Going Net-zero - Nature Friendly Farming Network

delilah

Member
Is low carbon food the future?

No.
Is a low carbon food chain the future ? Probably.
The problems are the other side of the farm gate from us. All this 'net zero' stuff is just red tractor for the next generation of farmers to be hit over the head with.
I operate a fairly crude rule of thumb: If the NFU think something is a good idea, it's probably a bad idea. The NFU love net zero.
 

Martin Lines

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Cambridgeshire
Thanks for getting involved. On the list of positive steps for Livestock farms it includes going organic. This is not listed as a positive step for arable farms.
In organic arable you need to do lots of soil movement releasing carbon and burning fuel. Also lots of spring hoeing and harrowing is not great for ground nesting birds in insects.
 

redsloe

Member
Location
Cornwall
Hmm,

We're not organic but we graze permanent pasture with NO artificial fertilizer.
On one farm all forage is red clover mixes with no artificial fertilizer and soon herbal leys.
All additional feed is wheat and barley produced on farm.
Animals might get one worming in their lifetime and little else.
90% of animals are native breeds, so I think I'm almost there!
I'm not sure organic is necessary to be carbon neutral really!

Do I win anything??
 

teslacoils

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
I use ad digestate for 75 percent of my npk needs. Perhaps we should shut them and I can go back to nitram?

Having grown my oats with no chem, I do wonder if a tenner of amistar might have produced £20 of oats, or in other words if I'd fed more hungry folk from the same area?

Again, I maintain that the improved lifestyles of the developing world will mean our efforts are moot.
 

puppet

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
sw scotland
Burning woodchip is classed as carbon neutral so lots of businesses can just tick a box.
We are wholly grassland, 10% trees, fully recycle all muck and slurry here but it contributes to a massive negative carbon audit as the grass it grows is not used in any mitigation. However, without fertiliser there would be little grass until mid-May and no second cut so stock would be drastically reduced but the fuel bill might go up. So instead of farming contributing around 10% GHG in UK we head abroad to get food where it is 23%.
And some airlines say they will be carbon-neutral in the future just to kid us into travelling in a sustainable way. Makes no sense.
 
Burning woodchip is classed as carbon neutral so lots of businesses can just tick a box.
We are wholly grassland, 10% trees, fully recycle all muck and slurry here but it contributes to a massive negative carbon audit as the grass it grows is not used in any mitigation. However, without fertiliser there would be little grass until mid-May and no second cut so stock would be drastically reduced but the fuel bill might go up. So instead of farming contributing around 10% GHG in UK we head abroad to get food where it is 23%.
And some airlines say they will be carbon-neutral in the future just to kid us into travelling in a sustainable way. Makes no sense.

I don't believe there is any credible argument against the use of fertilisers. They constitute literally sod all fossil fuel or energy use and they feed a large number of people reliably. They should be the very last thing we begin to reduce the use of, once the Earth's population has declined to manageable levels of course.
 

Chris F

Staff Member
Media
Location
Hammerwich
In organic arable you need to do lots of soil movement releasing carbon and burning fuel. Also lots of spring hoeing and harrowing is not great for ground nesting birds in insects.

There are some organic no-till trials going on, but they do use spring hoeing. It does seem to be the fuel to do a job verses the fuel to create artificial fertilisers. I'd agree with NFFN aim that the ideal practice is to minimise the use of both and not eliminate either.
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 79 42.5%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 65 34.9%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 30 16.1%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 6 3.2%

Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

  • 1,287
  • 1
As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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