Co-op farmers can benefit from carbon captured on their farms. Programme Manager (Environment) Talia Grala explains how the Co-op is approaching carbon removals next season.
Farmers generally have a fair idea of how many trees they have on-farm and where these are. I’m often asked by farmers if their vegetation on-farm can count towards reducing their emissions, and towards the Co-op-wide goal of reducing emissions intensity by 2030.
The answer is a resounding yes – trees are our ally on-farm when it comes to removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Your farming activity – managing cows, using fertiliser and importing feed – creates emissions, but the vegetation on your farm can store some of the emissions generated on your land during their growth phase. The amount of carbon stored (or sequestered) will differ depending on species, age and stage of growth. Stored emissions are termed ‘carbon removals’. Counting on-farm carbon removals can lower the carbon footprint of the milk you produce, and the ingredients we sell.
We’ve recently partnered with Prism (a company established by Silver Fern Farms and Lynker Analytics) to help farmers understand the carbon sequestration potential on their farms.
The system combines satellite imagery, aerial photography, LiDAR, and artificial intelligence to map, classify and age vegetation on-farm with data captured for each paddock. This data is then provided to the Co-op for us to confirm with farmers and assign a carbon value.
We look at other data about your farm too, including emissions from your on-farm activity – feed, fertiliser and herd size. We then subtract the carbon sequestered from the vegetation on-farm (provided by Prism). This provides a balance of emissions from on-farm activity.
From next season, as part of the new Co-operative Difference achievements, you’ll be given the choice of whether to let the Co-op claim the carbon stored in vegetation on your farm to count towards your farm’s footprint. We’ll ask farmers each year for permission, including which planted areas on your farm you’d be happy to count towards your footprint.
Providing the Co-op with the option to claim the carbon sequestered on your farms will help us meet our emissions targets sooner, which is critical to our competitive advantage with customers and our milk price.
The Co-op can only claim carbon credits that are not used elsewhere (i.e. if your vegetation is enrolled in the NZ ETS or other voluntary carbon markets, it means that this carbon removal is already being accounted for by someone else). Farmers can choose to split their credits between the Co-op and the NZ ETS (or similar scheme) but we can’t double-count.
Reach out to your local Co-operative Services Area Manager (CSAM) for any questions on the new Co-operative Difference changes.