Producers who go to field days in central Queensland usually come with questions they want answered, and the QUT Real World and Rabobank field day in Rolleston last week was no exception. The conversation centred on emissions and natural capital, two topics that are increasingly difficult to separate when you’re talking about the long-term productivity and value of a grazing property.
Will Onus presented on the Ruminati platform and the role it plays in helping producers get across their own emissions data. He covered how it was developed from a producer’s perspective and what it captures, along with why the data matters beyond the immediate pressure of supply chain or financial reporting requirements.
One thread that ran through the discussion was the idea of producers owning their own story when it comes to emissions. There is a tendency in the broader policy and industry conversation to frame emissions reporting as something that happens to farmers, a requirement imposed from outside with the data flowing out to processors and banks as well as government. The more useful framing, and the one that resonated with the producers in Rolleston, is that a producer who understands their own emissions profile is better placed in every conversation they have with the supply chain. The data belongs to them, and how they use it and who they share it with is their decision. That matters because producers have good reason to ask where their data ends up once it leaves the farm.
Natural capital belongs in the same conversation. The emissions figures tell part of the story of a farming business, and the landscape, the vegetation, the waterways and the management practices that shape all of it tell the rest. Getting both into a format that’s useful and legible to the people who need to see it is where a lot of the work in this space is focused right now.
Thanks to the Rabobank and QUT teams for a well-run and useful day.
