Greener Footprints Herefordshire
4R Reassurance has provided farm auditing and support services across many farms in Herefordshire as part of the Greener Footprints Herefordshire.
Herefordshire is leading the way in terms of its proactive approach to a working partnership between the Council, Farmers and other Stakeholders – All have a part to play, and collaboration is key.
All farms benefit from a bespoke service.
Review the experiences of two individuals as they share insights gained from their carbon farm evaluation:
Areas for consideration:
Energy & Practices: Emissions Reduction
Reducing tillage - reduction in fuel consumption & improves soil over time.
Cover crops - reduce soil losses; roots improve the soil structure.
Renewables - producing energy reduces your carbon footprint, mainly when extensive on-farm usage occurs.
Grazing strategies – general interest in Mob Grazing.
Nutrients & Environmental Diversity
Common improvements to consider
Target inputs to yield – e.g., as soils improve, less fertiliser is needed. Ensure feed ration geared to intake and performance level required.
Species diverse grassland including clover more resilient and deeper rooted, need less fertiliser.
Grassland on farms VITAL for carbon sequestation, will sequester more carbon per ha than woodland over life span.
Integrated livestock and arable farms make the best use of this.
Organic inputs - manure management, composting.
Utilise funding to improve hedgerows, manage existing woodland and create woodland in unproductive field areas.
“I fundamentally wanted to be in a position to be able to work out where we were, because if you can’t measure it, you can't manage it and I wanted in our own small business to know where we were so we could ascertain the path forward to get more output from less inputs.”
“The audit gave us confidence in what we were doing and the journey we are on. It also pointed out some areas which weren’t good enough. One example would be last year the yields were down because of the hot summer that impacted on our carbon figures so they were a little worse on our arable than we expected. Conversely, the beef was a lot better because of the grassland we feed and the management system we have for that – it was a lot better than we thought. It threw up some surprises, but it showed that we are on the right journey with what we are trying to do.”