Category: News

Nitrogen Efficient Plants for Climate Smart Arable Cropping Systems

Posted on June 8, 2023 by - News

Farm Carbon Toolkit is excited to be part of an ambitious new research project to explore the huge potential of UK-grown pulses and legumes to address the climate crisis and replace imported soya meal.

The Nitrogen Efficient Plants for Climate Smart Arable Cropping Systems (NCS) project will involve 17 industry partners and 200 UK farms in farm trials and other research to grow more pulses in the UK, reduce artificial fertiliser use, and find ways to use UK-grown pulses to reduce reliance on imported soya meal used in livestock diets.

Led by PGRO, the consortium of UK companies, research institutes and farmer networks, the research project will seek to support farmers in reducing agricultural emissions by up to 1.5Mt CO₂e per annum (or 54% of the maximum potential for UK agriculture) through increasing pulse cropping in arable rotations and substituting up to 50% of imported soya currently used in feed with more climate-friendly, home-grown pulses and legumes.

“We are delighted to be involved in the Nitrogen Efficient Plants for Climate Smart Arable Cropping Systems project, which could be a game changer for UK agriculture,”

says Liz Bowles, CEO at Farm Carbon Toolkit. 

“Working with farmers to trial the latest pulse varieties and on-farm research and innovation in real-life situations, the four-year project seeks to significantly increase pulse and legume cropping areas across the UK, reducing emissions from artificial fertilisers and deforestation associated with soya production, and improving productivity and soil health on British farms.”

As project partners, Farm Carbon Toolkit will provide baseline farm carbon audits for the farms taking part in the research trials, as well as monitoring changes over the life of the programme. We will also be using the findings to inform how our Farm Carbon Calculator estimates both emissions and carbon removals associated with growing pulses and legumes within UK crop rotations.

Are you a Pulse Pioneer?

The first stage of the project will give 200 UK farmers direct support to establish their business’ carbon baseline, using our Farm Carbon Toolkit. The GHG emissions from these farms will then be tracked throughout the project and will form a fundamental part of the dataset.

Next, the leading innovators among them will be paid to work with scientists to co-design crop and feeding trials to carry out on their farms. These ‘Pulse Pioneers’ will explore ways and means for soils to thrive, crop yields to build and livestock productivity to flourish, through better use and marketing of home-grown pulses and legumes.

Get involved

We’re urging interested farmers to get involved as soon as possible.

The NCS project will officially launch on the PGRO stand at this year’s Cereals Event (13-14 June), with a follow up no-obligation webinar to explain more about it and what’s on offer at 2pm on Thursday 15th June 2023.

Sign up now for the no-obligation webinar on Thursday 15th June at 2:00pm

Farm Carbon Calculator scientific DTP support placements

Posted on June 8, 2023 by - News

Farm Carbon Toolkit is offering current DTP students the opportunity to work on their Farm Carbon Calculator. Come and use your skills to support thousands of farmers across the UK and beyond to footprint their farms’ GHG emissions!

We are offering current Doctoral Training Partnership students an exciting opportunity to work on our Farm Carbon Calculator and gain work experience in a role that really is helping to change the way we farm.

We’re looking for enthusiastic placement students who know how to use Excel and ideally have experience or detailed knowledge of one or more of the following:

  • GHG emissions sources in agriculture (and the processes involved)
  • Software development/ development of web-based tools
  • UK agricultural management practices (particularly in regard to manure management/ livestock management)
  • GHG footprinting and associated standards/ reporting guidance

Don’t worry if you only know about one of the above, as there will be plenty of opportunities to develop knowledge in all of these areas. We can design the placement to suit your skills and interests and you will be supported by our Calculator Manager, Lizzy Parker.

We are a remote organisation and the placement can be undertaken from anywhere in the UK but you will need access to your own laptop. Any travel for the placement (e.g. to quarterly in-person team meetings and other relevant events) will be covered by our expenses policy. Written and spoken Italian would be a big asset for placements commencing June or July 2023.

Contact [email protected] to learn more.

Cotswold Seeds courses at FarmED 2023

Posted on June 6, 2023 by - Insights, News

Image taken from Cotswold Seeds website.

Summer/Autumn 2023

The FarmED Programme for 2023 includes a wide range of courses, workshops and events that inspire, educate and connect people to build sustainable farming and food systems that nourish people and regenerate the planet. All take place in their beautiful eco buildings at the heart of their demonstration farm in the Evenlode Valley. Delicious and nutritious refreshments are freshly prepared in the FarmED kitchen.

*Further events will be added to the programme throughout the year. 

Herbal Ley Establishment & Management – June 13th

Join for a one day course on Herbal Leys Establishment and Management brought to you by the FarmED team and Cotswolds Seeds. A herbal ley is a complex seed mixture of grasses, legumes and herbs, which bring a range of benefits to forage, livestock health and soil fertility. Herbal leys can often include a mixture of up to 17 species, and can be incorporated into arable, livestock or horticultural operations with multiple benefits including building soil fertility and improving water resilience, to fostering better animal health and boosting biodiversity. Herbal leys are a traditional low-input method of farming that provides benefits to arable, livestock and horticultural operations alike.

Pollinators & Predators – July 3rd

How can we encourage pollinators and natural predators in order to reduce pests and increase production? Understand the role of these insects and learn ways to manage and maintain habitats for these unsung heroes.

Animals Into Arable Rotations – July 4th 

Are you thinking of introducing livestock back into your arable rotation? Join FarmED as
they explore the options and find practical solutions.

Sainfoin & Lucerne Field Day – July 5th 

Join the Cotswold Seeds team to learn about Sainfoin and Lucerne and how they
can benefit your farm

Wildflower Meadows & Margins – July 18th 

As well as looking appealing, wildflowers also have huge biodiversity and environmental benefits. Find out how to select and establish the seed mixtures that best suit your land.

Sort Out Your Soil – August 2nd 

We are joined by Anton Rosenfield from Garden Organic, and the Cotswold Seeds
team to show how green manures and cover crops can boost the fertility of your soil.

Self-Sufficient Leys Field Day – August 15th 

Learn how to use forage legumes to reduce reliance on nitrogen fertiliser.

Equine Grassland Management – September 12th 

Enhance you pasture management and increase species diversity to improve horse health and extend the grazing season.

Please book through  www.farm-ed.co.uk

Sign-up for their newsletter to keep up to date with what’s on at FarmED
Follow them @RealFarmED

Cotswold Seeds kindly sponsors our Soil Farmer of the Year Competition.

Farm Carbon Toolkit’s Annual Field Day 2023

Posted on June 26, 2023 by - News

This year our Annual Field Day will take place on Thursday the 21st September 2023 

A day for farmers by farmers sharing experiences for improving performance and resilience in a challenging environment.

We are grateful to Julian Gold and the Hendred Estate for kindly hosting this conference at the Hendred Estate Farm, Oxfordshire on the edge of the Berkshire Downs (W3W/roosters.bleak.earl). 

  • During the day we will showcase all the ways in which farmers are already changing farming practice to respond to the need to reduce emissions and build on farm carbon within resilient farm businesses.
  • We will also share our insights from the work we are doing supporting farmers to reduce GHG emissions and remove carbon into soils and biomass. This involves key elements of the transition to a nature friendly decarbonisation of agriculture. 
  • Discussions of how farmers we have collaborated with have reduced emissions whilst improving resilience.
  • The winners of the Carbon Farmer of the Year competition will be announced, a new competition which we launched this year. To find out more about the competition and information on how you can apply or nominate head here.

Price includes tea/coffee and a hog roast lunch (get in touch for any dietary requirements).

Confirmed speakers to date:

See speaker bios here and the schedule here

To book:

To book your place (numbers are limited) please follow this link.

Lift sharing:

Interested in lift sharing? Head here

We’re looking forward to seeing you there!

Thank you,

FCT Team.

Kindly supported by:

Yeo Valley, First Milk, and Velcourt.

Carbon Clarity Publication launch at Devon County Show

Posted on May 15, 2023 by - News

Invitation to The Prince’s Countryside Fund and Morrisons Carbon Clarity Publication Launch Brunch and Programme announcement at the Devon County Show 18th May.  

The Prince’s Countryside Fund (PCF) and Morrisons have a long standing relationship since initiating their partnership in 2016, specifically working to improve the business and environmental resilience of farming families through co-creating the Carbon Clarity programme and Morrisons’ continued sponsorship of the Farm Resilience Programme.

We would be delighted if you could join Becky Willson, PCF and Morrisons for the launch of the new Carbon Clarity Publication, a practical guide to begin managing carbon on farms. PCF also have an exciting announcement about their successful Carbon Clarity farm support Programme. The session will include a carbon ‘myth-busting’ discussion, facilitated by consultant Becky Willson, from Farm Carbon Toolkit.   

Please join Becky and the PCF at stand 459 Avenue L, at 10.15am, for a 10:30am start. The brief event will conclude at 11am. Refreshments will be provided.

To attend:

Please RSVP by using the following link to secure your place:  Carbon Clarity Launch sign up here

Supporting UK farmers transitioning towards ELMs & Net-Zero agriculture

Posted on May 10, 2023 by - News

(Above pictured is Peter’s hill farm in West Yorkshire)

This project led by Dr Peter Gittins and Dr Deema Refai of University of Leeds aims to assist UK farmers in their transition to net-zero agriculture by identifying the barriers and constraints they face, evaluating current progress in measuring carbon emissions, and helping farmers develop strategies for becoming net-zero through entrepreneurial skillsets and business activities. Scroll down to find out how to get involved.

Phase One: Farmer Interviews & Carbon Mapping (February-June)

The project will conduct on-farm interviews with upland/hill farmers to discuss barriers in
becoming net-zero and views on current and proposed new environmental schemes. The
project will also interview stakeholders such as agricultural organizations, local councils, and
wildlife and conservation groups.

On-farm interviews with farmers (no longer than an hour):

  • Cumbria- W/C April 3rd ———— W/C May 22nd onwards till August
  • Yorkshire- W/C April 10th ——— W/C May 22nd onwards till August
  • Exmoor- W/C April 17th ———– W/C May 22nd onwards till August

They aim to produce:

  • A policy brief outlining farmer concerns around adapting to ELMs and becoming net zero
  • An academic journal article
  • A podcast/university seminar event- hybrid event you will be invited to
  • An article summarizing the key findings from the activities published in The Conversation.

Phase two:

They will be hosting a two-day workshop event at Leeds University Farm. Throughout the event, attendees will have the opportunity to hear from a diverse array of academic and industry speakers and participate in planned activities. The theme of the workshop is focused on developing the skillsets of farmers. Topics include:

  • Developing an Effective Farm Business Strategy
  • Exploring New Markets and Entrepreneurial Opportunities
  • Innovation and Technology: Tour of the National Pig Centre
  • Environmental Sustainability
  • Marketing Your Farm Business
  • Policy Session and Discussion: The Future of UK Agriculture – Adapting to ELMs
    and Net-Zero

Why Take Part?

By taking part in this research project, you can gain valuable insights into how your farming
practices impact the environment. You can also contribute to academic research and
influence UK policy-making. Furthermore, you will be invited to attend workshops later in the year at the University Farm, where you can learn about topics such as adding value to your farm business, designing an effective business strategy, exploring new markets and
entrepreneurial opportunities, future-proofing your farm business, and sustainable farming
practices. These workshops will be led by academics and industry speakers, providing a
great opportunity for you to expand your knowledge and skills in these areas.

To register your interest, please email Dr Peter Gittins at [email protected] or call 07480135127.

Finally, if you know of any farmers who might want to get involved in this project who do not have internet access, then please pass on the above contact information and they will personally sign them up.

With thanks from the project team:

Dr Peter Gittins & Dr Deema Refai

FCT working with Wilder Carbon

Posted on April 17, 2023 by - News

Supporting farmers and growers to integrate Nature Based Solutions alongside food production

Over the last few weeks, four key reports have been published that are highly relevant to farming and land use:

The UK has made a legally binding commitment to net zero emissions by 2050. This ambitious target will require the rapid decarbonisation of the entire economy. Although agriculture currently accounts for an 11% share of GHG emissions in the UK, the industry is projected to have an increasing share (perhaps as high as 30%) by 2030, as other sectors reduce emissions more quickly. The GFI report notes that there is an urgent need for greater financial support to help farmers achieve this ambitious target over and above the funds likely to be available through the different elements of the Environmental Land Management Scheme.

Of course, it is highly evident that this urgent transition in farming practices cannot happen without government support, and the 2021 report commissioned by Defra (and delivered by the Green Finance Institute) found a £3.7 billion financing gap for sustainable soil management and a £19.4 billion gap for protecting and restoring biodiversity to the end of 2030. With farmland representing 71% of the UK’s land area – and the reality that most of the investment will be required at the land management level – engagement with farmers will be crucial in closing this gap for soils and nature, as will ensuring that farmers are properly supported through the transition. 

In this space there has been much talk of the potential for stacking and bundling.

What does stacking involve?

When more than one type of separate credit or unit is issued from the same activity on the same parcel of land this is known as ‘stacking’ – for example if a land manager were to sell both carbon and water quality units from the same woodland (Extracted from Defra’s Nature Market Framework 2023).

What does bundling involve?

When a single credit is sold representing several different environmental benefits (for example a wetland unit delivering carbon, biodiversity and water quality benefits), this is termed ‘bundling’.

While Defra is keen to support greater use of stacking as well as explicit bundling, the devil could well be in the detail with some markets already starting to raise concerns on how this will work in practice. For businesses looking to enter such agreements, it will be imperative to secure robust and water tight agreements prior to commitment. 

The GFI’s Financing the Farm Transition report made recommendations for change in four distinct areas to enable more effective financing of this transition. The report clearly recognises the need for more guidance for farmers and landowners on environmental markets, how they work, and key principles that need to be established. Alongside this is improving access and availability of robust data and the identification of the key environmental outcome metrics to monitor and support farmers to work together to deliver the transition. Defra’s Nature Markets Framework goes some way to bridging this information gap.

FCT welcomes the suggestion that the cost of collating and verifying the data collected by farmers to measure their environmental impact could be shared by Government and the private sector. Currently the use of carbon audit tools is relatively low, unless specifically required by individual supply chains.

FCT and Wilder Carbon working in partnership

To support farmers who wish to increase the level of nature-based solutions on their land holdings alongside food production, FCT has teamed up with Wilder Carbon to offer the tools and advice to determine the best integration of Nature-based Solutions (NbS) finance and agriculture for a future land management system that achieves multiple benefits for the public good. The Farm Focused NbS provides an all-encompassing toolkit for land managers to assess, plan, deliver and fund a carbon reduction plan that, crucially, supports habitat restoration as a way of insetting farm business residual carbon footprint within the holding or landscape, as well as accessing the voluntary carbon market (VCM) to leverage carbon finance and deliver the management practice for the long term. 

To find out more about this new initiative go to  https://www.wildercarbon.com/ or contact [email protected]

Defra’s 2024 plans to support farmers in carbon footprinting

Posted on April 5, 2023 by - News

Farm carbon footprinting is in the spotlight again this week, following Defra’s plans to support farmers to carry out farm carbon footprinting from 2024, as well as to help harmonise the methodology for farm emissions calculation engines.

Although there is little detail behind Defra’s announcement, Farm Carbon Toolkit (FCT) very much welcomes the potential for greater financial and technical support for farmers to measure their emissions as a first step to identifying how best to reduce them and increase land sector removal of carbon into soils and on-farm biomass. FCT is already collaborating with other industry stakeholders to harmonise carbon calculation engines, including Dairy UK’s initiative, the Dairy Roadmap for Farm Carbon Accounting, which was announced earlier this month and looks forward to working further with Defra on methodology harmonisation in the coming months. 

Supporting farmers to understand their carbon footprint and to adopt farming practices to reduce emissions and store more carbon farmland is critical if we are to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. 

The IPCC’s latest AR6 Synthesis Report makes this clear. Rapid reduction in emissions is imperative—and yet global emissions are still heading in the opposite direction. The report is not an easy read, with the level of confidence in the negative – and devastating – forecasted impacts of climate change growing with every new IPCC report produced. What is very clear is that the continued extraction and use of fossil fuels is the largest contributor to overall emissions and, hence, global warming. Nevertheless agriculture’s overall contribution as a proportion of total emissions looks set to increase rapidly as we wean ourselves off fossil fuels.

On a more positive note, the IPCC report points to substantial mitigation and adaptation potential from options in agriculture, forestry and other land use that could be upscaled in the near term across most regions.

The IPCC report backs up FCT’s important work in assisting farmers and growers to reduce GHG emissions through adopting farming practices that increase biodiversity within the farming system, keep soil covered, improve soil health, and reduce reliance on artificial fertilisers and imported animal feed protein from areas affected by deforestation, as well as improving systems and business resilience – an important factor when considering the impact of climate change on UK food security. For example, it is now widely accepted that there is significant potential to increase the levels of atmospheric carbon stored in soils (approximately 9 tonnes/ha from increasing soil organic matter by 0.1%). 

However, we cannot rely on storing more carbon in soils and biomass without facing up to the imperative of doing all we can to urgently reduce emissions. This means ensuring farmers understand the sources of their GHG emissions on their farms, and that the practical advice on how best to reduce them is readily available, together with the necessary financial support to enable the transition.

To find out more on how the Farm Carbon Toolkit can help please contact us at [email protected] 

Written by Liz Bowles, Farm Carbon Toolkit’s CEO.

FCT publishes its 2023 Annual review

Posted on June 5, 2024 by - News

We are pleased to announce the publication of our 2023 Annual review. This document looks back over the year to celebrate our achievements and share how our organisation is supporting the agri food sector to play its best part to deliver a nature friendly decarbonisation.

As a not for profit organisation we are constantly working to improve the ways we function and deliver our services to ensure maximum impact.  We recently completed two major projects to upgrade our Calculator, supported by Innovate UK and the Tesco & WWF Sustainability Innovation Fund. These have helped us to align with new industry guidance and to provide greater interoperability with other data platforms, reducing the data inputting onus on farmers. This new functionality has been warmly welcomed by supply chain businesses who are now using our Calculation Engine to support their customers without need for further data entry.

  • Our 2023 review demonstrates a selection of some of the exciting projects and partnerships we have been working on, and discusses some of the continual developments to our Farm Carbon Calculator and the services we provide to the sector. This is all set within the crucial context of emissions reductions on farms alongside business resilience and improving biodiversity.
  • We provide evidence on how broadly we engage with the farming community and the extent and effectiveness of our outreach activities.
  • Every year we publish our own emissions footprint, which we are committed to reducing as quickly and effectively as possible.

You can read the review here.

We really hope you enjoy reading it, if you have any questions or comments we’d love to hear from you. You can find our contact details on the final page of the review or at the bottom left of all our website pages.

Warm regards,

The FCT team.

FCT publishes its 2022 Annual review

Posted on April 5, 2023 by - News

We are pleased to announce the publication of our 2022 Annual review. This document looks back over  2022 to celebrate our achievements and share how our organisation is supporting  the agri food sector to play its best part to deliver a nature friendly decarbonisation.

As a not for profit organisation we are constantly working to improve the ways we function and deliver our services to ensure maximum impact.  Last year we were awarded UK research funding. This funding is enabling us to upgrade our Calculator to align with all the new industry guidance and to provide greater interoperability with other data platforms, reducing the data inputting onus on farmers.

  • Our 2022 review demonstrates a selection of some of the exciting projects and partnerships we have been working on, and discusses some of the continual developments to our Farm Carbon Calculator and the services we provide to the sector. This is all set within the crucial context of emissions reductions on farms alongside business resilience.
  • We provide evidence on how broadly we engage with the farming community and the extent and effectiveness of our outreach activities.
  • We have also included our own emissions footprint, which we are committed to reducing as quickly and effectively as possible.

You can read the review here.

We really hope you enjoy reading it, if you have any questions or comments we’d love to hear from you. You can find our contact details on the final page of the review or at the bottom left of all our website pages.

Warm regards,

The FCT team.