Tuesday, 08 June 2021 10:55

Methane fix 'coming soon'

Written by  Peter Burke
Dr Harry Clark. Dr Harry Clark.

Farmers can expect good science-based viable tools to deal with their greenhouse gas emissions within the next five years.

That was one of the messages from last week's conference on agricultural greenhouse emissions, attended by more than 320 people, with additional participants from 15 countries and NZ joining in via Zoom. Most of the participants were policy or science people and just a few actual farmers.

Dr Harry Clark, the director of the NZ Agricultural Green House Gas Research Centre, says the mood of the conference was one of optimism that solutions were being developed. He says one of the most promising options is nitrate inhibitors, which is being trialled overseas now and proving very effective. But he says, in the end, dealing with greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) will likely will have a combination of toold and solutions. He says there were two key messages from the conference.

"Firstly, NZ has to be active in its approach to climate change and has to take action along with the rest of the world to reduce GHG's. It isn't a choice to us because we are a major exporter and our customers are saying that we have to do that.

"The phrase used by one person was 'customers are controlling the playing field' and the customers are saying we want you to reduce your GHG emissions. So I think the message was - we have to do this," he says.

But Clark says on the other side of that message was, we are actually seeing the development of technology now that will help farmers achieve what they are being asked to achieve.

"So from politicians and industry the message is that we have to take action, and then from the science side we got some positive messages that here are some technologies that are coming on," he says.

Clark says one of the highlights from an NZ perspective was a talk from a senior Irish agricultural official, Dr Dale Crammond, who pointed out that his country is in exactly the same situation as us.

He says Crammond noted that what they are doing mirrored the sorts of things we are doing, but points out that they have got bigger problems than us because they have got stricter targets dictated by the EU.

"The nice message was - you (NZ) are not alone," he says.

More like this

No reason to demonise farming

OPINION: New Zealand has said it is going to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by ‘a lot’ and ‘in a short time’. One of those gases is methane. Our biggest producer of methane is livestock farming.

Farmers want certainty

OPINION: We've been having constructive conversations with the Government recently around climate change and emissions from food production, but now is the time to see these conversations turn into action.

Govt happy to let farmers decide

OPINION: In the last few weeks of 2024 there was a lot of noise in the UK and Europe about the methane inhibitor, Bovaer, and concerns raised as to its safety.

Featured

LIC Space folds for good

Farmer co-operative LIC has closed its satellite-backed pasture measurement platform – Space.

Editorial: Time for common sense

OPINION: The case of four Canterbury high country stations facing costly and complex consent hearing processes highlights the dilemma facing the farming sector as the country transitions into a replacement for the Resource Management Act (RMA).

National

DairyNZ Farmers Forum underway

Over 300 farmers and rural professionals have gathered in Hamilton for the first DairyNZ Farmers Forum for this year.

Machinery & Products

Shearing legend hooked on CanAm

Sir David Fagan, world-renowned competitive sheep shearer with 642 shearing titles worldwide and a knighthood to his name, now runs…

50 years of tractor pull

This year, the Fieldays Tractor Pull, in association with PTS Logistics, mark a major milestone – 50 years of crowd-thrilling…

The Wrangler's birthday bash

It's the Wrangler Limited’s 30th birthday and to celebrate the milestone a prototype of the E Series Wrangler - a…

» Latest Print Issues Online

Milking It

Free speech

OPINION: The Free Speech Union is taking this one too far.

Drug survey

OPINION: New national data from The Drug Detection Agency (TDDA), a leading workplace drug tester, shows methamphetamine (meth) use is…

» Connect with Dairy News

» eNewsletter

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter