Further development of the FarmGAS Calculator – an online tool assisting farmers understand emission mitigation potential

Summary

The FarmGAS Calculator was developed in 2008 and released for public use in 2009, with over 1000 people registering to use it in the 10 month period it has been available.  The calculator utilizes the greenhouse emission calculation methodologies and factors detailed in the Australian Methodology for the Estimation of Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks 2006 – Agriculture published by the National Greenhouse Gas Inventory Committee.  It is important to raise farmers' awareness and understanding of issues associated with climate change adaptation and mitigation, and encourage consideration of greenhouse-efficient management practices.  An online tool such as FarmGAS is able to be manipulated according to individual farm data, can provide farmers with practical information relevant to their own enterprise.
Since the Calculator was developed, research into methane and nitrous oxide emission abatement in agricultural systems has developed significantly, facilitated by investment by the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry Climate Change Research Program and investment by industry including Meat and Livestock Australia.  At the same time, policy debate in Australia has evolved significantly and alternative emission reduction models have been gaining increasing interest.
The prime focus of this project is to provide a tool that enables farmers to incorporate options for livestock emissions abatement based on the outputs of the Reducing Emissions from Livestock Research Program.
The management options added to FarmGAS will be based on the most rigorous research available.  This project will build on the applications currently available in the individual livestock Calculators to make it more robust, more realistic and easier to use. Based on feed-back from existing users, possible improvements to FarmGAS include (but are not limited to):
1.            Implementation of a detailed 'Print Report' option to enable users to gain a hard copy of farm enterprise results.
2.            Feed management option to reduce methane emissions, including economic cost
3.            Livestock treatment option to reduce methane emissions
4.            Soil application to reduce nitrous oxide emissions
5.            Option to duplicate an existing farm profile and then make changes to the duplicate to enable efficient 'before and after' analysis
6.            Expansion of irrigated cropping options to allow a greater number per enterprise
7.            Incorporation of a greater number of manure management systems for livestock systems to view the emission and economic impact
8.            Option to present results graphically within one enterprise or between duplicated 'before and after' scenarios
9.            Inclusion of soil sequestration estimation through different management systems
10.          Incorporation of soil sequestration through direct application such as biochar​