Last week, Bord Bia, Teagasc and ICBF launched a revised carbon footprint analysis as part of a new partnership programme within the Sustainable Dairy Assurance scheme (SDAS). Changes to the model used has meant some changes to the actual figures of carbon footprints calculated on farms. Overall, there is a net reduction in the carbon footprint per kilo of fat corrected milk produced from 1.13- 0.97kg carbon dioxide equivalent of fat and protein corrected milk. Methane increased as cows got bigger since the last base change in the model.

Nitrous oxide, which comes primarily from fertilisers, was reduced, as revised lower emission values for CAN and urea are now included in the updated version. The average fertiliser production and application emissions were reduced by 16% per herd.

A new sustainability survey was also launched, which aims to encourage farmers to make up-to-date reporting on carbon footprint and greenhouse gas emissions.