Towards low-emission grazing systems: preliminary methanogenic potential screening of northern Australia forage plants

Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Publication Date

7-2026

Conference Title

Transforming Animal Management through Sustainable Innovations: Proceedings of the 36th Biennial Conference of the Australian Association of Animal Sciences

Place of Publication

Adelaide

Keywords

Methane Emissions, Carbon Abatement

Disciplines

Beef Science | Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment | Environmental Monitoring

Abstract

Almost two-thirds of Australia’s beef cattle are produced in extensive systems across northern Australia (Queensland, Western Australia, and the Northern Territory), where they graze on native and naturalised vegetation. Their enteric methane emissions account for approximately 62.5% of the national total, yet current methane mitigation technologies based on additive supplementation are not readily applicable to these northern systems. Preliminary in vitro screening of native plants in Western Australia revealed some potential antimethanogenic species that can reduce enteric methane production by 20–90% (Durmic et al. 2010; 2017). These species offer potential for reducing methane emissions across northern grazing systems, but data on their distribution across the region are limited. To address this challenge, this work focused on developing practical and cost-effective mitigation strategies that can be implemented across extensively grazed regions of northern Australia. A key first step is identifying plant species with low methanogenic potential from within the existing feedbase. It was hypothesised that forage plant species present in the various agro ecological zones of northern Australia will differ in their capacity to reduce enteric methane production.

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