National Poultry Newspaper

Phone: 07 4697 3344 • Fax 07 4697 3532
www.stockyardindustries.com
NATIONAL
Vol 3. No. 6 June 2020 National Poultry Newspaper PO Box 387 Cleveland 4163 Phone (07) 3286 1833 Fax (07) 3821 2637 Email ben@poultrynews.com.au
Egg and chicken meat industries research roadmap to carbon neutral
The author in her office presenting online at the virtual Australian Veterinary Poultry Association Conference.
Open for business and support
THIS month has been fairly quiet at Poultry Hub as we grapple with our new normal.
by TAMSYN CROWLEY Director
Not surprisingly, the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way we operate.
We are still open for business and will continue to be here to support the Australian poultry industry.
I would like to con- gratulate the organisers of this online confer- ence for an extremely well-prepared meeting.
face-to-face training in late June.
This month we re- ceived six full research proposals following our open call for research held earlier in the year.
I thoroughly enjoyed the two days of presen- tations.
We are also exploring opportunities to take this program to a na- tional level, so if you are interested in being part of this training or want to know more, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
These proposals are currently being re- viewed by the industry committee and I look forward to sharing de- tails of the successful projects with you soon.
I gave a presentation on the current and fu- ture activities of PHA and while the presenta- tion went well, it was a bit weird to not have any feedback on my jokes while talking to my computer screen!
Lastly, I would like to announce we have de- cided to postpone Ideas Exchange this year.
We are also pleased to announce that we will have a second round of funding later in 2020.
Given the uncertainty, we are unable to plan for the face-to-face event.
This month I lament- ed at the thought I was meant to be enjoying the warm weather on the Gold Coast while attending the 2020 PIX conference.
However, this may have been a blessing in disguise.
However, we will be bringing you an online meeting that will snap- shot the research activi- ties we have funded.
Unfortunately, due to COVID-19 this confer- ence has been postponed until early next year.
Everything went off without a hitch, the only things missing were the catering and networking opportunities.
This event will be held in September, so stay tuned for further details.
However, the Austral- ian Veterinary Poultry Association Confer- ence, which is usually run in conjunction with PIX, still went ahead in an online format.
Poultry Hub’s Job Ready Training initia- tive continues to have an impact in the New England region of NSW.
To stay updated about our research funding or if you are interested in being part of our train- ing program, check out our website or contact us at poultryhub@une. edu.au to join our mail- ing list.
We are currently try- ing to attract more reg- istrations with the hope that we will return to
THE more than 20 mil- lion Australians who regularly eat chicken and eggs will soon lower their dietary car- bon footprint thanks to a new carbon-neutral project from Australia’s poultry industries.
shown carbon neutral eggs could be produced for as little as an extra few cents per dozen.
ian government Climate Active program.
ade ago and likely to see incremental improvement over the next decade.
The research, which is a joint partnership between Australian Eggs and Ag- riFutures Australia, is one of the most compre- hensive carbon footprint assessments ever con- ducted in Australian ag- riculture.
The greatest contribu- tion to carbon footprint is feed, which is also the greatest cost.
Q: The pork industry has seen a high take- up of anaerobic ponds/ lagoons on-farm to re- duce greenhouse gases and provide bioenergy opportunities, is this something the poultry industry could success- fully implement?
Lead researcher Dr Ste- phen Wiedemann said the last carbon footprint assessment of Australia’s poultry industries was conducted over a decade ago, and he believes re- cent improvements could see carbon-neutral chick- en and eggs being pro- duced at a modest cost in the near future.
“These changes have been made for both eco- nomic reasons and good environmental steward- ship but given the car- bon footprint reductions already achieved by some farms, it makes sense to investigate the ways to get to carbon neutral.”
Ensuring feed con- sumption is optimised has proven the best way to reduce carbon to date and it is likely that fur- ther improvements can be made going forward.
“The first step before identifying pathways to carbon neutrality is to conduct a comprehen- sive carbon footprint of the entire supply chain – from the planting of the grain chickens eat to the packaging and transport of the final product,” Dr Wiedemann said.
“Chicken is the most consumed meat in Aus- tralia by some margin, and per capita consump- tion has increased ten- fold over the past 50 years,” Mr Harvey said.
Many steps align with cost savings and econom- ic viability but in the long term the community will expect agriculture indus- tries to contribute to a lower-carbon future and the egg industry wants to position itself as part of the solution.
Q: Would government be involved to supply ‘carbon credits’ and similar to incentivise reducing carbon foot- print?
“Once you have that all- important baseline for the entire industry, you can test the impact of steps individual farms are tak- ing to lower their foot- prints and then identify ways to mitigate whatever emissions remain.
“While we are already a low emissions protein, the sheer volume of chicken in the national diet means anything we do to lower our footprint will have a significant impact.
Q: Over what timeline do you see the imple- mentation of carbon- neutral strategies oc- curring?
Whether or not a car- bon credit scheme is de- veloped, there are clear incentives for the egg in- dustry to position itself as a seller of credits rather than a buyer and a lower carbon supply chain will remain the goal.
“The egg industry has made huge environmental improvements in recent years, from solar pow- ered farms to better hen genetics and sophisticat- ed composting regimes that turn by-products into organic fertiliser,” Mr McMonnies said.
Q: What is the first, most affordable step all producers should take in order to reduce car- bon footprint?
The carbon-neutral pro- ject will accelerate this process by identifying the parts of the supply chain that present the greatest opportunity.
As an average Austral- ian eats more than 60kg of chicken meat and eggs per year, AgriFutures Australia managing di- rector John Harvey said this is a significant pro- ject for people interested in dietary carbon foot- print.
Q: If it will cost farm- ers and producers more money to go carbon neutral, what are the incentives for them to do so?
Every manure is differ- ent and in the egg indus- try the most successful process has been com- posting.
There are short- and long-term incentives to move towards carbon neutrality.
This can be done on a large scale to produce fertiliser that reduces the use of chemical fertiliser in grain and horticulture production.
“Chicken meat produc- ers around the country are looking forward to seeing the pathways to carbon neutrality options for them at the conclusion of this project.”
The timeline for car- bon-neutral strategies is very broad – having commenced over a dec-
“In the case of poultry farms that already have a relatively low carbon footprint, it should be possible to offset the re- sidual emissions and get to carbon neutral.”
A pilot program will be run as part of the research to develop an auditable carbon neutral product for both eggs and chicken meat under the Austral-
Australian Eggs man- aging director Rowan McMonnies said pre- liminary modelling had
Australian Eggs managing director Rowan McMonnies.
Container just arrived!
LB WHITE HEATERS
• Reliability with consistent and dependable heat
• Durability
• Serviceability
Used in breeding, laying and meat-bird production • Available in 250k BTU and 100K BTU
• AGA Standards
Stockyard Industries 54 King Street,
Clifton QLD 4361
07 4697 3344
www.stockyardindustries.com
www.poultrynews.com.au