Carbon audit shows favourable results

Another element of the society’s sustainability project was to assess members' and Hereford producers’ systems’ carbon efficiency, which showed participants to be at or above industry averages.

Undetaking carbon audits, volunteers participating in the society's sustainability project worked with the team at Carbon Farm Toolkit to complete datasheets, collecting information about livestock type and number, crops grown, any inputs (eg. fertiliser, feeds, fuels), plus details on hedges, woodland, soil organic matter and waste management. This was then entered into Farm Carbon Toolkit's tool to calculate the emissions and offsets to produce the carbon balance. Each volunteer was supplied with a full report, plus a summary produced by the project that highlighted hotspots.

Liz explains: “The aim was to identify farms that were net zero, which means that their carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide emissions are being offset by carbon capture by their soil, hedges, trees and recycling. As you are aware, the NFU has outlined the ambition for the agricultural industry to be Net Zero by 2040, with retailers aiming for earlier, eg. Waitrose by 2035.

“Table 1 shows the average results from the farms involved. The top three – emissions, offset and carbon balance – are influenced by farm size as they reflect the total for the whole farm for a full year. For the farms to be Net Zero, the carbon balance would be zero, meaning emissions and offsets are balanced. It is worth noting that this is for the whole farm, not just the beef enterprise.

“Carbon balance per hectare helps to adjust for farm size, with the average figure for the farms involved in this being three tonnes CO2e per hectare, which is lower than the current average benchmark from Carbon Farm Toolkit of 3.3.”

Carbon balance per tonne of product helps to adjust for productivity and varies between <0.1 to 36 tonnes. With the fuel, fertiliser and water use ones providing guidance on resource use efficiency, with a lower number being better.

An initial carbon audit is useful to establish a baseline for a farm and, similar to other types of technical or financial benchmarking, helps to highlight areas where data collection needs to be improved.

Five hot spots were identified per farm

with cattle mentioned seven times, average compared to similar work in Table 1: The summary results for the carbon review

Category Emissions (tonnes of CO2e per year) Offset (tonnes of CO2e per year) Carbon balance (tonnes of CO2e per year) Carbon balance per hectare (tonnes of CO2e) Carbon balance per tonne of product (tonnes of CO2e) Fuel per hectare (tonnes of CO2e) Fertiliser per hectare (tonnes of CO2e) Water use (m3 per tonne of product) Average 1,275.0

606.7

665.4

3.0

8.4

0.5

0.3

19.7

red diesel six times, fertiliser and soil amendments six times, sheep four times, feeds three times and solar panels twice.

None of the farms were net zero, even with soil sequestration taken into consideration.

Liz explains: “Generally, the results of the farms who were involved in the herd review and carbon audit demonstrated performance that was similar or above commercial herds and farms. The next stage is to help these breeders, plus others who want to join, to develop an action plan for the next few years to help improve their figures and to provide further evidence that the Hereford breed has an important place in the future of the UK beef industry.”

A series of webinars is being planned to help explain the results further to the volunteers and to the wider

Targets for the sustainability project:

• Support members to improve their suckler cow efficiency • Encourage members to maximise grass and forage in the diets • Highlight bulls of excellent carcase value

membership and what can be done to improve the figures. Any changes in cow efficiency, genetic potential, fertility or system selection are not quick; there is a need to think five or 10 years ahead", adds Liz.

Targets have been developed from the results of the projects discussed above, plus a report on the genetic trends of the breed. A working group is being established to take this work on further in 2022 to ensure Hereford cattle continue to be well represented in the sustainable beef supply chain.

Highlights from some of the volunteers

Richard Thomas, Risbury herd

Rich has the second lowest emissions with the (0.4 tonnes of C02e per ha compared to average of three tonnes) with lowest fertiliser per hectare figure. This would have been further reduced as he hasn’t spread any fertiliser during 2021 and plans not to during 2022.

Rueben Saunders, Lowesmoor herd

This farm has very good offsets due to high recycling, which leads to a low carbon balance per hectare or per tonne. It also highlighted the importance of allocation of inputs as water use figures are high, but lack of individual water meters means it is difficult to allocate the water use to the farm activity.

David Makin, Adzor herd

David has purchased a new tractor to help improve fuel efficiency. He uses a ‘muck for grazing’ deal to ensure good soil health on arable land and is using lucerne to reduce artificial nitrogen use.

Peter Moyes, Thornby herd

This farm has the best carbon footprint, with the lowest numbers for carbon balance per hectare and tonne of product.

Jen Jones, Dendor herd

This audit demonstrated the lowest value for fuel per hectare and is partially linked to farm layout and system.

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