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‘Pigeon Hole’, the five-year, $6.4 million joint venture between
Heytesbury Beef and MLA increased the scope of productivity by
20 per cent in northern Australia while conserving biodiversity.
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- Livestock & the environment
- Pigeon Hole
- Evergraze
- Grain & Graze
- Watch the feedbackTV story on Climate change (FLV, 4.09MB, 4:39min)
PROTECTING THE ENVIRONMENT
The Australian red meat industry is custodian of a significant proportion of Australia’s land mass and an important manager of vital natural resources.
While MLA itself has negligible environmental impact, it is ingrained in our culture to actively minimise our footprint, however small. We are in a strong position to develop and deliver information that can help reduce the impact on the environment of the red meat and livestock industry as a whole.
We work and co-invest with industry, government and other research agencies to manage Australia’s vital natural resources in a sustainable way that improves the condition of the environment as well as the performance of individual enterprises.
Next year, we will invest an additional $1 million of our R&D funds into projects that look for solutions to improve the industry’s use of natural resources, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, improve the current measurement and accounting standards for GHG and assist producers to better plan and adapt to Australia’s changing weather patterns. This brings our total investment in environmental research to $6.7 million.
MITIGATING METHANE EMISSIONS
The Australian red meat industry accounts for 11 per cent of Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions (Australian Greenhouse Office), a reduction of 7 per cent since 1990 through improved production practices and land-use changes. To assist industry maintain its downward trend we have invested $1 million to develop new technologies and management options.
Together with Australian Wool Innovation, we developed a new database to confidentially report on performance for individual producers, for regional bodies and for the industry. Eleven regional bodies comprising 350 livestock producers benchmarked their environmental performance against best management practice including their management of greenhouse gas emissions. For more details on our climate change strategy and program of activities see this page in the Review of Operations.
LOOKING AFTER THE LAND
Our five-year collaboration on Grain & Graze has changed the on-farm management practices of 3,700 producers in southern Australia. Some of the regional outcomes include:
- more than 19,500ha of pastures planted on poor crop lands
- proposed increases in pasture rotations of 101,667ha over the next five years
- 130 per cent increase in area of grazed cereal, on average 13ha per farm (or 129,000ha)
- improved grazing of cereals and stubble which reduced the need for stubble burning on 64,800ha, leading to improved groundcover and cleaner air
In collaboration with regional groups, other research agencies and ethically responsible supply chains, we invested in the development of information and tools to help producers manage their natural resources while improving their productivity.
Over 10,000 producers have actively participated in key research projects such as Wambiana, Pigeon Hole, EverGraze and Grain & Graze. These projects deliver alternative science-based management options to reduce runoff and soil erosion, and improve soil health and on-farm biodiversity by improving management of native vegetation. In addition these projects have fed the development of producer tools and information delivered via our producer forums, publications including our quarterly on-farm magazines – Frontier and mlaPrograzier– and online calculators and tools.
For additional details on our program of activities addressing environmental issues please see this page in the Review of Operations.
CORPORATE COMMITMENT
Being in the business of knowledge creation, MLA has traditionally relied heavily on printed publications to communicate new information to the industry. During the year we undertook a number of initiatives to reduce our reliance on traditional printed documents.
We reduced the number of hard copy on-farm publications we distributed to members from 151,532 to 116,073 this year. We achieved this through a concerted effort to publish information online, consolidate crucial information from multiple projects into succinct and user-friendly publications, and better use of existing print publications such as the media and our magazines – Feedback, mlaPrograzier and Frontier. In addition, by providing an online version, we reduced the number of printed annual reports from 45,000 to 3,000.
We also began a broader project to revamp our website to allow better use of online communications, instigated a process to allow efficient print on-demand and introduced a policy of using environmentally friendly paper for all offset printed publications.
