At the moment, almost 10% of the country's total GHG emissions originate from agriculture production. These emissions contribute to the overall food emissions – which is why food supply chain partners are looking to farmers to help them meet their own Net Zero targets*. The result is that landowners and the farming sector are developing strategies to address their own carbon footprint in order to achieve the Government’s 2050 Net Zero goals.

Although challenging, farmers and landowners can achieve this if they:

• Reduce their farms’ carbon emissions per kg of production
• Combine this with offsetting measures to remove any remaining emissions from the atmosphere

The good news is that carbon sequestration – the mitigation of climate change by the adoption of carbon sinks – enables farmers to reduce their carbon footprint, access a new revenue stream (Carbon Farming) and help society by capturing carbon in soil and vegetation (thereby removing it from the atmosphere).

Farm Carbon Accounting

Many believe that Carbon Accounting – a methodology which calculates how much GHG a farm/estate emits, as well as its impact on the environment - will play a major role in future agriculture policy.

The call for Carbon Accounting is underpinned by evidence that reducing GHG emissions does lead to an improvement in a farm’s technical performance, operational efficiency, cost reduction and improved profitability.

Carbon Accounting also has significant PR/marketing value. Evidencing carbon-friendly farming techniques will help meet supply chain partners’ and consumers’ growing demand for produce sourced from ’green’ sources

Carbon Audit Reports

Carbon Auditing reports (using proven carbon calculators) provide farmers and landowners with the data and evidence they need to make operational changes and strategic decisions which will affect both the farm’s short-term output and its long-term viability.

Audits provide the evidence required to make decisions such as areas where GHG emissions emanate from and can be:

• Reduced
• Eliminated
• Offset through sequestration planning

Our team of Farm Carbon Auditors can help you make informed strategic decisions and provide practical implementation advice. Working from multiple data sources (from farm records to data gathered by the team, or by specialists) we build a Carbon Map of the farm and collate the empirical evidence collected to help inform any decision-making.

The Carbon Audit report will detail what the farm’s footprint is and what mitigating measures can be taken to reduce it. Ultimately, the aim is to create a route map to achieve Net Zero.

Given our deep knowledge of the farming sector and our almost 200-year experience of working with farmers, our recommendations will align with your existing business model. We will:

• Look for marginal gains designed to improve efficiencies across the farm
• Identify inefficiencies and make rational and logical recommendations to achieve to achieve clearly defined operational gains

By identifying the poorest performing parts of the farm, the report will highlight areas where gains could be immediate and significant. It will assess issues such as:

• Consumption of fuel and power
• Materials used such as metals, wood and plastics
• Choice of crops and impact of nitrogen use efficiency
• Applications of fertiliser, sprays and manure
• Livestock: numbers, purchased feed, growth rates and mortality
• Buildings and machinery
• Water and waste

Almost every farmer we advise has found that our Carbon Audits have also proved a valuable business efficiency tool - not just a response to legislation. Some clients opt for annual Carbon Audits to help monitor performance and evidence progress.

To find out how we can help, please call David Kinnersley or Tom Beeley about any Farm Carbon Audit enquiries you might have, or complete our enquiry form and we will get straight back to you.

Our Farm Carbon Audit team works closely with other specialists drawn from across the firm to ensure that clients benefit from integrated and holistic property advice – one team, one plan, one goal.