This week's Weekly Grill podcast is a conversation with livestock scientist Fran Cowley from the University of New England, whose current work focusses on managing and mitigating livestock methane emissions.

Associate Professor in livestock production at UNE, her current work includes looking for better ways to predict emissions from feedlot cattle. A lot of this was a future-proofing exercise – providing support to grain feeding being a method of reducing the carbon footprint of beef.

“The feedlot industry is an important way that we can work towards a carbon-neutral food production system,” she said.

“In the future, it’s highly likely that we will see an environment where there will be a price on market access on carbon. Being able to have a more accurate and lower estimate of the emissions and carbon footprint of feedlots is going to ease potential issues accessing markets that require no or low emission product,” she said.

Prof Cowley reinforced the importance of producers continuing to adopt best practices, with research reinforcing the importance of feeding more efficiently and making sure that every mouthful of feed that cattle are consuming is being turned into more beef.

The Weekly Grill is brought to readers and listeners by Rhinogard by Zoetis.