Farmers need not worry about their initial emissions result being held against them, says Beef and Lamb NZ | Content Partnership
Agribusiness leaders are urging farmers to crunch the numbers on their greenhouse gas emissions, as the primary sector continues its battle to avoid being lumped into the Government’s emissions trading scheme.
According to Federated Farmers, some businesses are concerned their initial results might be held against them in the future. But Beef and Lamb NZ, which funded a free online emissions calculator, says these numbers are confidential and won’t be shared.
Created by software developer Catalyst, Beef and Lamb NZ's free-to-use online tool takes into account the area of open land on a farm (breaking this down into land that is under pasture, exotic vegetation, and indigenous vegetation), the amount of fertiliser, lime, and dolomite used, and livestock numbers on site.
The calculator records methane, nitrous oxide, and carbon dioxide separately, and translates the results into carbon dioxide equivalent figures as this is used in international targets.
The tool took about four months to design and programme, according to Rob Hill, a business analyst and UX designer at Catalyst.
Previously, Beef and Lamb NZ had used a cumbersome and standalone Excel spreadsheet to calculate emissions, but this was tricky to manage as there was no centralised storage of farmer's results, nor any way to verify these outputs.
"Farmers just want to be out there doing their job, not sitting in front of a computer," – Catalyst business analyst Rob Hill
Rob Hill says the team took this spreadsheet and picked it apart. The complex formula was reverse-engineered so it could be transformed into an accessible online calculator, to make life easier for users and Beef and Lamb NZ.
"Farmers just want to be out there doing their job, not sitting in front of a computer," he says.
The team will be making some upgrades to the tool, such as adding benchmarking data and allowing users to export their results as a PDF.
Beef and Lamb NZ's calculator is one of the 11 greenhouse gas emissions tools approved for use by He Waka Eke Noa, a climate action partnership between farming leaders and the Government.
There are about 12,000 beef and sheep farmers that will need that will need to put a number on their emissions in the next six months. So far, almost 5,000 farmers have used the Beef and Lamb calculator.
Andrew Hoggard, president at Federated Farmers, is urging farmers to calculate their emissions, as it will give a clear picture of where they might be able to make emissions savings, or increase their sequestering efforts by planting or regenerating native bush or riparian strips.
According to He Waka, some of the proven options at farmer's disposal to reduce their emissions right now include improving the efficiency of pasture and crop production, reducing how much feed is eaten on the farm, and improving the management of livestock effluent.
Hoggard says some businesses are concerned if they calculate their outputs now, this initial result might be used as a baseline figure that future results are benchmarked against and they will have to work extra hard to hit reduction targets in future.
But Corina Jordan, Beef and Lamb NZ's North Island general manager, says the results produced by the calculator are confidential and will not be passed on to any third parties, including the Government.
The only information being collected is the number of farming businesses that have actually used the tool, as the number of farmers who opt to measure their emissions before the end of the year will give an indication of whether a farm-level pricing system would work in practice.
Last week, the partnership released its long-awaited plan for pricing the agricultural industry’s greenhouse gas emissions as an alternative to the emissions trading scheme.
By the end of this year, farmers will need to put a number on their emissions to stay on track under He Waka’s timeline. The next major milestone - January 2025 - would see farms have a written plan in place that measures and manages those emissions, along with a pricing system.
The proposal includes a farm-level split gas levy, which would see emissions calculated and paid at the farm level, with different rates for short-lived (such as from methane) and long-lived (including nitrous oxide and carbon dioxide) gas emissions.
As Newsroom has reported, the plan is controversial – not least for relying on unproven technology to significantly cut methane emissions at scale.
The Government is due to make a decision on whether it takes up He Waka's plan by December 2022.
Corina Jordan says there’s always a risk the Government will pull the primary sector into the ETS, but she thinks this is heightened if the industry does not show commitment to meeting its obligations.
“It’s important we pull together to try and meet those milestones by the end of this calendar year, which will show the sector is serious about our climate challenges.”
In addition to providing online resources to help farmers use the calculator, Beef and Lamb NZ are running workshops across the country. Meat companies, such as Silver Fern Farms, are also hosting information events to help their suppliers.
Aside from meeting climate obligations, she says the calculator will help farmers understand their emissions profile and help them assess the impact Government policy changes will have on their business.
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