UK project launched to promote sustainable dairy farming

The Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute (AFBI), in collaboration with leading dairy research and industry organisations, has announced the launch of the UK Dairy Carbon Network project.

Funded by Defra, this pioneering initiative aims to investigate how the dairy industry can significantly reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by deploying innovative mitigation measures.

The project will establish a network of 56 dairy farms, across four major dairying regions in the UK:

• Northern Ireland
• Cumbria and Southwest Scotland
• Northwest England
• South/Southwest England and West Wales

These dynamic networks will serve as demonstration hubs where farmers, industry, scientists and policy representatives will work together to deploy and measure the impact of potential solutions to reduce GHG emissions.

Led by AFBI, as part of a UK-wide consortium of leading organisations, the project will test and assess various mitigation approaches on real farms.

These measures will include innovations in animal management, land use, nutrient management and technology.

The project will support farmers in achieving more efficient use of nitrogen and phosphorus, promoting both environmental and economic sustainability.

Professor Steven Morrison (AFBI) said:

“Our goal with the project is to drive meaningful change in the dairy sector by applying research directly to real-world farming conditions and measuring the impact.

“By working closely with farmers and using advanced measurement and modelling techniques, we aim to measure and report significant reductions in the carbon emissions from dairy farming in the UK.

"During the formation of the project, the interest from across the agricultural sector was immense, with over 50 organisations offering support and indicating a willingness to get involved in the project once commissioned.”

The impact will be assessed through a combination of direct measurements, novel indicators and farm-level carbon footprint models.

This holistic approach will enable mitigation measures to be accurately captured in a national-level inventory, accelerate the adoption of GHG-reducing practices and improve the sustainability of dairy farming across the UK.

Knowledge exchange is central to the project’s success. The UK Dairy Carbon Network will implement a farmer-led, peer-to-peer learning model, ensuring that successful mitigation strategies can be widely shared and adopted within the dairy farming community.

 “In the coming days, AHDB and AgriSearch will provide more information to farmers about how the four farming networks will work across the UK.

"Interested farmers will then have the opportunity to express their interest in taking part in the project. 

"The selected farmers will be at the heart of these dynamic networks and demonstrate a range of carbon mitigation strategies on their farms.

"The lessons learned from this will be communicated to policymakers, industry, academia and, most importantly, other farmers.”

Aligning with Dairy-Tech 2025, the launch of this UK Dairy Carbon Network project marks a significant step forward in addressing the climate change challenges within the agricultural sector.

It offers a collaborative, science-backed approach to making UK dairy farming more sustainable.