Grain-fed cattle emissions 56 per cent lower than previously thought

The grain-fed beef sector’s carbon emissions have been officially lowered, as the government’s greenhouse gas report uses new equation.

The Australian feedlot industry contribution to greenhouse gas emissions has been officially lowered.

A new Australian-specific equation has been used, which calculates enteric methane emissions from grain-fed cattle are down 56 per cent on average in the past five years and 57 per cent in 2021-22.

It comes as the Australian grain-fed beef industry continues to grow, with the official number of cattle on feed for the March quarter in 2025 at 1,497,325 head — a new industry record.

The Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water has adopted the new Australian-specific equation in Australia’s National Greenhouse Gas Inventory Report 2023, which has just been released.

The research was conducted by the University of New England and initiated and funded by Meat and Livestock Australia on behalf of Australian Lot Feeders’ Association.

The National Greenhouse Accounts previously used the Moe and Tyrrell (1979) equation

for predicting the beef feedlot sector’s methane emissions.

Cattle in an Australian feedlot. Picture: David Martinelli

However, the Moe and Tyrrell methodology has been criticised in the past, as it was originally developed using data from dairy cattle fed dairy diets in the United States in the late 1970s, and those diet and production systems are markedly different from that of modern grain-fed beef cattle in Australia.

According to the new equation the grain-fed beef carbon emissions for 2023 (inventory released in 2025) was 1.4625 million tonnes of CO2 equivalents.

ALFA president Grant Garey said the research provided lot feeders with accurate information to meet the growing demand for climate-related evidence and reporting.

“This recent advancement in accurate measurement of emissions gives us the tools to further target methane reduction within the feedlot industry,” Mr Garey.

MLA managing director Michael Crowley said the results gave the industry a much more accurate picture of the industry and path forward for addressing the Australian feedlot sector’s emissions.

“(It) is a helpful step-forward for the feedlot industry,” Mr Crowley said.

“As technology has improved over time, measurements have become more accurate and now we have proven thorough research that grain-fed cattle have lower emissions than previously thought.”

University of Tasmania systems modelling team leader Professor Matthew Harrison said the new equation was positive for the industry “because it is a more accurate quantification”.

“The revision accounted for many factors that are bespoke to cattle in our feedlot industry, including dry matter intake and dietary constituents, among others,” Prof Harrison said.

“The Moe and Tyrrell equation was developed long ago (1979) for US dairy cows, and thus contained many factors that are not representative of contemporary cattle in Australian feedlot systems,” he said.

“The Moe and Tyrrell equation overestimated daily methane production per head by about 2.4 times. The error increases as methane emissions per animal increases.”

Prof Harrison said demonstrated emissions reductions and removals will benefit the livestock industry domestically through improved social license with consumers, but also internationally. “Our livestock sector will have a competitive market advantage over livestock production nations that have not demonstrated GHG mitigation or efforts to improve environmental stewardship.”

Professor of livestock production at UNE Frances Cowley said the data was collected from cattle that were fed a tempered barley-based diet, which is typical of the Australian feedlot industry.