Simplifying baseline emissions data on farm

Ruminati founders Will Onus, Tumut, and Bobby Miller, Gundagai, said the portal allowed producers to enter details about their beef, sheep or grain operations for free, which then calculated the emissions being produced.

Details such as property size, fertiliser use, and crop and livestock numbers were all taken into account, and producers could also enter projects, such as tree planting, to determine how effective they could be in reducing emissions.

The calculator was based on peer-reviewed science, such as the Greenhouse Accounting Frameworks developed through the University of Melbourne.

Mr Miller said the idea of the portal was to get everyone to the start line and make it simple for producers to know where they stood.

"Everyone can say, 'this will increase emissions' or 'this is bad', but what struck us was where is the starting point," he said.

"Our view is that measurement should be the easy/necessary part.

"Farmers can then spend their time and energy investing in reductions, not measurement."

Producers could then share their results to the supply chain, he said.

Mr Onus said having a portal that was simple to use would also help build awareness and demystify the process of reducing emissions.

"I think unintentionally there's been a bit of a shroud of complication that's been wrapped in this," he said.

"We found there was this missing mechanism of 'gee, if I was to plant trees, how would I actually tell the bank that?'

"Our vision is to just be the scoreboard.

"We don't want to tell farmers that they should do carbon credits, or they should do a soil project, or they should do asparagopsis.

"Go nuts with whatever you think fits your business and your aspirations, we're just a way of independently reporting that.

"This puts the farmer back in the driver's seat where they've got control of their data."

Mr Onus pointed to the legislation that would require corporations over a certain size to report their scope three emissions in the coming years.

"I don't know many farms that are doing that sort of turnover, but most of the farms supply a company that fits into that category," he said. "They're going to have to know where their emissions are coming from."

Having a dynamic program meant new science could be adapted into the recording tools and stay up to date, he said, and being able to accurately measure and report emissions data could help producers access premiums that may be offered.

"We'll also need it as producers to retain our license to operate and our market access," he said.

"The idea that agriculture can carry on as a special case - that horse has bolted.

"We need to report on our emissions just like every other industry does."