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okay good evening everyone and welcome to the third event in the 2019 scholarship presentations uh my name's nigel cross and i'm a 2014 nuffield scholar we just might wait a few minutes to let a few people uh to come in but just a quick rundown on tonight's our webinar we've got four presentations uh this evening uh we've got aleister core renee anderson frank miller and ellen litchfield are presenting their study topics uh each presenter will speak for uh 10 minutes and we'll also have a 20 minute q a session at the end of the last presenter so if you'd like to ask any questions please do so in the q a box on your webinar screen and just put who you which presenter you're asking the question to or if you'd like to ask all the presenters a question just leave it open so we might make a start uh the first presenter we have tonight is aleister core a 2019 nuffield scholar from maura in central queensland alistair works on a two thousand twelve thousand hectare uh corporate cattle aggregation uh alastair's scholarship was supported the australian agricultural company consolidated pastoral company elders north australia pastoral company and s kidman and co his presentation tonight is titled the collateral benefits of cattle welfare during handling and transport i'll now pass you over to alster thank you nigel uh thank you for that introduction i'll just share the screen and we'll go back to this one so as mentioned uh nigel said my study topic was the collateral to determine the collateral benefits of cattle welfare during handling and transport for me the most appropriate starting point is to thank those who supported me to nuffield australia and my five sponsors who nigel just mentioned but i'll probably mention them again just to make sure that it's consolidated it's a company the consolidated password company the north australian pastoral company sydney kidman and co and elders who created the ways and means to make this possible i will be forever grateful to my employer mctaggart pastoral for encouraging and backing me to take this amazing opportunity and most importantly to my family for the tremendous support throughout the process and thankfully you were able to join me in some of my travels thanks also to the fantastic japan gfp group for both challenging me and supporting me during our travels and also to all the other scholars from around the world who hosted and assisted me with my travels and appointments a little bit about us hi as nigel mentioned i'm employed to manage beef opera grazing operation in central queensland over about 12 000 hectares and we use regenerative grazing principles of grazing and resting pasture with fewer mobs and more tablet each model also between my wife and i and our three children we also have the core cattle company which is a small cattle trading operation on lease country nearby to give you a better idea of where we live these two maps show where we are and the production potential of this region the numbers are a few years old but it's a good comparison of cattle numbers between other states and regions and i'm pretty sure we'd still be number one so why is this topic important well as quoted the process of handling and transport provides many opportunities for an animal's welfare to be compromised and although this picture of possibly africa's version of ubereats is inconceivable to a privileged western culture is it possible there are some commonalities with livestock transport outcomes if we only have two considerations in mind will this animal get to its destination well more than likely given how well it's tied down was the animal comfortable in this process well how could it not be it'd be given that he's traveling on a bed of leaves so i set out to establish what are the measurable benefits of focusing on animal welfare during the process of handling and transport for the animals and ultimately the industry so what are the implications well first that we need to define animal welfare and of the many variations i chose the definition that encompasses three elements to be considered the animal's normal biological function as in is the animal healthy and well nourished its emotional state is there an absence of negative emotions such as pain and chronic fear and its ability to express certain normal behaviors if we focus on an animal's emotional state and its ability to express normal behavior the inevitable response when this is challenged is stress potentially there are many challenges that can cause this to happen during air handling and transport and the end result is physiological stress so what are the effects of stress well clinically stress is how the animal reacts to physical emotional or mental stimuli that disturb its homeostasis or desired state its reaction to which will result in a series of other physiological and behavioral responses to try and regain this homeostasis the effects of which can cause sub-optimal growth suppress milk production and immune function and reduce rates of reproduction as well as this stress can influence meat ph and tenderness which will cause a reduction in carcass and meat quality however there are many factors that can be influenced to manage this reaction for the animal alternative stock handling technique uses a method originally coined by bud williams in low stress document it uses body language in a pressure release manager manner to convey information that the cattle respond to it is used globally with great effect which i witness in a feedlot in brazil but also in australia to use animal instinct to influence their reaction as well as other specific techniques that can enable a desired result whilst reducing the for your response acclimation is another low stress stock alien tool that familiarises animals with novel environments or experiences to reduce a stress response however the cattle industry is steeped in tradition and paradigm and an alternative method of handling livestock challenges arguably the eight most expensive words in agriculture that's the way we've always done it i had the honour of meeting temple grandin who played homage to this point by telling me that people have been more willing to purchase expensive equipment rather than learn to employ low stress talk healing techniques despite the clear benefits of doing so which is one of the reasons that temple who is unquestionably the most recognised name in animal welfare identified that the biggest gain for animal welfare outcomes is to empower the least capable handlers through building facilities for the effective throughput of cattle regardless of handling skills pictured here is mark diesing who is the head of facility designed for temple grandin and he is demonstrating the curved race design which has reportedly been implemented by more than half of the processing plants in america bud williams also created a facility designed named the bugbox which is equally effective when implemented correctly for the greatest impact from improved animal welfare to be achieved the consensus was that the vision must be generated from management which creates the workplace attitude to support this temple ground and acknowledged that although well-engineered facilities provide the tools that make calm low stress stock handling easier and safer they do not replace management and gentle handle training the transports phase is such an influential period and yet other than regular driver checks the animals and conditions are virtually unmonitored and unrecorded creating a potential devastating accountability a canadian ag tech startup company transport genie is developing a monitoring system that is focused on measuring microclimate conditions as animals are being transported and relays the recorded information to the driver and the base station about all of the factors that could impact on the animals transport experience this is still in the development phase however i heard from a number of international sources that foresee this tool as being a future standard the final tool that can assist to reduce animal stress is dietary supplements with magnesium which relaxes nerve impulses in the animal and can act as a sedative or calming influence making them less reactive to factors that cause stress at the fazenda forester in sao paulo state brazil magnesium is added to the ration of the tropically adapted milking cows as seen standing in the foreground prior to their first carving and subsequent milking which reduces their responsiveness at a time of heightened stimulation and then in turn allows for the hormone-induced milk letdown to occur this was the only example internationally of the use of magnesium as a dietary additive however this is commercially available in australia and i can speak your experience in saying that it is an effective tool so what are the industry benefits well quality assurance programs both industry and commercial create the backbone from which the integrity of producers is demonstrated above this there is an opportunity to capitalize on consumer trust and sentiment by setting high standards for animal welfare and advocating these as a product differentiation and marketing tool to achieve a premium price the concept draws on an independent quality assurance and auditing structure that can be endorsed and or administered by non-government organizations or ngos the new zealand-based company first light farms produces grass-fed wagyu as pictured and as a marketing tool for their delicious meat raised right they adopted the certified humane accreditation which is an independent body endorsed by over 70 ngos and a powerful marketing airline but profitability is not just achieved through demonstrating standards at the retail level but also at the production level through the reduction in productivity losses and commodity discounts so what are my recommendations well the us beef industry facilitated a cattle transportation symposium in colorado in 2015 the event was used to present information and scientific papers as well as to collaborate and identify current and future areas of focus and research a similar event in australia has the potential to disseminate information by clearly and objectively demonstrating aforementioned benefits of focusing on animal welfare during handling and transport now although farm profitability is the key to maintaining welfare standards the focus of production needs to be mindful of market trends and through continual improvements in animal welfare consumer needs will be appeased and farm profitability increased thank [Music] you thanks alistair great presentation and um yeah well done uh thanks paul nevin we got your uh message on chat um thanks very much and the highlights that producers really need to be part of the full supply chain to look after their animals uh thanks everyone for joining uh we've had a few more uh come in um during the presentation so welcome along to tonight's uh presentations um just remember we have got the q a box um operational so we will have a 20 minute q a session at the end of the last presentation so now we have uh the second presented tonight is renee anderson from emerald in central queensland and her scholarship was sponsored supported by cotton australia and the cotton research and development corporation renee is an irrigated farmer growing irrigated cotton chickpeas and popcorn she runs a farm with a husband and family and um her presentation tonight is titled uh social licence so the social and environmental responsibility for farmers i will now hand you over to renee thanks very much nigel and i'm going to get straight into it my name's renee anderson and i'd love to introduce you to the family farms that includes two mixed cropping irrigation properties on the fairburne irrigation scheme right here in the central highlands in central queensland australia when water is available we have the capacity to irrigate 450 hectares of crops that include cotton chickpeas wheat popcorn and mung beans we manage 60 hectares of native vegetation and a collaborative landcare planted wildlife corridor 40 hectares that include a permanent man-made wetland tail water recycling dams and irrigation infrastructure right here i live on one of the original homestead properties on what used to be naturally grass rangelands that grazed sheep and cattle it converted away from animal production to dry land cropping when fox numbers became difficult to control in the 60s this farm and around 15 000 hectares of surrounding properties were converted to irrigation farms with gravity fed supply channels in the 1970s by the queensland state government i chose to study the topic of social licence due to many positive experiences in environmental management over 20 years with the australian cotton industry bmp program i also observe the challenges or roadblocks to effective adoption of environmental improvements and community engagement especially in a world of social media where everyone has a voice it seems i had a few hiccups there with um the video not sharing but anyway i'll start from here so firstly what is social license it's all about community trust and it comes back to the very basics of aligning core values of public expectations and addressing their concerns about our agricultural practices communities are keenly focused on environmental issues alongside animal welfare perceptions of environmental harm such as pesticides runoff and water use represent key concerns that influence consumer spending and the pressures that communities exert on policy and regulation in some instances misinformation and a lack of access to credible farmer voice that recognizes the challenges and shows the benefits of modern agriculture however a focus on communication alone is not enough we all face environmental challenges yet we all have similar goals for agriculture our goals are sustainable ethical and socially responsible farming systems that are profitable i chose to look at three aspects that can help agricultural industries beneficially connect with their communities both environmentally and socially best management practices communication and the barriers to adoption i have a question for everyone in the audience does anyone recognise this infographic and what changes has it encouraged you to make in your lives the united nations 17 sustainable development goals have been developed to ensure we work towards a sustainable future for everyone for agriculture they'll become one of the key drivers in practice change to manage climatic resilience and environmental management the photo at the top right is me at the front of rabobank in utrecht in the netherlands green financing has become one of their key risk management strategies banks and insurance companies have chosen a proactive route and are already collaborating with farmers globally to ensure their safe and secure food supplies they're working on goals to reduce agricultural waste while promoting nutrient-dense foods with reliable supply chains so what are some of the challenges we face in agriculture today for our farm here in central queensland and many farmers and graziers across australia an increase in sorry increase in climate variability and the need for a resilient system that mitigates sustainability risk to both the farm business the environment our employees while minimizing carbon emissions is a key focus which can be supported by evidence-based best management practices increasing the transparency of our on-ground practices backed by solid benchmarking and research data will have the greatest positive influence on those who are skeptical of what we do the sharing of our farm stories and information requires polite intuitive genuine pragmatic discussions that are truthful objective reliable and relatable to others outside of agriculture this will require building pharma capabilities and confidence in online and interpersonal communication and generate communities of practice where success stories and challenges can be shared and disseminated i've got to visit some fabulous examples throughout my nuffield travels oh river garden farms produce a wide variety of crops including walnuts and rice in the sacramento valley in california they sat down with their employees and identified key environmental goals and risks to their farming business river garden farms are part of a collaborative partnership with the university of um california davis california trout key conservation state and federal agencies which include ecologists environmental scientists and natural local resource management groups they provide key habitat breeding sites shelters and food for birds fish snake and native bees all with a sustainable focus research on migration patterns on birds and a timely adjustment to post-harvest flooding practices of their rice fields now benefits millions of migratory birds coming into the region their rice fields have become wetlands that provided both a food source of plankton and a safe habitat through targeted conservation practices they've improved their water use efficiencies and the birds have decreased their fertilizer requirements dramatically during my travels across 15 countries and more than 120 farms i discovered sustainable agriculture wasn't defined or determined by the labeled farming system i visited conventional farms regenerative organic permaculture biodynamic and green housing farming operations around the world it was an accumulation of multiple key on-ground evidence-based practices that were regionally suited alongside biodiverse systems that strengthened their farming operation sustainable practices are not exclusive to one farming system certification of best management practices clearly defines the sustainability goals to work towards with a focus on high quality food and fibre soil health water quality safe and ethical work practices a future goal for sustainable and responsible best management practices in agriculture isn't limited to just on farm it includes the social behaviour responsible environmental and social norms of our key stakeholders our leaders our industries our scientists our seed and chemical companies and our consumers i'd like to introduce you to this slide to this quote diversity is having a seat at the table inclusion is having a voice and belonging is having that voice be heard i look forward to australian agriculture having an equitable social risk sustainability goal to ensure every stakeholder has their voice heard during my travels i witnessed many barriers to the adoption of best management practices including access to quality research and extension and the level of science literacy in some countries shame stigma and pride was also a barrier preventing people from putting their hand up to engage with others outside of their farming business being seen to be potentially not doing best practice meant they weren't seeking advice from on constraints that could be easily fixed or managed and one way to reduce shame and stigma is to have non-judgmental open conversations no topic should any longer be taboo and research shows peer-to-peer learning from like-minded people is one of the most effective ways to engage other farmers and encourage best management practices historical legislation has prevented traditional farms from diversifying away from key commodities such as rice to ensure stable food supplies for their people an example of this can be found in japan this causes great concern to those farmers who are actively trying to implement rotational systems for increased biodiversity and resilience and financial incentives are not always a key driver for farmers choosing to adopt best management practices however when others outside of your farming business provide collaborative investment it makes goals happen a lot quicker misinformation and disinformation continue to occur in many agricultural or science related discussions and not just from activists or consumers angsty conversations can happen between different farming systems other primary industries regions and countries 10 people who speak make more noise than 10 000 who are silent it is time for us to come together to find our core common values and work on solutions it's also important that we promptly and unequivocally respond to issues and incidents that spark industry and community concerns and this is where adding our own voices to the discussion becomes absolutely critical so farmers and industries i urge you don't let activists or others be the only voice in the conversation don't allow those disconnected from your farm experience be the loudest when developing policies and regulations or having online discussions a nuffield scholar passed on a quote to us at our conference in iowa from senator elizabeth warren if you don't have a seat at the table then you're probably on the menu so be powerful and be present in sharing your story and bring evidence to the table so where to from here it's the people who drive agriculture so ensure you're investing in them at every single level invest in research invest in extension and find workable collaborative partnerships across primary industries and other sectors that may benefit many this enables us to work together towards our key environmental social productivity and economic goals provide adequate support and training to encourage and enable farmers to adopt change is absolutely vital best management practice programs that are effective and trusted require both industry research and government input with regular external evaluation and validation a clear focus to move behind beyond crisis management driven adoption must become a priority and education changes lives whether that is formal learning informal or upskilling in your industries find the gaps and invest in your people achieving social licence takes a lifelong commitment and dedication and is something that requires a group effort so ensure you bring everyone along with you and lastly if you're not telling your positive farming stories who is to my to my scholarship investors the cotton research development corporation to cotton australia and to nuffield australia from the bottom of my heart i thank you for providing this once in a lifetime opportunity to learn connect and share with others to the japan gfp crew thank you for the learnings laughter and lifelong friendships and to my family and friends this wouldn't have been possible without your support encouragement and love thank you so much thanks renee fantastic uh speech and presentation uh very important points you've made during your presentation and very on point in uh today's agriculture in australia i'm sure there'll be a number of questions uh come out of it um just on that if you'd like to make a presentation uh please and use the q a box at the bottom of your screen and we'll do a q a session at last after the last presenter okay moving on to the third presentation this evening um it's from uh frank miller who is from rapid creek in the northern territory uh frank is the ceo of african mahogany australia where he oversees the largest plantation of its kind in the world he also looks after a substantial uh fodder cropping operation as well our frank's scholarship was supported by anz and the northern territory government uh frank's presentation tonight is titled adding value and acting attracting investment in the northern territory timberlands i'll now hand you over to france can you hear me there friend yeah have you got me there yep loud and clear go for it okay great um as that how's that nigel i can't see if you can bring it up on presentation mode different yeah i just um there we go how's that yep just see if you got a master slide now yeah yep that's it frank great excellent well thanks very much for the introduction nigel um a forester doing enough field um scholarship who would have thunk it i uh i'm running an agribusiness management company uh charged with the management of african mahogany plantations on behalf of various investors here in the northern territory for the past five years though the plantation estate in the northern territory has been static and that motivated me to undertake a nuffield scholarship to investigate ways of adding value and in attracting investment to northern territory timberlands firstly i'd like to acknowledge um and thank my wife esther and daughters mabel and winnie for their love and support to get through the uh the scholarship and all the travels my colleague chris oliver for manning the fort aye my adsons my employer african marketing australia for supporting me through this and i hope we can certainly grow the business with some of the findings enough field australia for running such an amazing scholarship program and of course my investors anz bank and northern territory government and i hope that certainly we'll be able to um add some more interest to to the northern territory i would also like to acknowledge my gfp group um they're an amazing group of people and now like what i consider as close friends and i'm sure when they embarked on the um the uh gfp that they had didn't think that they'd be speaking a bit so much about trees so it was it was a great experience so firstly the objectives of my scholarship was one to understand institutional forestry investment drivers and to understand those will then work backwards into what is actually possible in the northern territory and then look at various um premium hardwood states globally and look at their pre and post forest rate evaluating mechanisms and see what can be applied um in the northern territory following my scholarship uh this has resulted in bespoke chairs and meetings with federal mps but how did i get here so for a bit of brief background about the northern territory forest industry there's 42 000 hectares of plantations consisting of african mahogany indian sandalwood black water and caribbean pine all of which are at various stages of their life cycle some in mid-rotation some now being harvested and various forest products being exported into international markets but all of them have stagnated in in growth so what is the key driver and what can be done seven years ago i introduced cattle into our plantations as a response to alleviating continual herbicide applications where rapid grass and weed growth was occurring in the wet season this this program has not only offset operational expenses but bought in income through adjustment has integrated two land competing industries in red meat production and forestry and significantly reduced fire risk in the dry season this system has been mirrored in northern wa and sandalwood plantations where goats have been introduced so is this system actually a viable investment and forest land use system for northern australia firstly i attended the university of georgia's forestry investment conference in florida to understand the decision-making process and key drivers and mechanisms of forestry investment globally many different aspects of forestry uh forest investments were were discussed but one common theme in many presenters was the inclusion of environmental social and governance mechanisms in forestry investments or esg when considering the integrated grazing program that we have in the northern territory many environmental and social aspects are met from this desire to have esg in in forestry investments another major concern and another major discussion point in the at the conference was the inclusion of forestry in investments to be considered in carbon trading schemes and this has been voiced by many investors as a key barrier to further investment in forestry in australia so then i went from the the conference to look at real world instances where what mechanisms have been used in through the growing cycle to add value to the forest estate in costa rica i visited the largest tea plantation in central america where improved genetics was a key part of the success of the plantation there are many challenges in emerging economies with forestry plantations with infrastructure infrastructure and availability of skills to undertake management and this has been offset through clonal forestry where consistent trees of great form and good quality and fast growing could be produced with minimal input inputs so i thought well improved genetics is critical to ensuring a high performing investment some novel approaches were then discussed in wisconsin where maple syrup extraction provided uh income for some smaller forest growers in northern north america and then in new zealand i met up with glenn chen he's growing gin seeing a very high value crop in new zealand and they got me thinking about what other shade tolerant tropical species could be grown in northern territory in the tropics to to provide passive income into a long-term investment then i went to south america to investigate a structured tree and beef integrated system known as civil pastoralism in colombia i then attended the world congress of silver pastoralism in paraguay where european fund managers were presenting on the increased interest and desire to invest in these sorts of systems the land managers owners and met um and simple pastoral advisors in colombia gave me much information and confidence that this system would be feasible in the northern territory after looking at all pre-forest gate valuating mechanisms in those areas i then started looking at post forest gate valuating in michigan local segregation was key to optimizing the value of the some high value maple forests where uh bird's-eye maple logs were identified and individually laid out where silent auctions occurred and this sometimes fetched up to 20 times the expected value of a log this is an excellent example of where logs can realize their true value rather than just being put into a large group and being devalued in wisconsin a large veneer and plywood plant was visited and the general manager was fantastic talking about markets challenges of supply technology and processing but one of the key parts that he discussed with me was people not only his people but the relationship that he had with the grower on the left so this is another element that i took away of a key element in post post forest gate evaluating i then went to china which was which was great because i was able to visit some of the largest timber manufacturing plants um in china and discuss uh how innovation was being used to not only use more more different types of timber but also meet different markets and so there i am standing in front of the vic wood forest vic wood manufacturing plant and this is plastic and timber um peeled stuck together and then sliced as veneers in the middle is a is a pressurized stained panel that i discussed with the plantation manager investment manager in portland oregon and after discussing the benefits of this technology he said to me you have a story you have a great story to tell it's a high value timber it's offsetting illegally logged timbers in africa tell your story tell your story on the right hand side was fantastic in china there's these huge um uh huge display centers of actual houses um decked out with different themes and this tells the story of how people want to live their lives and what different different timbers can be used so after all that i came back to australia and i decided to tell our story so we we did we decided to harvest some of our timber and we had these chairs built out of our timbers and we made sure that we had leather seats on them depicting our story premium timber and cattle i then set about to set up the forest industry association in the northern territory which at the time did not exist and it is now an effective body to advocate for industry to have federal policy amended in relation to carbon and also and also all other industry needs in relation to infrastructure and skills education and training so finally what are the recommendations from my studies well obviously inclusion of nt species to participate in the climate solutions fund and it will attract new investment we have fund managers that have now made pledges for investment provided that this this fundamental policy has changed increase focus on genetic improvement and it's a no-brainer depending on doesn't matter what crop or animal that you're breeding genetic improvement is integral to success increased market development effort to ensure highest price point it's a premium timber treated that way and continued research on existing plantation resource and integrated systems will provide good science and confidence to those investing in the northern territory thanks very much for your time and i look forward to any questions you might have thanks frank fantastic presentation and certainly i've learned a little more about the timber industry in northern territory and around the world so well done uh the last presentation this evening is uh ellen litchfield from maori in south australia ellen is a third generation producer from northern pastoral area of south australia together with her family they run a organic production system with five thousand cattle and ten thousand door per sheet helen scholarship was supported by westpac agribusiness helen's presentation tonight is titled the effect of climate change on pastoralism in the australian arid and semi-arid rangelands i'll now hand you over to ellen hi thanks nigel i'll um just share my screen great yeah so thank you guys for having me um this evening and um taking the time out of your day to come and have a listen and hear what we got up to those years ago um and just wanted to say a huge thank you to westpac agribusiness and nuffield for this opportunity it was yeah it's life-changing i'm so grateful that i was able to do it and as nigel said so my topic was looking at the effect of climate change on pastoralism in the australian arid and semi-arid rangelands okay so yeah i live with my parents and husband on will purina station in far north of south australia near lake air the photo on the left there's after some very welcome rain last year and i just wanted to firstly say a huge thank you to my parents for looking after everything at home while i was away traveling and it was a drought so it was you know put a lot of extra pressure on everyone and a big thank you to blake my husband we got married and then about four days later i had to leave and go to my gfp and um he didn't complain at all that his honeymoon was spent racing around looking at farms and as nigel said we've got cattle and sheep those numbers fluctuate a lot depending on our on our season so blake and i moved back to the family my earliest memories of growing up on wolf arena were of us all wishing for rain or preparing for a dry spell and i guess this is part of living in the desert um but climate change poses a new threat to that so with the idea looming over ahead that droughts could be more frequent or that the extremes can get even more extreme um it really posed a you know a threat to our sustainability of living here uh if you have a look at the map on the left so we are you can see with the little red arrow so we're in the center there with the extreme variability and rainfall and in a country that's already world renowned for its boom and bust cycles it really gives you an idea of the huge changes we see and coupled with that we had just moved back from living in london we had a lot of friends going vegan to save the planet we could you know you could see that beef is sort of starting to lose its cool factor on the menus in the new restaurants and you know getting labeled a lot with being you know one of the main causes of climate change so from that i um developed sort of three research focuses and the first one being to try and understand the socio-economic impacts of climate change and number two to gain a greater understanding of the role of ruminants in climate change and number three was to identify and find other farmers that were thriving in harsh climates around the world so we've started off in 2019 and a huge thank you to my um global folk group we just had such an amazing time together and they really stretched my ideas and thought processes and not only was it a great time to be traveling because it was pre-covered it was a really exciting time in agriculture too we were in china during african spine fever uh brexit and the common agricultural policy review with in the eu and of course trump always keeping everything interesting in america okay so my first um research focus was the socio-economic impacts and i witnessed that action to slow climate change was everywhere from china where they have massive tree planting targets to carbon farming in california it cannot be ignored and the red meat industry has to continue to stay engaged and position themselves as part of the solution and not just the problem or the victim the the second sort of thing that really shone out was that we can't take the red meat market for granted consumers are losing trust in livestock production and this growing mistrust is fueling their desire for a product that they believe is more sustainable and often leads them to the plant-based products this the pictures down below on the left is a wet market in the philippines and on the right is a farmers market in manhattan in new york and in the developed world the consumers were really craving a connection with their product and once again to build that trust um they wanted to see photos they wanted to be able to visit the farms and they wanted to know that they were making a sustainable food choice and then lastly the impact of policy climate change policy on production systems perceived and rural was a huge threat and one of the um biggest concerns for producers so when interviewing producers moore stated that their greatest concern was access to natural resources and over regulation rather than the environmental impacts of climate change and this highlights a bit what renee was talking about earlier and that is that huge uh importance of maintaining our social licence and all working together all right and then secondly i wanted to look at the ruminants role in climate change comes as no surprise to everyone here that ruminants produce methane and in intensive production systems they also produce nitrous dioxide in the manure management and obviously the co2 from the energy and things like that in the intensive systems uh increasing efficiency uh does decrease methane emissions so whilst the the pastural sort of extensive rangeland systems have higher methane emissions negligible nitrous dioxide because the manure dries out so quickly and much lower co2 than the more intensive systems i was lucky enough to visit the oxford martin school in the uk and they're working on the equations there to make sure that when we're working out the global warming potential of different greenhouse gases that we are you know we're getting them the the greatest effect because you know ultimately we want the we all want the same goal and that's to mitigate climate change so if you have a look at the graph um methane has a half-life of around 120 years in contrast to carbon dioxide and nitrous dioxide that have half lives around a thousand years so to get to a zero net warming with methane um if once we get to emissions a constant then it's uh breaking down in the same time frame that it's um that it's being released so you you don't get the cumulative effect that we get with co2 so it's just they i won't hop on about the grass for too long but these distinctions are extremely important when we're creating effective policies to decrease global warming and it really highlights the importance that research needs to be specific to different production systems and my third research focus was looking at farmers that were thriving in harsh climates so we were looking to find the commonalities between all of these producers and the three that we found was that they work in harmony with their environment they find opportunity in adversity and they're always working on new ventures this photo is taken by erica wieder on christoph and erica's farm in christoph's also enough food scholar in british columbia and canada they have really extreme winters of -40 and the bison are really well adapted to that so their metabolic rate actually decreases uh so they don't lose so much weight over winter in comparison to the angus cattle that they obviously you know lose a lot of condition during the harsh winters the bison they don't obviously have such a secure market but christopher and erica are working really hard to develop that and that was one of the you know the main uh attributes of these um resilience is that they're always fostering new ideas it was never a stagnant business model prejudice kenya and this is one of the unique things that livestock or synergistically innovating in a natural ecosystem so and i think going forward creating greater synergy between agriculture and conservation will continue to be really important and food product agriculture is not just about food and fibre production it's you know it's going to about all means protecting the ecosystems as well okay so finally um industry recommendations australia by virtue of our harsh environment is already a global leader in climate smart agriculture but we need to continue and work on this so the carbon neutral by 2030 the mla set is a is a great target and i think it's just really important that we recognize the different pathways that each unique past production system uh and making sure we get the you know political support behind these things as well like the nff national farmers federation's net zero by 2050 target i also think especially conservation and agriculture is just so important pastoralists are really poised to capitalize on a more ecologically engaged consumer and so i think we really need to focus on that especially it's a huge industry in australia and it's unique that um we have such large areas that are you know relatively untapped and um as i said earlier as well that the research and policies are applicable for all of the different production system and also getting producers at the table of these events as well so trying to um dispel some of that concern about over-regulation and giving producers a voice so that they can ensure that they feel safe and confident in the future of their enterprises what has this has meant for us back at home so we're measuring our emissions with a company called instep from new zealand and we should be finished that in june which is really exciting we also created a product called the sustainable sausage this is a vehicle to create a dialogue with our consumer to tell our story just i think it's all producers roles that they have to um yeah tell their story and let people know the other like the other benefits that they're getting it's not just about red meat you know it's about all the other facets that come with being sustainable and also looking into results-based ecosystem payments as well such as carbon farming thank you very much and i hope my internet um was okay it's uh it's always a bit rough about here thank you very much ellen it just hung in there and you did pretty well actually so we got to hear all your presentation which is fantastic so well done and thanks uh ellen your presentation was uh very good and um yeah certainly a couple of things highlighted for me that producers definitely need to be at the table and a very common theme with renee there that producers need a voice in australian australia to um represent a fantastic industry and i have to admit it's uh wonderful to see so many photos from around the world and all the travelling the presenters did tonight there's a lot of envy there and hopefully soon into the future we'll be able to start traveling again and hopefully do these presentations in person so now um firstly i'd just like to thank all the presenters for presenting tonight i will move on to a q a uh session so it should go for around 20 minutes uh we've got a number of questions to get through um so we should be finished um hopefully by about quarter past um eight if that's okay but if you do need to uh leave um feel feel free to drop off so i've got a number of uh questions here um the first question i'll go back to the start so this one's for aleister in line with your discussions about magnesium did you see any producers using electrolytes during hot periods when transporting or is it just a bit of snake oil alastair uh thank you nigel and yeah thanks that's a good question i have uh looked into it and reviewed a few uh research articles uh the it seems that the common thread is results are inconsistent there is claims certainly of them being effective and even in the products available in australia there is uh it is effective but it's um thank you it might be playing up a little bit so i hope yeah we got um 80 percent of it thanks alistair um and thanks michael craig for the question uh the second questions for renee uh it's from josh maunder um are bmps failing growers because not enough is being done to educate the public as what they mean renee yep so i don't think bmps are failing growers because they actually um growers are finding efficiencies reduced inputs and a much better whole farm management system by adopting them and then the social license part is the second component so being able to show those those inputs and the um those practices through the sharing of knowledge and the sharing of your transparent practices is where the community comes along and to date farmers have sort of been quite um nervous about sharing everything on their farm there's a and i mentioned that in my talk like a lot of farmers have been very private but i feel the more we engage and the more we share the more open people are to um listening to what it is that we do on farm and why we do it on farm they're sort of it's a really multi-faceted topic and i couldn't capture it all in the snapshot tonight but um it's certainly there's there's the link between the two and it's yeah it's quite complex hi thanks renee uh the next questions for frank a question from mark bennett uh from what you've learned what do you make of the potential to expand plantations in the north particularly given the potential carbon investment pools and how do you see that complete competition for the capital between timber and livestock or cropping systems or is this complementary can you answer that please i think in the northern territory it's a great question but in the northern territory uh property uh property size is so large there's a real um there's a real shift in diversification so what was what we're seeing now is um a lot large cattle stations getting into farming and also wanting to be involved in let's say for example uh like cpc has the cn30 initiative or mla has a cn-30 initiative now that's only going to come from offsets and those offsets are obviously available to be provided by trees so there's there's that that side of um that side of it so i think that um the sheer size of the properties is actually going to enhance um carbon-based investment um to co-exist with beef beef and beef production and other and another agribusiness in northern territory so yeah i think there's um as i said in my answer i think they're mark um you can have your cake and either two up here no thanks frank and well i've got you i'll ask you another question this is from james stanton is there an opportunity to increase tree carbon capture with genetic improvement absolutely so tree with genetic improvement we can increase productivity and and with that there's obviously increased carbon sequestration um the real challenge would be to have a specifically recognized uh carbon methodology in in a carbon trading system because that because at the moment um all cut all three species in australia are bundled into one methodology and i guess once you um once you have enough science and enough scale you can then be specifically um you can be specifically uh um what i'm trying to say uh quantified um by that your specific species so but absolutely genetic improvement will no doubt increase biomass production uh thanks frank we have a question for ellen here ellen to assist with handling climate change in the south australian pastoral region will the proposed increase in tenure proposed by the state government assist hi yeah sorry um you have nigel you've um turned my video off and i can't turn it back on no sorry there we go that's right thank you uh yeah that's a great question and um i was just actually yeah talking about that with some with our mt today and i think um it would be fantastic i would love to see uh i'm 10 years increase to 100 years because well you know obviously like you're aware increases our ability to enter into those um carbon farming methodologies into the 100-year contracts and also i think it demonstrates that um you know there's trust in the uh the landholders are going to do the right thing and you know that the custodians of the land and i don't think that at the moment having a 42-year um rolling lease is preventing people from doing the wrong thing um i think if you're going to do the wrong thing you're probably going to get out quick anyway because you've you know you've wrecked your resource um and so yeah i really hope that that um that draft that aspect of the draft field um goes through but i'm not sure how confident i am about that getting through um but yeah i think it um yeah we really need to put the trust back in the pastoralists and you know obviously we still need the um you can still have the inspections and uh hopefully you know in this day and age inspections shouldn't have to be done um you know driving around the property the um imagery satellite imagery you know that program those programs should be sufficient uh thanks ellen for that uh question for renee again uh this one's from alan williams um how important is to target those who have a fundamental opposition to an industry and may not be interested in revising their opinion based on facts and how do you productively engage if them if necessary did you get that renee just unmute there so this one's a very common um occurrence in for any of the cotton growers out there this is something that we face daily multiple times daily and i guess our goal is the conversation we're unlikely to sway someone in a conversation who's completely anti-agriculture or anti-cotton so the conversion of their opinion isn't the end goal we need to strive to open up those channels of communication to plant a seed or even just focus on a conversation that builds relationships trust building um and allows for follow-up with those people sorry i'm looking at you nigel um you know develops allows for a follow-up conversation at a late a later date it's a really long-term game with people who are really distrustful of agriculture or specific crops like we see in our industry and they don't get there overnight it's something that's been built up over a really long time and they won't change their mind in that first conversation so connecting with them um is really important and even if they may never change their mind they may change parts of the thoughts of their beliefs and that's really really important and we also have to recognize that there are parts of every industry that could be a lot better so acknowledging those issues and saying look i understand why you have concerns and this is this is what we're doing to work towards that we have to be really open and you know choose our convictions quite wisely too but i i still feel it's important that those really difficult conversations happen uh thanks renee um we've still got time for more questions so if anyone else would like to ask a question please do it in the q a box uh the next question is for ellen again from james strandon can we ever get get to a reasonable conversation on animal emissions without change in how they are treated in terms of emissions i.e moved to the oxford martin work do you have a recommendation on how we as farmers can move that conversation forward constructively yeah i think um we as farmers need to you know you can't manage what you don't measure that's what everyone says so i think one of the first port of calls is that as a as a farm system like any big business these days you need to have a handle on what your options are and um working you know where um a lot of people doing a lot of positive publicity so you know there's white oak pastures in the us that is a um carbon neutral so they're also doing carbon farming with their um because of their increase in carbon in their soil with their grazing methods and um we've got dr franklin coming out um to talk at beef week so he's really spreading a lot of this information about you know the methane half-life and also um the ability of um of ruminants um to sequester carbon so i think um yeah i think that it really we are agriculture's so lucky in that you know we're one of the um industries that we can become the solution to climate change you know it's um and i think that's the way that we need to be need to be looking at it and um yeah i think i think it's i think it's improving uh thanks ellen our next question's for renee again uh from susan mass following up on the common thread of social licence between presentations the expectations from community are constantly increasing and aren't always based on science what is the role of research and science and supporting social life social licence yes i'm muting in there sorry i moved my screens around i think it's really important that we remember that research isn't always perfect and there's new discoveries all the time and bmp um is based on continuous improvement and science is very much similar as new information comes to hand we can we adapt and we change and it's connecting what we do on farm and using those that really um good solid research to back those specific practices that we do do on farm um how does it support social license um it's only one part of the social license issue so we firstly have to recognize that you know we have to develop relationships with those who our consumers those who live in our community and um you know sharing what we do on farm which is backed by science every day we're doing things that have been developed for us by by um by others that's all i've got at the moment sorry uh thanks renee ellen or alistair or frank would you like to make a comment on our question um was that the um the do you see alignment with the sdgs input the social license yeah yeah and based on science is that the yeah what is the role of research and science in supporting social licence um i think it's there but unfortunately we make our decisions based mostly emotively um and that's why i think and also you know most of us aren't going to sit down and um you know read a peer-reviewed scientific article in the evenings and if you do you probably have a firm grasp on you know you don't have a social license issue so i think it really comes down to we say education like you know we need to educate the consumer which sometimes i think is slightly arrogant to think that um the consumer you know can be bothered or wants to learn about our stuff so that's why i think doing it through products is um is the most efficient so that's why i mentioned our um sustainable sausage so you know we're probably not going to make our millions of selling sausages but it's a way for us to share our story with the tourists that come out to you know visit lake air and they might um not see a sheep or cow for a few hours driving along um and they so this gives them a way to recognize that you know we're producing a sustainable product um nutritious protein source out here whilst maintaining their um you know the past release for them to enjoy and you know just creates that dialogue but i think um yeah it is very um very difficult to try and tell them a scientific answer uh thanks ellen frank have you got a comment on that question yeah just my my uh opinion on that is i think that um social norms are developed early and i i think that social license can be can be gained by um like introducing um food and fiber production systems more broadly into education systems so that uh the future um has an innate understanding of what is good management um where food and fibre comes from and um you know and and and make educated decisions um of their opinions based on what they've been taught at school and at present there's a real information gap for kids to understand where their food comes from so i think that that from the source can actually really influence how social licenses or um what is right or perception and what what is right and wrong in our in our respective societies so it's a it's a bit of a left field answer to that but um i think that that that's um at the core um some of the issues that that renee would have been talking about with um with what people think about what we do yep thanks frank are you going to comment alistar yeah i would actually thank you nigel i know yeah i couldn't agree more with uh fellow scholars there i mean i i guess it just comes back to that old saying that there's lies true licensed statistics so that you can really create your own impression of of the research that you want but creating a point of difference or a product where the consumer can can see and understand or is keen to to know a bit more about it really comes back to exactly what ellen's talking about in her sustainable sausage it's just creating a discussion and and i think that is uh you know that's very important to move away from the commodity uh to really a product of discussion [Music] okay we've got uh time for one more question and it's actually for you alastair from kelly mctavish uh what would you say the biggest challenge the livestock industry has to overcome in the livestock transport uh yes well it was probably um in short it would be one of the slides i've put up and uh it's just challenging uh producers to do things the way that they haven't always done it it's probably um yeah it's probably the biggest barrier i would have to say that the the industry as a whole comparatively to international markets is very good however when i attempted to create a symposium replica we did have there were some barriers in that um some of the discussions i had with some organizing committee said that in actual fact we're having trouble getting the lowest end of the beef um producers to meet uh decent standards rather than looking at the top end and i don't really agree with that but um i guess that's the problem is that we're just uh there's too many uh traditions and and i guess paradigms um it's just in uh preventing us from from moving forward i think but um but essentially i would have to say the technology will end up demanding it and yesterday's um standards are not going to be future expectations and i think that's you know that's what will drive change uh thanks alistair and we might uh wrap it up um there uh again i'd like to uh thank all the presentations tonight uh renee frank allister a wonderful job um it's certainly given me the enough field buzz again and uh yeah it certainly shows how wonderful and how great the nuffield organization is thank you to all the attendees who's joined in tonight from around australia but also from around the world um hopefully everyone's learnt uh something and uh take something home with them tonight uh before everyone leaves tonight there's just a little survey for the attendees to complete um to make the next um webinar series uh better so yeah please take time to complete it it'll only take one or two minutes of your time and just a reminder that the next uh webinar uh presentations will be on next uh thursday the fourth of march so please uh join in if you can for that uh presentation uh once again i'd like to thank everyone and um see you all later thank you thank you thank you thank you everyone thank you everyone thank you hold on thanks cheers