DOMESTIC OFFSETS INTEGRITY COMMITTEE
C/- DOIC Secretariat
GPO Box 854
CANBERRA ACT 2601
The Hon Yvette D’Ath MP
Parliamentary Secretary for
Climate Change, Industry and Innovation
Parliament House
CANBERRA ACT 2600
Dear Mrs D’Ath
The Domestic Offsets Integrity Committee has considered the following activity proposed
for inclusion on the Positive List under the Carbon Farming Initiative:

Reducing emissions from ruminant livestock herds through selective breeding for
improved residual feed intake (RFI).
The Committee considers that this proposed activity is suitable for inclusion on the Positive
List for the reasons provided in the Statement of Reasons.
Yours sincerely
AJ Press
Chair
Domestic Offsets Integrity Committee
May 2013
STATEMENT OF REASONS
The Domestic Offsets Integrity Committee considers that the following activity is suitable for
inclusion on the Positive List for the reasons outlined below.
Reducing emissions from ruminant livestock herds through selective breeding for improved residual
feed intake (RFI).
Residual feed intake is a measure of how efficiently an animal uses its feed and is the difference
between an animal’s actual feed intake and its expected feed intake given its size, age and growth of
the animal over a period of time.
Background
Research has shown that selective breeding of livestock for improved RFI has the potential to reduce
methane emissions.1,2,3,4
Ruminant livestock with a lower RFI will consume less feed for the same weight gain and level of
production than livestock with a higher RFI. This is because livestock with a lower RFI direct a greater
proportion of the energy from the feed they consume towards putting on weight or producing milk,
and expend less energy on general body maintenance.
Farmers commonly use a range of selective breeding techniques to improve the productivity of their
herds. For example, the cattle industry commonly and increasing undertake selective breeding using
estimated breeding values (encompassing values for various traits). Accordingly, this activity is
limited to selective breeding for improved RFI values and does not cover selective breeding for
improved productivity in general.
Reasons for advice
There is clear evidence that selective breeding for RFI has the potential to reduce methane
emissions from livestock.
The use of RFI in selective breeding of ruminant livestock is not common practice even though a
method for calculating RFI for livestock has been available since 2006. The use of RFI in selective
breeding of livestock is not common practice because of the difficulty and cost of measuring RFI.
1
R. Hegarty, Livestock breeding for greenhouse gas outcomes, Livestock Emissions and Abatement Research Network,
2009.
2 R. Hegarty, J. P. Goopy, R. M. Herd, and B. McCorkell, Cattle selected for lower residual feed intake have reduced daily
methane production, Journal of Animal Science,2007.
3 F.M. Jones, F.A. Phillips, T. Naylor, N.B. Mercer, Methane emissions from grazing Angus beef cows selected for divergent
residual feed intake, Animal Feed Science and Technology, 2011.
4 S.J. Eady, The potential for using improvements in production efficiency to abate greenhouse gas emissions in extensive
beef production systems in northern Australia, CSIRO National Research Flagships in Sustainable Agriculture, 2011