Coota Park Blue-E is capturing methane emissions data on farm

Mr Wright said while agriculture only produces a small percentage of Australia's overall green house gases, the industry needs to think about consumers' views and look to their farm and their cows to see what they can do to do their bit in reducing emissions.

"What concerns me is we don't know how consumers and governing bodies behaviour is going to change in relation to climate change," he said.

Professor Luciano Gonzalez from Sydney University said agriculture contributes to about 15 per cent of Australia's greenhouse gas emissions with livestock making up 72 per cent of that.

Prof Gonzalez said carbon will provide future opportunities for farmers with the potential for carbon prices to rise in the coming years and said there are several ways farmers can reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, both carbon dioxide and methane.

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These include carbon sequestration, environmental plantations which provide the added bonuses of shelter, reducing erosion and improving soil fertility.

Looking at livestock these include grazing management and feeding practices including supplements which reduce methane and using lint blocks which have additives to reduce greenhouse gases and provide nutrition.

Prof Gonzalez said methane is an important emission to focus on as it has 28 times the warming potential of carbon dioxide.

At Coota Park, Mr Wright is trying to do what he can to help turn the tables.

"I love the land and I love my place in looking after it," he said.

Mr Wright has been measuring feed intake for the past 25 years, recently with Vytelle, and said he's seen results, giving him conviction he made the right choice, with no decrease in fertility of his herd.

"I learnt there wasn't any major problems with selecting for this trait - that was an unknown when I started," he said.

Mr Wright said there are several ways for people to look at reducing emissions in their livestock.

He said it's important for people to look at their mature cow size, with cows the biggest methane emitter, and said fat cows aren't needed with those in the two, three and four score just as fertile as larger animals.

To achieve this Mr Wright said farmers can look at how they manage their herd through high density grazing and to use early weaning for better use of the grass and using the extra time to decrease feed intake.

Methane data is being captured on the property using the sniffer technique to further investigate ways to reduce emissions.

Prof Gonzalez said preliminary data has shown that residual feed intake and methane emissions are correlated with those feed efficient animals producing 6.1 per cent less CH4 and CO2 emissions.

"More efficient animals eat less feed but also produce less methane and less carbon dioxide through breathing," he said.

"Feed efficiency can help with reducing emissions and importantly these animals also have lower cost of feeding and production."

However, Prof Gonzalez said they also looked at the situation from the other side focusing on the cattle that have low methane production which showed that those with low residual methane production don't have increased feed efficiency.

Prof Gonzalez said they are still collecting the data with more needed to compare those in pasture versus in pens and whether there is a difference between the two.

He said these results will open the door for indexes to be created to balance feed efficiency, carcase traits and greenhouse gas emissions.

Meanwhile selecting low emitters could become an important trait for cattle buyers as NSW DPI is working on the low methane project to create a new estimated breeding value representing the methane emissions of an animal.

Tom Granleese, NSW DPI Grafton, said they are working at identifying the genetic line for this trait and that it is heritable. He said they have identified that there is low to moderate correlations for methane emissions with other estimated breeding values (EBVs) which is good news for breeders.

"It means you can low emitters without effecting other traits," Mr Ganleese said. "You can reduce animal methane emissions while not sacrificing and improving production efficiency."

He said it's important to look at the genetics as it effects permanent and long lasting change compared to using supplements to reduce emissions, but in the future the two could be used alongside each other to produce better results in the long term.

The end goal is to have an EBV for all breeds.