Using methodology preferred by the group it can be calculated that the 116 tonnes of barley grown on the farm equated to 43.3 tonnes of carbon removed from the atmosphere.

Whilst the main theme of this year's Highland Show was collaboration and getting the various sectors of the food industry, from "farm to plate", to work together, another increasingly important theme is climate change and how to reduce a farm's carbon footprint, writes Rog Wood.

Agriculture has attracted a lot of bad press recently over its high greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

Without an agreed method for measuring agricultural GHG exchange, there is a risk that efforts to reduce them will be misdirected as well as unnecessarily costly for both individual farmers and Scotland as a whole. As many farmers don't really understand the science involved there is a real risk they won't become fully committed.

A group of Scottish scientists has written a discussion document that aims to inform by presenting the issues in clear, simple terms while giving sufficient scientific detail for the reader to fully understand the arguments put forward and allow them to form their own opinions of the way forward.

The group reckons the farming sector may offer a promising opportunity to help mitigate climate change and this warrants further discussion of how to calculate its carbon footprint so that its contribution to food production can be assessed in a proper perspective.

According to the group the main issues to be discussed when developing calculations for the carbon footprint of a farm are what should be included and should the farmer be allowed to offset the emission of greenhouse gasses with the cyclic carbon in the likes of grains, grass and trees as well as the carbon locked in farm produce and exported from the farm. There is also the issue of how to deal with the change in soil carbon.

Speaking at the Show, Dr Jan Dick, one of the members of the scientific group as well as a farmer's wife from Lanarkshire said: "I'm getting a lot of ear-ache that we're not getting our message through. Farmers have a very positive story to tell."

She cited the example of a livestock upland farm in the Cairngorm National park where the farmer grew grass and barley.

Existing methodology does not provide factors to estimate the cyclic carbon captured by the grass or grain, but by estimating the carbon content of the reported grain yield it is possible to estimate the carbon offset that may be assigned to the farm.

Using methodology preferred by the group it can be calculated that the 116 tonnes of barley grown on the farm equated to 43.3 tonnes of carbon removed from the atmosphere.

With this method of calculating farm scale GHG budgets, cyclic CO2 in the cereal crop alone would have offset 16% of the total farm GHG budget. If agreed methodology was available to estimate the contribution of grass the GHG account for the farm would fall even further.
For more information go to www.cplan.org.uk