In our beef business we made the decision years ago to identify premium markets that would help maximise profits.
In planning for the future we consider market trends but also what aligns with the values of our family business.
We achieved organic certification to maximise profits and in doing so reinforced our focus on soil health for sustainable productivity returns.
We then became Best Management Practice-certified as we felt it was easier to reassure customers our operations exceeded international standards of excellence through certification.
We know the current narrative has quickly transitioned from climate change to climate crisis. Our business is constantly looking for ways to reduce our environmental footprint including recent investments in solar pumps, bores and power generation.
We are now looking to opportunities for our end product to be co-branded organic and carbon neutral. But we are a small business, like the majority of the 52,000 broadacre farms remaining in Australia.
The latest Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show that 48 per cent of these farms have an annual gross income of less than $230,000.
Shifting to solar infrastructure is a considerable investment. While the medium-term benefits are measurable the short-term expense can create cash flow challenges that then make these projects unviable for many.
As the world tries to set and meet carbon-neutral targets we, like many Australian farmers, have tried to engage and understand the process.
While millions were promised for the Queensland government Land Restoration Fund program, it was not farmers or graziers who benefited as consultants and brokers moved in to provide reimbursable assessments and corporate entities benefited from funded projects.
Previously, agricultural landholders in Queensland paid a high price for the nation's carbon emissions reduction through changes to the Vegetation Management Act that paid no compensation for reclassified land.
Currently, the brands marketing themselves as carbon neutral are relying on cheaper offsets being purchased from overseas and not through achieved practice change.
There are areas working with producers and we are grateful for the opportunity to participate in DAF's Method to Market project with funding contributed by MLA.
We hope the outcome of our contribution will benefit other family-owned agricultural enterprises because it seems currently the ones benefiting from carbon reduction involving agricultural land are not the ones turning up to manage it every day.
- Brigid Price, Rural Resources
