good science to back good solutions to climate variability and sustainability in agriculture.

“This is not the time to be doing populist, small-minded changes in agriculture, we need to allow our science to get behind the emissions reduction in agriculture.”

A Grattan Institute report released last month said that agriculture accounted for 15 per cent of Australians greenhouse gas emissions in 2019, emitting 76.5 million tonnes. The report said agriculture must be included in any national climate target, but it was one of the most difficult sectors in which to cut emissions.

“Smarter land management can boost farm productivity and store carbon, creating carbon credits that will be in-demand as the economy approaches net zero,” the report says.

“The more that farmers can reduce emissions, the fewer credits they will need to offset their own emissions, and the more they can sell to others – diversifying their revenue streams.”

The SA farming chiefs said there were still many unanswered questions around the details and benefits of offsetting emissions by planting trees on land currently use to produce crops and livestock.

But they said producers are willing to work with governments to create the right policy settings to promote sustainable farming and lowering emissions.

“Our consumers are becoming very sophisticated and want to understand that primary producers are looking forward to sustainable business,” Mr Keynes, a sheep grower at Keyneton, said.

“We want consumers to understand that we, as they are, are part of this carbon cycle. And as producers, we’re thinking about our footprint while producing really good product in a sustainable fashion.

“We know we’re part of the impact, and we’re trying to do as much as we can, but we also know we have to feed the world.”

National agricultural bodies have all produced sustainability guidelines and say farmers have changed their techniques significantly in the past few decades as they have become more environmentally conscious.

Mr Hunt, a dairy farmer in the South-East, said lowering emissions also made financial sense, because markets were demanding sustainable farming practices.

“As a dairy farmer, anything you do (to make your farm more sustainable) is going to benefit your business,” he said.

Livestock SA and SA Dairyfarmers’ Association chief executive Andrew Curtis said his organisations were committed to developing environmentally-conscious production systems.

“Our industries have created and are implementing sustainability frameworks and our association presidents are leading this work from the front.” he said.

“Sustainability is vital to the longevity of our industries.”

FOOTPRINT FOCUS FOR OUR FARMERS

By Paul Ashenden

The sun is low on the horizon as we turn into the paddock to check out John Hunt’s herd of dairy cows.

There’s about 350 of them in this paddock, and they’ve just been milked. They’re munching loudly on the thick grass of the Allendale East property, just south of Mount Gambier.

But before we get to them, Mr Hunt stops his ute, gets out and gestures contently at the surrounding paddocks, all lush green and rich with the pasture on which his cows will feed.

The Kiwi-expat is like a kid in a candy store. He genuinely loves his life as a dairy farmer and the simple process of producing milk – from grass to glass, as they say in the dairy game – excites him.

Dairy farmer John Hunt at his Allendale East farm. Picture: Tom Huntley

“When we come in the gate and you can just see the sun on the grass …” he says as he struggles to vocalise his obvious passion. “That’s the stuff that I go ‘mate, that’s why we do this’.

“Farming is cool. Farming is good fun. It really is. We were just down feeding the calves before and you can see the breeding and you go man, this is cool.”

But the farming game for Mr Hunt, and all of Australia’s primary producers, is becoming more complicated as the world becomes increasingly conscious of the climate, carbon and the need for sustainable practices.

Agriculture accounted for about 15 per cent of Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions, or 76.5 million tonnes, in 2019 and the pressure is on all sectors of the industry to reign in those numbers.

National peak bodies have embraced the need for action and are sending a message to the farmers they represent that maintaining the status quo is not an option. Primary producers can either lead the move towards more sustainable, carbon-neutral practices, or have it forced upon them.

For Mr Hunt, president of SA Dairyfarmers Association, the choice is an easy one. He’s urging fellow dairy farmers to come along for the ride. In fact, he says, they’ve already started the journey. “Agriculture has been working on this (sustainable farming) for a long time,” he says.

“It hasn’t just gone, you know, we have to do something. Farmers have been doing it all along.

“Everything you do to improve your farm management improves your footprint, and it ultimately improves your profitability.”

Mr Hunt points to a new traceability trial SADA launched last month as an example of steps the dairy industry was taking to improve transparency along the milk supply chain, from the farms to the shops.

He’s also an advocate of a Dairy Australia online carbon calculator, which allows farmers to calculate the emissions impact of adopting different strategies.

Dairy farmer John Hunt feeds his calves at his Allendale East farm. Picture: Tom Huntley

But he’s quick to point out that the national dairy industry produces about 2.8 per cent of Australia’s total emissions. South Australian dairy farmers’ contribution to total emissions is just 0.009 per cent.

“So we’re not big polluters,” he says. “But do we need to do something about it? Yes. Do we contribute? Yes. So we are really looking at reducing our footprint all the time.

“And it’s not really about what we think, it’s about what our customers think. Because if we aren’t seen to be making an effort, our customers will go: ‘Hey, we don’t want to buy your product’.”

Most greenhouse gas emissions from dairy farmers come in the form of methane expelled whenever a cow burps or passes gas. But different cows have different genetic make-ups, and farmers are now able to include the amount of methane emissions a bull's’ offspring will produce as part of their breeding program.

Mr Hunt says farmers can also reduce their emissions footprint by selecting coated fertilisers that ensures the nitrogen stays in the soil, rather than escaping into the atmosphere, and regularly monitoring soil data to prevent over-fertilisation and the overuse of the centre-pivot irrigation system sometimes used to water pasture.

Carbon-neutral goal

Too much water is rarely an issue for Joe Keynes, the fifth-generation custodian of Keyneton Station, a few kilometres from the town, just outside the Barossa Valley, which bears the same name.

Since 1842 the Keynes family has relied purely on water from the clouds on the property established by one of the pioneers of SA agriculture, Joseph Keynes.

And the amount and consistency of rain is becoming more and more unpredictable as a warming climate produces less precipitation, hotter summers and more extreme bushfire conditions.

“There’s no doubt about it that as a species, the human race is having an impact on the climate,” Mr Keynes says. “We need to work with that, and the impact of it for our businesses is climate variability – increased climate variability.

Farmer Joe Keynes on his Keyneton property. Picture: Brenton Edwards

“Other people might say that climate change is rubbish but whatever the cause is, we are having a lot more climate variability than we’ve ever had – in my lifetime anyway.” Mr Keynes is president of Livestock SA, which represents about 3500 red meat and wool producers in the state. He says cattle and sheep farmers are already adapting to these changes, and are working towards a Meat and Livestock Australia goal of carbon neutrality by 2030.

Both the beef and sheep industries have documented their visions for a sustainable future which include priorities such as improving natural resource management, encouraging biodiversity and responsible environmental practices, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, minimising nutrient and sediment loss, improving tree and grass cover, efficient water use and adapting to climate change. Mr Keynes says the industries will continue to be marked against these priorities.

As we sit in the kitchen of his family’s historic homestead, he highlights research involving an SA-produced seaweed which, when included in fodder, has significantly reduced livestock’s methane emissions. Smarter stock rotation practices such as rotational grazing and the use of native grasses have helped Keyneton Station improve its soil management.

And improved genetics and animal welfare not only increase lambing rates, but produce larger, healthier and faster-growing animals which also emit less methane.

“Don’t ask me the science behind it … but a skinny animal will actually emit more methane than a well-conditioned animal,” Mr Keynes says. “It makes sense because methane is energy, and if they’re putting on meat, and wool and everything else, they’re using the maximum amount of that methane that they possibly can. “So to get the production system right, the spin-off is that you’re making sure you’re sustainable, you’re looking at less greenhouse impacts. It’s a really good news story.”

By breeding sheep and cattle which grow quickly, and employing tactics such feedlots to promote fast development, livestock producers are also reducing the time it takes to ready the animals for slaughter, hence limiting their methane emissions.

Mr Keynes says science and ongoing research will play an important role as sheep and beef producers look to continually improve their land and animal management practices.

“It’s an evolving thing,” he says. “We’ll take the technology as it comes and, providing it fits within our production system, you’re going to give it a go.

“We’re very clear as an industry, nationally and as president of Livestock SA, we’re very much focused on how we actually get all of our producers understanding these sustainability frameworks to make sure we are all singing from the same page.

“I’m really encouraged by the number of producers that are really focused on the sustainability of their business. They’ve made changes and are adapting to the current variability of the climate. We’ve got producers that are ready to go. They understand that in the ensuing years, we need to be part of the solution.

“I think the South Australian and Australian livestock sector will be carbon neutral by 2030.”

Fund the research

Farmers say they need governments to be collaborative and use a carrot rather than a stick when implementing programs and policies to encourage producers to get on board the low-emissions bandwagon.

And they want investment in agricultural research rather than kneejerk, populist policies (such as mandating electric tractors) which they say will damage the sector and have questionable environmental benefits.

Adrian McCabe is another fifth-generation SA farmer and chairman of Grain Producers SA. His home is on the top of a hill at Alma, just out of Tarlee in the Mid North, and provides 360-degree views of a cropping district which has increasingly diversified from wheat and barley to canola and legumes in the past few years.

The switch in crop variety is one of the many seismic changes Mr McCabe and his fellow grain producers have experienced in the past few decades. Widespread use of glyphosates and direct seeding, for example, have ended generations of damaging tillage (turning over soil) and hence improved the water retention and soil quality.

Adrian McCabe in a healthy crop at his property this month. Picture Matt Turner

And it’s this history of adapting to suit social, environmental, economic and political conditions that he believes will hold them in good stead as the world works towards carbon neutrality.

“Our industry is an extremely sustainable industry and we’ve proven that” Mr McCabe says. “We continue to be sustainable. We are leading edge – as far as worldwide practices we are at the front of those practices.

“But we understand that the political and social climate of the moment expects that for us to do nothing, or maintain situation normal, won’t be acceptable.

“We need to allow the science to get to the point where we can measure and record accurately what we are doing. That science isn’t there yet, but once it is, we’ll look to make changes to fit into a sustainable climate and to continue to access world demand.”

Mr McCabe points to a national Behind Australian Grains framework which outlines key sustainability priorities for the industry.

The document, Mr McCabe says, is peppered with data gaps because it is currently impossible for farmers to accurately measure things like carbon and emissions.

“We’re probably struggling to articulate that yes, we’re really open to reducing our emissions, reducing our footprint and doing whatever we can for the climate but it’s really hard to measure exactly where we are,” he says.

Despite enduring four consecutive dry years, Mr McCabe is reluctant to use the term “climate change” for fear of alienating some of his constituents. But reducing greenhouse gas is one of the key targets outlined in the national framework.

Nitrous oxide, released from soil after the application of nitrogen-based fertilisers, and carbon dioxide, released from the soil through plant decay and insect and microbial activity, are grain producers’ primary emissions.

Mr McCabe says burning diesel for tractors and other vehicles produces just 5 per cent of grain growers’ greenhouse gases. Hence he’s sceptical about the impact of mandating vehicles be powered by alternative energy such as electricity or hydrogen.

On his own farm, Mr McCabe is trialling long-term fallow (leaving fields out of production) to improve water retention and soil health, using chicken manure in winter to reduce nitrous oxide release and storing water rather than relying solely on rain.

“Individually we are doing things and as an industry we are really focused on the fact that the status quo is not acceptable,” he says. “We absolutely need to set our minds and our research teams to put the shoulder to the wheel to come up with better solutions.”

Land custodians

Back in the South-East, John Hunt’s grandson Iziah is only eight but is a regular companion to Mr Hunt and his wife Karenas they look after the cows and calves on their Allendale East property.

Iziah’s father Daniel and mother Sam also work on the farm, and the youngster is keen to continue the family tradition.

It’s a path Mr Hunt, who moved his family to the South-East from New Zealand 14 years ago to realise their dream of owning a dairy farm, would love him to pursue.

With that in mind, the Hunts, like all farmers, want to leave their land, and the climate in which it exists, in as pristine condition as possible for the next generation.

“With your land, we’re only the custodians of it,” he says. “We want to leave it for our young fella and the next young fella after that.”

It’s a sentiment echoed by both Mr Keynes and Mr McCabe.

“No-one is in agriculture to rape and pillage their soils,” Mr McCabe says. “That’s absolutely against what we stand for. We want to leave it better and better as we move on.”

Dairy farmer John Hunt, with his grandson Iziah, 8. Picture: Tom Huntley

DOING GRAPE THINGS FOR THE ENVIRONMENT

By Paul Ashenden

Award-winning viticulturist Dan Falkenberg says sustainability is no longer a goal at his Eden Valley vineyard.

It’s a somewhat counterintuitive statement, considering the fourth-generation grape grower is at the vanguard of a growing movement within the wine industry to place the environment at the forefront of everything they do.

But Mr Falkenberg, vineyard manager at Eden Hall Wines, says sustainability is no longer enough. The goal now is regeneration.

“We’ve probably gone beyond the sustainability side of things really,” he says as he shows us around the 33-hectare vineyard. “It was sustainability to begin with, but we want to go beyond that – it’s all about a regenerative approach.”

To that end, he is pioneering the use of crops and native grasses under and between grape vines to enhance biodiversity, improve soil quality, reduce carbon emissions and eliminate the need for herbicides.

On top of that, all the power needed to run the lights, climate control and any other electric appliances at Eden Hall comes from the sky. A neat bank of 64 batteries stores solar energy from a 20 kilowatt solar system on the roof, leaving the vineyard completely off the grid.

Similarly, there’s no imported water – just four 50,000 litre tanks, a 100 megalitre dam and a backup bore.

Eden Hall vineyard manager Dan Falkenberg has taken his vineyard off the grid. Picture Matt Turner

Not that the vines here need as much water as they used to. The combination of crops and native grasses planted under and between the vines, self-made compost and straw mulch means the soil retains significantly more moisture than ever before.

The compost, a mixture of grape marc (the solid waste left from pressing grapes into wine), chicken manure, barley straw and mushroom compost, is made on site and helps return carbon into the soil under the vines. It has also reduced the need for synthetic fertilisers by up to 80 per cent.

Mr Falkenberg has not used herbicides in some areas of the vineyard since 2015, when Adelaide agronomist Chris Penfold trialled planting a mixture of grasses directly under vines also separated by mid-rows of native grasses.

“It might look a bit messy, it’s not neat and trim and tidy, but what is going on in there is really quite incredible,” Mr Falkenberg says. “You dig down there and you’ve got this big beautiful mass – like a Rastafarian root system. So they’re like big dreadlocks which are like root exudates coming off all those root systems. That’s all feeding soil biology. You’ve got all this biology happening in the soil – you’ve got mycorrhizal fungi, you’ve got protozoa, nematodes … all of these good things in the soil.

“So when we irrigate that area, the water penetrates twice the depth that it would from a herbacided strip right next door.”

The rich root system, Mr Falkenberg explains, provides extra pathways for the water to get deep into the soil. The presence of native grasses also reduces the likelihood of undesirable – and often thirsty – weeds and attracts beneficial insects, which feed on vineyard pests, hence cuts back the need for insecticides.

As a mixed farming enterprise, the Eden Hall team also uses sheep in the vineyard during winter, grazing them on a rotational basis, thus reducing the reliance on greenhouse-gas-producing tractors to control the native grasses. And they’ve planted thousands of native trees and shrubs in wood lots and around the vineyard.

Dan Falkenberg uses straw and compost under vines to improve water retention and soil quality Picture: Matt Turner.

Critically, not only does the native grasses-compost-straw combination produce more self-sufficient vines, it produces better wine.

Eden Hall won best a riesling award at last year’s Barossa Wine Show but perhaps a more telling example of how wine quality can be improved came during a blind tasting session at the vineyard.

Mr Falkenberg, owner David Hall, winemaker Philip Lehmann and general manager Graeme Thredgold each tried a series of unmarked bottles of shiraz. They agreed there was one standout wine. They then discovered the winning wine came from the section of the vineyard which featured the under-vine cropped grasses, planted in 2015, and native-grass mid-rows.

“Grape growing certainly has its challenges, with climate change, there’s no doubt about that,” Mr Falkenberg says. “Water security and an increase in temperature, volatility in markets internationally … all those sorts of things have a bearing on things.

“But in terms of climate change, you have to be really adept and have a good understanding of the environment you’re working in.

“Yes it is changing. Do I need to change my practices? Can I keep doing what I’m doing, for my generation and the next generation? Well, I might be able to do that, but the next guy might not be able to.”

Mr Falkenberg says he struggles when he hears people use the term “battling climate change”. “We’re not in a war – and if we were in a war, we’re never going to win,” he says. “You need to work with nature, not against it. She’s the boss – she always wins.”