Farmers flock to seek carbon footprint support

FARMERS across Wales have been inspired to seek support to measure the carbon footprint of their businesses after a series of Farming Connect workshops.

The carbon masterclasses, led by Farming Connect’s carbon specialist officer, Dr Non Williams, took place in St Clears, Newtown and Nefyn, and gave an opportunity for farmers to understand the significance of the carbon cycle on their farms, and how they can influence it to help reduce their carbon footprint in the future.

Dr Williams said that as a direct result of those meetings there had been a number of inquiries from farmers who were keen to apply for funding to measure their own farm’s carbon footprint.

This service is available through the Farming Connect Advisory Service and is 90% funded if farmers apply as a group, or 80% funded if it is done on an individual basis.

The majority of farmers who attended the masterclasses had beef, sheep or dairy systems, and only two of those had already embarked on a carbon footprinting exercise.

“One of those farmers spoke about how useful he had found the process because it had identified areas where improvements could be made to his farm’s efficiency,’’ said Dr Williams.

Every farm’s starting point will be different and therefore what they can achieve in terms of efficiency gains will be different too, she pointed out.

“Some measures for reducing greenhouse gas emissions produced on farm or enhancing carbon sequestration might seem unachievable to certain businesses, but many practices do not require much, if any, investment. There will also be something that every farm can do,’’ she suggested.

The need to work towards reducing greenhouse gas emissions produced and enhancing carbon sequestration is not going away, Dr Williams added. “Buyers, retailers, consumers, they are all interested in the carbon footprint of farm produce.’’

Many of the farmers had signed up for the interactive masterclass because, although they were aware of carbon footprinting, they wanted to know more.