Climate Friendly Food

Working out the big sources of emissions

Ask most farmers or growers what they think are the biggest sources of carbon emissions on a farm are and you will probably get a range of answers including diesel, other fossil fuels, plastics and cows.

The Climate Friendly Food carbon calculator is a fascinating tool to work out the sources of greenhouse gas emissions on your farm and will throw up some interesting surprises. Here are some examples:

1,000l of diesel creates 2.6 tonnes(t) of CO2

10m3 of concrete creates 1.4 t CO2

100kg of plastic bags creates 0.17 t CO2

1t of field beans creates nitrous oxide equivalent to 0.3 t CO2

1 ha of a cultivated peat soil releases equivalent to 3.7 t CO2

10 low yielding dairy cows (grazing all year) releases nitrous oxide and methane equivalent to 39.3 t CO2

10 extensively reared pigs releases nitrous oxide and methane equivalent to 2.9 t CO2

1 new 100hp tractor creates 44 t CO2

Certainly gets you thinking! So go and work out your farm's carbon footprint using out free carbon calculator on our website here. You get a full break down of results by category and can save your results to look back at any time, or print out.