Written by Charlotte Cunningham from CPM Magazine
Minimising cultivations, lowering grain drying requirement, reducing synthetic fertiliser inputs, and using urease and nitrification inhibitors, can reduce a crop’s carbon footprint by up to 41% while sustaining yield, according to the latest from YEN Zero. YEN Zero, a new grower network jointly launched by agricultural consultant ADAS and a collective of agricultural organisations, calculated the crop carbon footprints of 50 UK farms based on their agronomic practices and yields. Subsequent benchmarking uncovered a large variation in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions across farms. Taking a typical wheat crop, the highest footprint recorded was 5658kg CO2e/ha and the lowest was 625kg CO2e/ha. By examining the practices of the most efficient performers, YEN Zero has revealed the most effective on-farm carbon mitigation strategies – a combination of which could allow farms to lower their footprint by up to 41% whilst sustaining yield. Mitigation strategies Using the average carbon footprint of winter wheat feed crops of 2724kg CO2e/ha, it was shown that moving from a plough-based to a direct drill cultivation system could cut fuel use and reduce a crop’s carbon footprint by 9%. In addition, the fuel required at harvest to reduce grain moisture content significantly increased overall emissions. By harvesting grain…
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Minimising cultivations, lowering grain drying requirement, reducing synthetic fertiliser inputs, and using urease and nitrification inhibitors, can reduce a crop’s carbon footprint by up to 41% while sustaining yield, according to the latest from YEN Zero. YEN Zero, a new grower network jointly launched by agricultural consultant ADAS and a collective of agricultural organisations, calculated the crop carbon footprints of 50 UK farms based on their agronomic practices and yields. Subsequent benchmarking uncovered a large variation in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions across farms. Taking a typical wheat crop, the highest footprint recorded was 5658kg CO2e/ha and the lowest was 625kg CO2e/ha. By examining the practices of the most efficient performers, YEN Zero has revealed the most effective on-farm carbon mitigation strategies – a combination of which could allow farms to lower their footprint by up to 41% whilst sustaining yield. Mitigation strategies Using the average carbon footprint of winter wheat feed crops of 2724kg CO2e/ha, it was shown that moving from a plough-based to a direct drill cultivation system could cut fuel use and reduce a crop’s carbon footprint by 9%. In addition, the fuel required at harvest to reduce grain moisture content significantly increased overall emissions. By harvesting grain…
The post Benchmarking crop carbon footprints reveals opportunities for cutting emissions appeared first on cpm magazine.
Continue reading on CPM website...
If you are enjoying what you read then why not considering subscribing here: http://www.cpm-magazine.co.uk/subscribe/