Carbon on the Farm

A Carbon Footprint is the total greenhouse gas emissions caused directly by an individual, an organisation, an event or a product.  This has become an important subject because of concern about global warming and also about the security of our energy supplies.

Usually the emissions are the amount of carbon dioxide produced from using fuel or electricity, although the situation in agriculture is rather more complicated.  Various aspects of land use and food production create a considerable quantity of greenhouse gases:

Carbon dioxide is produced from the fossil fuels used to make electricity or more directly when tractor diesel or other oil or gas is used.

Methane is produced mainly when cattle belch out rumen gases as a natural by-product of their digestion process.  A proportion of the methane also comes from stored manure, the amount depending on the system of storage.

Nitrous oxide is released from the soil naturally.  Additional release occurs when nitrogen is added to the soil in any form, either from the urine and manure of grazing cattle, the spreading of slurry or FYM or from bag nitrogen fertilizer.

The College has gained some experience in the measurement of the carbon footprint of a farm or a land based enterprise.  Measurements have been made using both a range of Carbon Calculators and a system which assigns a footprint category based on the system or systems of production.  As a follow on exercise data is being recorded on each of the College’s four farms to enable the carbon footprints to be monitored.

Various practical measures can be taken to reduce the carbon footprint on a farm.  These include: