The livestock industry and climate change
Why does the agriculture industry contribute up to 12%1 of total greenhouse emissions in NSW?
The NSW livestock industry includes animals such as beef cattle, dairy, goats, horses, poultry, pigs, sheep and rabbits.
- Australians eat an average 35.6 kg of beef per person, per year.
- Australia produces 4% of the world's beef supply, and is the second largest beef exporter in the world (behind Brazil).
- In 2008 there were 5.9 million head of cattle in NSW.
- In 2007/8 there were 17 300 farms with sheep in NSW with Australia's national sheep and lamb flock estimated to be over 79 million.2
A by product of digestion in ruminants (which includes cows, goats and sheep) is the greenhouse gas, methane. Across Australia ruminants contribute 13.1% of Australia's total national emissions.
Left: Dairy cattle. Right: Merino sheep
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1Department of Climate Change 2008, State and Territory Greenhouse Gas Inventories 2006: Australia's National Greenhouse Accounts, DCC, Canberra. Pg 20. http://whitepaper.climatechange.gov.au/inventory/stateinv/pubs/states2006.pdf
2National Farmers Federation- http://www.nff.org.au/commodities-beef-cattle.html