Carbon Footprinting Saving Farmers Money

UK - Farmers who are members of the British supermarket chain Sainsbury's Dairy Development Group are reaping large savings thanks to their carbon footprinting.
calendar icon 11 December 2009
clock icon 2 minute read

Last year, White Gold (part of AB Agri)completed individual audits on all 325 Sainsbury’s Dairy Development Group (SDDG) farms.

The audit measured every aspect of the farms output including electricity, manure storage and machinery and fuel. The audit will run for three years and recommendations will reduce emissions by an estimated 10 per cent annually.

Areas where improvements could be made included better use of manure and fertiliser to improve crop nutrition and feed efficiencies linked to yield and overall stocking rates.

The audits, which were compliant with the PAS 2050, also revealed that some of the highest yielding farms were not necessarily the most carbon intensive.

Annie Graham, Sainsbury’s agricultural manager said at the time: "In April 2007 when we met the farmers for the first time SDDG farmers identified four key areas that could pose a threat, or where there were opportunities. One of these was the environment and we hope this new scheme helps address some of our farmers concerns. We decided to work with White Gold to develop an environmental scorecard model which measures the exact carbon footprint of each of the SDDG dairy farms and identifies where efficiencies can be made.”

Now a report in the UK farming newspaper Farmers' Weekly says that the scheme has saved a total of 5000 tonnes of CO2 this year, resulting in "substantial" financial savings for some.

TheCattleSite News Desk

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