Dr Nicholas Hudson will receive $20,000 from Meat & Livestock Australia and $30,000 as winner of the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry Award, for his research into improving cattle feed efficiency.

Livestock with high feed efficiency produce less methane emissions, reduce the amount of grain diverted from human consumption and significantly reduce input costs for farmers.

"I congratulate Dr Hudson on his work and would encourage other young scientists to pursue research to help reduce the impact of climate change on our farming industries and secure vibrant industries for the future," Agriculture Minister Tony Burke said.

Dr Hudson is a postdoctoral research scientist with CSIRO Livestock Industries and will use the award to expand his research into the genetic analysis of cattle, to better understand switches in metabolic efficiency.

"Reducing the feed intake of Australian cattle, without compromising the efficiency with which cattle convert feed into beef, would be a significant bonus for the beef industry in reducing production costs," Dr Hudson said.

"Such improvements would clearly make Australian beef more globally competitive and help drive profits."

Grants of up to $20,000 were also given to 14 young Australians aged between 18 and 35 years who work or study in the agriculture, fisheries, and forestry, food or natural resource industries.

Other winning projects ranged from improving pregnancy rates in dairy cows, to investigating salmon that can adapt to suboptimal temperatures and developing technologies to generate renewable energy from wine waste products.