Sheep and cattle account for a staggering 14% of Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions. This is because they are ruminant animals, meaning they have 4 separate stomachs to facilitate the digestion of their tough grassy diets. A by-product of this digestion is methane, the worst of the greenhouse gases, which is belched and farted into the atmosphere.
Other ruminant animals include goats, deer and camels, most of which in Australia are feral, hence hard to count and quantify in terms of their greenhouse emissions.
Of the domestic animals, cattle, both beef and dairy, are the worst offenders, each producing on average about 2.2 tonnes of methane per annum. Sheep produce less, but with 140 million sheep and cattle in the country, the total of their emissions is huge.
It is obviously difficult for a stockowner to become carbon neutral, so last month I farewelled the last of my merinos as they made the one-way trip to the local abattoir.
I have been reducing stock numbers over the past three years, in part due to the drought, in part to free up land to plant native trees and shrubs, and now, for both these reasons, and also to reduce the greenhouse emissions I am responsible for.
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