Portfolio — 15 April 2026

Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry Julie Collins has announced the development of a new Australian Carbon Credit Unit livestock method to replace the Beef Cattle Herd Management method, which expired on 30 September 2025 after a decade in operation [TA-260415-agricu-b22153ef8073]. The new method, being developed by Meat and Livestock Australia, marks a significant expansion in scope: where the predecessor covered only pasture-based beef cattle, the replacement will extend to feedlot cattle, dairy cattle and sheep, and will incorporate methane-inhibiting feed additives including Asparagopsis seaweed and 3-NOP alongside existing herd management practices [TA-260415-agricu-b22153ef8073].

The announcement is backed by $35.2 million in committed government investment — $29 million through the Methane Emissions Reduction in Livestock program and $6.2 million through the Developing Australia's Seaweed Farming grant program — directed at both scientific innovation and commercial scale-up of the relevant technologies [TA-260415-agricu-b22153ef8073].

Before the new method can be used to generate ACCUs, it must pass assessment by the Emissions Reduction Assurance Committee against the legislated Offsets Integrity Standards, a process the minister's release frames as the mechanism for maintaining integrity and public confidence in the carbon trading system [TA-260415-agricu-b22153ef8073].

The framing throughout the media release positions agricultural emissions reduction as additive to farm income rather than in tension with it — farmers generate ACCUs by reducing methane intensity without being required to cut livestock numbers. This income-diversification argument is central to the method's commercial pitch to the sector. No parliamentary activity was recorded for this date; the record is drawn from the minister's comms stream only.