Plans have been announced to push dairy sustainability forward as a new project aims to standardise carbon footprint tools across the industry.
The Carbon Footprint Working Group plans to standardise emissions reporting, then investigate the calculation of carbon sequestration and its value to the dairy sector.
The group, which spearheads the UK Dairy Roadmap, one of the oldest environmental initiatives in UK farming, said it had reviewed the current carbon calculators available to dairy farmers.
It added that it was working on a project to create standardisation across the market "to ensure reliability and consistency in reporting for the UK dairy industry".
Currently, carbon measuring tools can vary greatly in what they measure and how, which can mean issues in terms of providing consistency.
In an industry first, the output from the group will standardise metrics and reporting across tools, resulting in the development of a UK-wide carbon footprint estimate.
The group said this would be used to track progress, support discussion with policymakers and provide evidence of the work being undertaken within the sector to reduce its environmental footprint.
Dairy farmer David Cotton, chair of the working group, said: “Whilst many dairy farmers are pressing ahead with carbon footprinting on farm, others have been reluctant to do so, due to the inconsistency of the final reports.
"All the work so far shows that farms with a low footprint are generally more profitable; having good information and benchmarking will help in further driving down carbon use and improve profitability."
With many farmers now collecting data into different carbon calculating tools, questions are being raised about what carbon reports mean for farmers, their reliability and how these can be used to support the drive to net zero.
The Carbon Footprint Working Group was set up to support farmers with answers to these questions, and to ensure that the footprint data collected from farms is trustworthy and verifiable.
The group explained that this work was 'essential' in ensuring that the sector could successfully fulfil its climate ambition and its journey to net zero.
