The Southern Australia Livestock Research Council (SALRC) held its third biennial conference, Livestock 2024, in Albury on 21-22 August 2024. The conference had an overall theme of “Environmental challenges and opportunities for Australian livestock industries” and was facilitated by Alexandra Gartmann, chair of the Victorian Agriculture and Climate Change Council and Chair of the Australian Farm Institute. The conference was attended by a “sell-out” crowd of over 90-including livestock producers from across the SALRC regions, researchers and representatives of banks, government agencies and livestock peak industry bodies.
A full report of the conference key messages and outcomes has been compiled by Alex Gartmann and can be accessed by contacting the SALRC Secretariat on info@salrc.com.au or 03 5341 6100.
Conference Program – Summary
The conference was opened with an overview presentation on what sustainability means in Australian agriculture and internationally and a couple of perspectives on what is happening in industries other than meat and livestock (cotton; dairy).
This was followed by the first themed session of the conference – what are the biophysical elements of sustainability, including land, air and water. Presentations in this themed session covered the metrics of biodiversity; understanding carbon neutrality targets and emissions reductions on farms; the various Sustainability Framework initiatives that are underway across Australia; and key sustainability performance indicators on farm. Presentations on these topics from researchers, producers and representatives of livestock industry organisations were followed by a workshop session of all conference attendees divided into eight groups to discuss the following questions:
- What are the gaps in knowledge and RD&E needs to verify sustainability indicators used by supply chain sectors and in Sustainability Frameworks, to achieve realistic/achievable targets on farm or in business
- What can realistically be achieved on farm for sustainability in the next 3-5 years.
The second themed session of the conference was – what are the human capacity and skills needs on farms and in the broader community to enable adoption and effective communication of sustainability goals and outcomes? Presentations were made on initiatives underway, or required, to increase the skills and knowledge amongst livestock producers and service providers to enable adoption of sustainability practices and monitoring/reporting outcomes. The need to increase awareness in the general community and in our domestic and international meat markets through credible reporting of sustainability targets and outcomes achieved was also addressed. Presentations on these topics from MLA and a state agriculture agency involved in research and advisory services for the livestock sector were followed by a workshop session of all conference attendees divided into eight groups to discuss the following question:
- What tools would help you, or the industry, communicate more effectively about sustainability activities, goals and challenges.
The third, final themed session of the conference was- “show us the value trail”, in which presenters from meat processors, producers, and rural industry organisations covered topics such as the impacts on productivity and economic performance on farms of adopting sustainability targets; promoting the environmental credentials of our livestock industries to access and secure price premiums in key domestic and international markets; and communicating the true value of agriculture sustainability initiatives. Presentations on these topics were followed by a workshop session of all conference attendees divided into eight groups to discuss the following questions:
- Do you see value in environmental sustainability reporting? If so, how could it provide more value to you?
- What are the financial and non-financial data sets/reporting that are valuable to you and your supply chain?
- What capability is required along the supply chain?
The final presentations of the conference were from two of the livestock producer chairs of the seven SALRC regional livestock producer committees, who gave a summary of the key messages from producer perspectives.
Key messages from themed sessions and associated workshops
1. The biophysical-improving land, air and water
- Need an industry wide, standardised approach to defining the key elements of environmental sustainability on farms
- Farmers need to establish a measured baseline of current status on farm for these key elements
- Preferably a centralised database for collecting and reporting data for on-farm sustainability measures
- Possibility of remote sensing for some elements of environmental sustainability
- Great opportunity to integrate on-farm sustainability data/metrics with productivity/economic metrics into benchmarking services at group/regional levels
- Need regionalised advisory/support services that producers can access.
2. The human capacity
- Only a minority (approx. 11%) of producers are currently collecting data of environmental status on farm
- Work needed to clearly define measurable/reportable status of key environmental sustainability indicators on farm-baselines/trends
- Need clearer industry commitment to communicating to producers about what they need to measure and communicating to the community/consumers about what farmers are doing and the trends being achieved
- Industry needs to shift the focus and communication to productivity and profitability rather than carbon emissions/climate if we want to significantly lift the adoption rate
- Need localised benchmarking groups for both productivity and sustainability parameters for producers
- Potential for government and/or financial institutions to provide financial incentives for producers to adopt metrics to enable reporting of environmental status/trends.
3. The value trail
- Future markets (domestic and overseas) are looking at our sustainability credentials
- We need credible, tangible metrics to support any sustainability claims
- Consumers will not necessarily be prepared to pay premiums, but market access will be impacted
- Sustainability elements need to be practical and measurable at a farm level
- There are some good case studies of what is achievable down the supply chain. These need to be communicated to producers to help them see the relevance for future productivity and profitability.
Overall Conference key messages and actions required:
- All stakeholders – industry, government, private sector – need to address the complexity and diversity of approaches to measuring and reporting on-farm sustainability. Effort should be directed to standardising and independently verifying approaches and claims.
- To drive greater adoption across stakeholders and individual producers, agreement and coordination action should be focused on achieving a single database and reporting framework. This will need substantive design and consultation, to ensure numerous uses can be met with a single database and reporting framework.
- Good opportunities exist to integrate measures of on-farm environmental status with measures of productivity/profitability through benchmarking systems.
- RD&A investment is required to more clearly establish the positive relationship between productivity/profitability and environmental outcomes on farms, however this should not require significant investment. Presentations from producers indicated there is likely to be a “positive correlation”, but to get more widespread commitment from producers to set positive environmental goals on farms, more objective evidence is required that it is not a compromise for productivity.
- The “sustainability” term is becoming too generalised. Both meat customers and producers want more specific, outcomes focused language
For further information, contact:
Ian Rogan
SALRC Chair
M: 0418 484 088