The importance and focus of the industry on carbon footprint is ever increasing, and rightly so. Scotland has put in place a legally binding target of Net Zero by 2045. How can we, the Scottish dairy industry, help to achieve this? It must be driven by increasing efficiencies within your system.

The definition of efficiency is to achieve an end goal out of fewer inputs. Xkg of milk from less feed, Xkg of milk from less cost, Xkg of milk from less carbon. Whichever the system you farm: fully housed, grazing, all year-round calving, block-calving, there is a place for all of these within our industry and the goal is to improve efficiencies within these systems.

There are of course many ways in which this can be achieved, and nutrition is just one of the many solutions.

Legislation may soon mean that feed companies have to include a methane reducing additive in ruminant feeds and there are already some on the market. Harbro’s unique, natural feed additive Rumitech is currently the only additive available in the UK with assurance from The Carbon Trust.

Farmers have been feeding the product for more then 10 years due to its ability to improve feed efficiency, improve production and therefore reduce the cost of production. Rumitech has also been shown in numerous trials to lower enteric methane emissions with a recent meta-analysis demonstrating an 8.8% reduction across the completed studies.

What does this mean for your carbon footprint? In a recent survey by Scotland’s Dairy Sector Climate Change Group most respondents indicated that they had a carbon footprint of between 1 and 1.2kg CO2e/litre.

According to EC02, enteric methane is around an average of 40% of the carbon footprint in dairy production. As Rumitech reduces this by 8.8%, feeding it to a herd which has a carbon footprint of 1.2kg CO2e/litre will reduce the output to 1.158kg C02e/litre.

For a 200-cow herd producing 10,000litres per cow per year that is a saving of 84,480kg C02e not emitted to the atmosphere and the equivalent of removing 38 cars from the road a year or 10 flights around the world. This reduction includes the benefit from lower enteric methane emissions alone, but the carbon footprint would be further reduced through improved production efficiency.

Rumitech has been shown in commercial trials, within the UK, to improve feed efficiency and increase FPCM yield by 1kg/cow/day. At only 4p/head/day with current milk price this is a ROI on around 8:1.

Another way in which efficiency on farm can be improved through nutrition is to look at nitrogen efficiency. High CP diets have been overfed in the past and improving nitrogen efficiency is directly linked with an improvement in carbon footprint.

Over supplying the cow with protein uses energy and so milk yield can be improved with lower CP diets (16-16.5%) if metabolisable protein and amino acid requirements are met. The key is to focus on an optimal and well-balanced diet to ensure health and production are best for the cows on your farm. With raw material markets so volatile, a move towards more home-grown inputs balanced with nutrients, such as amino acids, and additives which enhance the utilisation of the feed, is a realistic and essential move forward.

With improving carbon and nitrogen efficiency comes a big bonus, improved profit. It has been demonstrated time and time again by improving carbon footprint that margins are increased. Using Harbro’s milk monitor, benchmarking the KPI’s of feed efficiency and margin per cow per day demonstrates improved profits, regardless of milk price.

Hopefully, with these facts, lowering carbon footprint can be seen as a huge positive not just for the environment but for the viability of your business. Using methane reducing additives or utilising home-grown feeds to create optimally balanced rations for your cows are simple steps that can be adopted and provide a return on investment.

Helping to achieve Scotland’s 'Net Zero by 2045' goal seems more achievable if it is partnered with improved profit.