Tag: UK

Soil Farmer of the Year 2024 Competition now open for entries (press release)

Posted on December 8, 2023 by - News, Soil Farmer of the Year

The Soil Farmer of the Year 2024 competition is now open for farmers to apply.

The competition, run by Farm Carbon Toolkit and Innovation for Agriculture, finds and champions farmers and growers who lead the way in improving soil health and increasing the resilience of their farm business. The competition, which has been running since 2015, now supports a network of farmers and growers across the UK who are passionate about their soil and the innovations that safeguarding it can bring to their business.

Emma Adams, Senior Farm Carbon and Soils Advisor at the Farm Carbon Toolkit, encourages any farmer or grower who is prioritising the management of soil to apply:

The competition is open to all farmers and growers in the UK, regardless of system, enterprise or business size. If the impact on soil is at the heart of your decision making, with implemented practices driving improving soil health as part of a fully functioning farm ecosystem, this is the competition for you.

Online application forms are available via the Farm Carbon Toolkit website. Applications will remain open until 5th March 2024.

The winners will be announced at Groundswell 2024: The Regenerative Agriculture Festival on 26th-27th June 2024, with the top three farms hosting farm walks later in the year to share ideas alongside demonstrating their practices and approaches.

Deborah Crossan, Head of Soils and Natural Resources at Innovation for Agriculture, explains that the farm walks are a key part of the competition, as it gives others the opportunity to see how each winner has approached soil management:

Nothing beats digging a hole and looking at the soil in the field while hearing directly from the farmer how that field has been managed and seeing the impact it’s had on the soil structure over time.

This competition champions farmers who understand the importance of soil and are using management practices to protect and improve it. Crucially, it also enables others to learn from what they’re doing via the farm walks.

This year’s competition is once more kindly sponsored by Cotswold Seeds and Hutchinsons, with the top three farmers receiving a voucher for seeds provided by Cotswold Seeds.

For more information about the Soil Farmer of the Year Competition – and entry details – visit: Soil Farmer of the Year – Farm Carbon Toolkit

ENDS

Issued by: Emma Adams, [email protected]

NOTES TO EDITORS

  • Innovation for Agriculture (IfA) is an independent, charitable organisation working to make UK agriculture more sustainable, profitable and resilient. Through interactive workshops, on-farm demonstrations and practical events, IfA aims to provide UK farmers with solutions of real commercial value. Visit: www.i4agri.org
  • Farm Carbon Toolkit is an independent, farmer-led Community Interest Company, supporting farmers to measure, understand and act on their greenhouse gas emissions, while improving their business resilience for the future.
    • For over a decade, Farm Carbon Toolkit has delivered a range of practical projects, tools and services that have inspired real action on the ground. Organisations they work with include farmer groups, Duchy of Cornwall, First Milk, Tesco, Yeo Valley and WWF. The Farm Carbon Calculator is a leading on-farm carbon audit tool, used by over 7,000 farmers in the UK and beyond. To find out more visit www.farmcarbontoolkit.org.uk
  • The competition is being judged by a panel including representatives from IfA and Farm Carbon Toolkit, Cotswold Seeds, Hutchinsons and previous Soil Farmer of the Year winners.

Press release: 2024 Carbon Farmer of the Year Winner Announced!

Posted on October 3, 2024 by - News

The winner and runners-up of the 2024 Carbon Farmer of the Year competition were announced at the Farm Carbon Toolkit’s Annual Field Day in Herefordshire.


Now in its second year, the annual Carbon Farmer of the Year competition is organised by the Farm Carbon Toolkit and generously sponsored by HSBC Agriculture UK. The competition aims to find farmers and growers who are engaged with–and passionate about–reducing their business’s climate impact through changing management practices to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

2024 Carbon Farmer of the Year Overall winner:

  • Andrew Brewer of Ennis Barton, Fraddon, Cornwall (Dairy farmer supplying Arla UK)

2024 Carbon Farmer of the Year Runners-up:

  • Jason Mitchell, Gary Logue, and Adam Moore of Greenville Dairies Ltd, Newton Stewart, Northern Ireland (Dairy farmer supplying Lakeland Dairies)
  • Tom Burge of Oaremead Farm, Lynton, Devon (Upland beef and sheep farmer)

Competition judges, Steve Dunkley (HSBC UK), David Cope (Head of Sustainability at Duchy of Cornwall), and Liz Bowles (CEO Farm Carbon Toolkit) were very impressed with the commitment and innovation shown by all the finalists in identifying sources of GHG emissions on their farms and developing strategies to both reduce emissions and increase the rate of carbon removal into soils and non-crop biomass.

L to R: Steve Dunkley / HSBC UK Ltd, Liz Bowles / Farm Carbon Toolkit, Tom Burge / Tom Burge / Oaremead Farm, Andrew Brewer / Ennis Barton, Adel Tajouri/ Greenville Dairies Ltd, Terry Mitchell / Greenville Dairies, David Cope / Duchy of Cornwall


Liz Bowles, Chief Executive Officer at Farm Carbon Toolkit, says:

Once again, the Carbon Farmer of the Year competition has identified some truly inspirational farmers. All our finalists have made great strides in reducing business reliance on fossil fuels through changes to their farming practices and careful soil management to reduce GHG emissions and sequester carbon.

It was particularly positive to see a dairy farm winning this year’s competition, given that dairy farming is often in the media spotlight for  its adverse environmental impact. We are looking forward to showcasing the many effective ways that our finalists are reducing on-farm emissions and increasing carbon storage for others to see at free farm walks over the coming months. Watch this space!

Steve Dunkley, HSBC UK Agriculture, says:

HSBC UK Agriculture is pleased to support the 2024 Carbon Farmer of the Year competition. The quality of entries has been superb and hugely inspiring. As a business, we’re very keen to support the agriculture industry in transitioning towards net zero. While that will take many forms, we have the ambition to help farmers fund investment in the new practices and technologies needed to evolve.

“The Carbon Farmer of the Year competition is a great way of showcasing how farmers are already achieving these changes and encouraging others to follow their lead.

About the Farm Carbon Toolkit and the Carbon Farmer of the Year competition

Farm Carbon Toolkit is an independent, farmer-led Community Interest Company, supporting farmers to measure, understand and act on their greenhouse gas emissions, while improving their business resilience for the future.

For over a decade, Farm Carbon Toolkit has delivered a range of practical projects, tools and services that have inspired real action on the ground. Organisations they work with include the Duchy of Cornwall, First Milk, Tesco, Yeo Valley and WWF. The Farm Carbon Calculator is a leading on-farm carbon audit tool, used by over 7,000 farmers in the UK and beyond. To find out more visit www.farmcarbontoolkit.org.uk 

The Carbon Farmer of the Year competition aims to recognise and champion farmers, sector organisations, and businesses who are leading the way in adopting farming practices and developing new technologies that are helping to reduce farm emissions while optimising output. 

This competition allows for discussions on greenhouse gas emissions and sinks on farms to be framed in a very practical way to allow for maximum engagement with the issue. Farm Carbon Toolkit facilitates discussion and information sharing between farmers and other actors, which ultimately leads to changes in on-farm practice.

The long-term objective of this competition is to create a network of alumni who are changing their management practices to better manage emission and carbon storage on farmland, and who will inspire others through activity, practical demonstrations, and advocacy for changing management practices.

ENDS

Defra publishes its latest results on UK farm greenhouse gas emissions

Posted on November 1, 2022 by - Insights

Written by Liz Bowles, Farm Carbon Toolkit CEO.

Defra published its Agri-climate report last week. The report sets out the trends in agricultural Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions over the past 30 years, the changing intensity of emissions and the results of the 2022 Farm Practice Survey questions relating to farmers intentions and actions on reducing GHG emissions.

The headline figure is that UK agriculture was responsible for 11% of total UK emissions in 2020. The time series is revised each year to take account of methodological improvements in the UK emissions inventory. It’s also worth noting that these are production-based emissions, rather than consumption-based which adjusts for trade.

During this 30-year period emissions of all greenhouse gases from agriculture have declined:

  • Total GHGs decreased by 16%
  • Nitrous oxide decreased by 20%
  • Methane decreased by 15%
  • Carbon dioxide decreased by 15%

However, it is important to note that most of this reduction occurred in the 2000’s, arising from a drop in ruminant numbers and less use of synthetic fertilisers. Since then reductions have all but stalled.

Some farmers are frustrated that the efforts they are making to reduce on farm emissions through practice change are yet to be recognised within the UK emissions inventory. This is due to the ability to accurately reflect the reductions through the current mechanisms for measurement, which are primarily measuring output versus inputs and livestock numbers and areas cultivated. This is changing as the quality of evidence on the impact of practice change becomes available.

In the meantime those same farmers are increasingly asking their suppliers for accurate emissions data on the products they buy, which is driving those suppliers to look far harder at the products they supply, which will in time lead to greater accuracy of measurement which is very welcome.

In the same report farmers were also asked their beliefs and motivations around reducing their GHG emissions. Interestingly, only 44% of farmers thought that reducing emissions would improve farm profitability in 2022, a decrease from 47% in 2021.

Of the 58% of respondents already taking action to reduce GHG emissions, the survey asked about their main motivations for doing so. This showed:

  • 84% considered it good business practice
  • 74% by a concern for the environment
  • 48% to improve profitability
  • 33% to meet regulations
  • 23% to meet market demands

It’s FCT’s experience that improving GHG emissions and sequestration on farms is good for business and good for the environment. We also experience that markets are increasingly incentivising action, such as increasing the accuracy of input use, improving input use efficiency and making much better use of legumes and clovers across the farm.

Farmers were also asked about the barriers to reducing on farm emissions. Here, there was a clear view that lack of information and incentive are significant barriers, even amongst those who have taken action, alongside being unsure exactly what they can do to reduce farm GHG emissions.

Factors preventing action to reduce GHG emissions.
Factors preventing action to reduce GHG emissions (Source: Farm Practices Survey 2022 – greenhouse gas mitigation practices)

At Farm Carbon Toolkit we can help farmers to better understand the actions they can take to reduce GHG emissions as well as providing free access to completing a farm carbon report for their farm business. We have developed a toolkit to assist farmers to identify the best GHG reduction strategies for their farms. For more information on our carbon calculator and to start your own farms report please see here.