FARMING ENERGY

Energy is an important input to agricultural production.

Agriculture uses energy directly as fuel or electricity to operate farm machinery and equipment, to dry grains, cool fruits, and indirectly such as in the production of synthetic fertilisers.

Our sustainable agricultural principles may not always be the most energy efficient. As an example, mechanical row cleaning requires more diesel use than simply spraying weeds with chemicals, but it reduces our need for harmful herbicides.

Another example is irrigation, which also requires highenergy use, but helps us to conserve water.

Ultimately, energy use and efficiency are aspects of agriculture that cannot stand alone and always should be seen as part of a larger, holistic farming system.

RENEWABLE ENERGY

Where locally available and where it makes sense, we use renewable energy. Approximately 44% of our electricity comes from renewable energy, such as solar power and hydro-electricity used on our farms.

In some of the countries we farm, the national energy grids are based purely on renewable energy sources. For example, most of the electricity used in Tasmania and Uruguay comes from hydropower.

ENERGY USE

We monitor our energy use to help us progress into more efficient and environmentally sound systems of production. In 2018/19 we used a total of 242,796 gigajoules (GJ) of energy. This amounts to 2.90 GJ/ha and means that we produce 1.04 tonnes of produce per GJ.

In terms of GJ of energy spent directly on our farms, the majority is in the form of diesel at 59% followed by natural gas at 21% and electricity at 17%.

Diesel use is traditionally high in cropping systems, but we aim to reduce this by reducing tillage, incorporating more pastures into rotations and upgrading old diesel-powered drying systems.

ENERGY USE EFFICIENCY

We want to increase our energy use efficiency by 2% per year. While supporting financial results, this will also benefit the environment and climate.

However, our energy efficiency has been decreasing by 5% per year as an average over the last nine years due to our focus on soil improvements, major construction and developments, increased irrigation as well as costs of drying grain.

In Peru, our production is still relatively low as our plants are still young. Once our plants reach maturity and full production, our energy efficiency will improve.

In 2018/19, we processed our pistachios in our new processing facilities for the first time. This extensive operation was fuelled by natural gas and is the major reason behind our increase in natural gas use as shown in the graph below.

GOAL 12 // RESPONSIBLE CONSUMPTION AND PRODUCTION

In Ingleby, we follow a cautious consumption of all natural resources, and to this end, we aim to achieve an efficient use of energy.

Our goal is to increase our energy use efficiency by 2% per year. Due to necessary and sustainable developments of our farms, land and productions, we are not on track with this goal. However, once we have implemented all developments, we should see a decrease in energy use, and an increase in our energy use efficiency.

Irrigation is particularly energy expensive, responsible for 66% of our global use of electricity. We will work towards minimising the energy put into our irrigation systems to improve both water and electricity use efficiency.

We believe agriculture and forestry can contribute to sustainable energy production. Ingleby supports joint neighbour projects to reduce energy waste and to produce soil based energy.

ENERGY USE BY PRODUCTION

8% 1%

23%

28%

40%

DAIRY

HORTICULTURE

ROW CROPS

SHEEP & CATTLE

OTHER

GJ

250,000

200,000

150,000

100,000

50,000

0

ENERGY USE

2014/15 2015/16 2016/17 2017/18 2018/19*

C L I M A T E