Co-op Programme Manager (Environment) Louise Cook shares research into what the Co-op’s top 10% most emissions-efficient farms have in common.
Efficient farming is the name of the game for farmers, the Co-op and our customers. Recently your Co-op introduced a new Co-operative Difference payment of 1-5 cents per kilogram of milk solids on all milk supplied in the 2025/26 season for farms that achieve certain emissions-related criteria. To be eligible, emissions from farming activities minus any carbon removals need to be lower than the Co-op’s 2017/18 baseline year.
In response to the announcement, several farmers have asked us, “What does the farming system look like on these farms?”
Regionally diverse
We grouped farms by region and then looked at the top 10% of farms with the lowest emissions in each region, finding consistent trends throughout the country. As a group, the average farms in the leading 10% versus the other farms in the region:
- use less nitrogen fertiliser
- bring in less imported feed
- have a lower purchased nitrogen surplus
- eat more homegrown feed per hectare (despite using less nitrogen)
- produce more milk per cow, per kilogram of liveweight and per hectare.
They exemplify “Efficiency 101”, with relatively fewer inputs in their system, but driving more outputs. These farmers are using resources more efficiently to convert inputs into milk. That’s how they’ve been able to reduce the purchased nitrogen surplus and to drive the low emissions footprint. We know that’s good for profit as well (see sidebar).
When we delved deeper, we discovered that low emission farms were everywhere. For example, we expected to find a lot of low-emission farms in ‘the golden triangle’ in the Waikato between Morrinsville, Te Aroha and Matamata, where quality pasture grows well without irrigation. But it wasn’t the only place where we found the top 10% in the Waikato. Rather, the top 10% of farms were scattered throughout the region.
Considering we only looked at the emissions related to the annual activity, and not the landbased emissions that farmers have less influence over, we were pleasantly surprised to find soil composition did not appear to be a major factor. We had farms where the soil was only recently converted to grass from forestry, and there were farms in the Central Plateau and on peat soils in the Hauraki Plains. In Taranaki, there were farms right up near the tree line on the maunga (mountain) that are not easy farming – and yet they are emissions efficient and are supporting high productivity.
We now have proof that it’s not just the flat, square, “easy” farms – there are farms with low emissions and high productivity scattered nationwide.
How did we come to our findings?
We wanted to identify the key characteristics of farms that have low emissions scores. So, we pulled all the data the Co-op has from Farm Insights Reports, including the life cycle analysis emissions data. These take into account biological emissions (methane, nitrous oxide, mature, soils), and embedded emissions from feed, fertiliser, electricity, fuels – everything that gets delivered to the farm gate for the farm to use, right up to the point where the tanker picks up the milk and heads to the factory.
Combined with farm dairy records data and industry data, we were able to assess the result for every Co-op farm and then look for any common trends in the leading 10% with the lowest emissions.
We focused on identifying the leading 10% within each region to remove any climatic or model assumptions that make comparing regions difficult. It is really hard to compare a Northland farm to a Southland farm, as one of the key drivers is the pasture quality figures for each region that affect the methane calculations (around 55-60% of farms’ footprint), and these figures are significantly different between regions. It’s better to highlight what low emissions intensity means in each region.
