AgZero2030 is proud to share win/win/win #climateAction stories from WA’s primary industries.

Here’s one written by Dylan Hirsch @hirschirsch.

THREAD

“Over the last 20 years, Australia has become a major & reliable supplier of canola into the European biofuel market. This market provides a price premium over other canola markets, because it can only be accessed by growers who meet sustainability requirements,

"...& are efficient enough to meet on-farm greenhouse gas (GHG) emission limits. Why? Because if on-farm GHG emissions are high then biofuel provides no GHG reductions over regular diesel.

“Thankfully the vast majority of Australian broadacre farmers are efficient, however they probably don't have the time to complete their own on-farm GHG calculations (however, they are free to do so).

“So, in order to continue to access the biofuel market, the Australian Oilseeds Federation (AOF) (including me during my time at @CBHGroup), @CSIRO & @AEGIC published a report in 2017 to quantify average on-farm GHG emissions from canola produced by different regions across .

“This required data such as canola yield, on-farm fertiliser use, compound makeup & where it is imported from, soil carbon and other attributes, rotation, & other inputs including pesticides & fuel.

“The results ( http://www.australianoilseeds.com/Technical_Info/industry_reports/greenhouse_gas_report) were that Australian canola GHG emissions are quite low compared to the rest of the world, & we may just be one of the lowest GHG producers…

“…if we had more information to prove it, such as knowing where our imported urea comes from & how it is produced, & how much nitrogen is lost from N2O volatilisation from our soils.

“This experience certainly opened my eyes to the opportunity of low-GHG commodity grains.

“In addition to biofuel, there's global fashion, food and cosmetic companies demanding low-GHG produce to meet their own GHG targets.

“If we can access the information which enables more accurate GHG calculations to be done, we can harness consumer demand to reduce on-farm emissions, & make money doing it!

“Whilst we could sit & wait until this happens, we could also put ourselves into a better position to access this market by understanding which practices reduce our emissions the most.

“Quite often the best GHG practices are often the leading agronomic ones, so the cost would be negligible but the upside could be significant.”

END.

About Dylan…

A qualified engineer who moved into ag after 4 years in mining, Dylan Hirsch manages his family farm at Latham, cropping over 6000ha.

Dylan has a keen interest in farm production risk management, & received a @NuffieldAust Scholarship...

...supported by the @theGRDC to study financial risk management systems in variable climates.

AgZero2030 wants to share more good #climateAction stories from WA’s primary producers.

Are you involved in producing food or fibre in WA? What's your story?

When YOU tweet YOUR win/win/win stories, please consider tagging @AgZero2030 so we can like & RT!

Thanks.