To achieve a reduction of between 22% and 30% in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, we need to first look at where the emissions are coming from.
GHG emissions on farms come from five main areas:
Animal digestion.Manure (storage/spreading/at grazing).Fertiliser use.Feed and forage production.Fuel and energy use. On dairy farms, the first two categories (animal digestion and manure) can make up 65% of emissions compared to up to 89% on suckler to weanling/store farms. This is because suckler/cattle farms use less inputs.
Fertiliser, feed, fuel and energy use make up just 11% of emissions on suckler farms versus 35% on dairy farms. From these figures, it is evident that reducing emissions on suckler/cattle farms will be hard to achieve on the input side and focus will have to be on animal productivity and efficiencies such as not carrying cows without calves, calving heifers earlier and earlier sale/finish.
On dairy farms, the focus will be on reduced fertiliser use, change in fertiliser type, animal productivity and not carrying poor-performing stock.
Table 1 outlines the key actions that dairy and suckler farmers can take to reduce emissions and the impact of the action on emissions.
For example, switching from CAN to protected urea has the potential to reduce total emissions by 7% to 8% on a dairy farm, while on a suckler farm, the reduction is 1% to 2% because of the lower nitrogen (N) usage.
Some of the actions in Table 1 will affect each other, such as spring spreading of slurry and low emission spreading of slurry.
Both of these will lead to reducing chemical N use on farm.
Your focus list for the year ahead should include:
Spread lime.Spread slurry in spring with low emissions slurry spreading (LESS) technology.Use protected urea.Target a 10% reduction in chemical N use.Cull empty/marginal cows on farm.
To achieve a reduction of between 22% and 30% in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, we need to first look at where the emissions are coming from.
GHG emissions on farms come from five main areas:
Animal digestion.Manure (storage/spreading/at grazing).Fertiliser use.Feed and forage production.Fuel and energy use. On dairy farms, the first two categories (animal digestion and manure) can make up 65% of emissions compared to up to 89% on suckler to weanling/store farms. This is because suckler/cattle farms use less inputs.
Fertiliser, feed, fuel and energy use make up just 11% of emissions on suckler farms versus 35% on dairy farms. From these figures, it is evident that reducing emissions on suckler/cattle farms will be hard to achieve on the input side and focus will have to be on animal productivity and efficiencies such as not carrying cows without calves, calving heifers earlier and earlier sale/finish.
On dairy farms, the focus will be on reduced fertiliser use, change in fertiliser type, animal productivity and not carrying poor-performing stock.
Table 1 outlines the key actions that dairy and suckler farmers can take to reduce emissions and the impact of the action on emissions.
For example, switching from CAN to protected urea has the potential to reduce total emissions by 7% to 8% on a dairy farm, while on a suckler farm, the reduction is 1% to 2% because of the lower nitrogen (N) usage.
Some of the actions in Table 1 will affect each other, such as spring spreading of slurry and low emission spreading of slurry.
Both of these will lead to reducing chemical N use on farm.
Your focus list for the year ahead should include:
Spread lime.Spread slurry in spring with low emissions slurry spreading (LESS) technology.Use protected urea.Target a 10% reduction in chemical N use.Cull empty/marginal cows on farm. 
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