Charlotte Cook of Indigro
On Monday we were delighted to host the third annual Carbon Benchmarking Conference at Courteenhall.
More than seventy farmers attended this year’s event from farms across central and southern England.
Run by Indigro, an independent agronomy company, the event included a presentation on the results of its carbon benchmarking survey of 54 selected farms, all Indigro clients. It is thought to be the biggest carbon data set being independently reviewed in the UK.
The farms were assessed by Indigro on everything from their carbon footprint to their use of pesticides and fertilisers.
Agronomist Charlotte Cook of Indigro said: “Our annual conference is all about benchmarking farm performance, assessing the impact of the various practices and sharing the data to improve soils, crop production, carbon sequestration and address our Net Zero targets.
“We have been pleasantly surprised by the engagement we are getting.
“The results of our survey showed that there is a direct correlation between the level of emissions on a farm, its yields and, ultimately, its commercial success, which makes it even more important for farmers to make practice changes.”
Speakers at the event also included Ecometric, which has a new peer-reviewed approach to measuring and monitoring soil carbon.
The company uses soil sampling and pioneering AI technology to calculate soil carbon stock changes as the positive side of the carbon balance sheet and is working with farms around the world.
Indigro has identified practice changes that can be made by farmers to maximise production, improve farm margins, enhance the health and drainage of the soil and boost carbon stocks as well as getting on the front foot to address climate change. Ecometric has monitored the soil carbon response to these practice changes as a powerful decision-making tool.
David Wright, CEO of Ecometric, said: “This is an important event for the farming industry and it was great that a record number of farmers attended this year. It was all about relating carbon to performance and it’s no coincidence that the top 25% of farms surveyed have the biggest yields, highest carbon stocks and the lowest emissions.
“Being able to share evidence-based data is a very powerful proof of best practice and we had a great response from the room. The benchmarked results clearly evidenced that regenerative practices had resulted in increased soil carbon stocks, lower inputs and reduced emissions, benefitting the farm business and the climate.”
Dr Johnny Wake, Managing Partner of Courteenhall, said: “It is the third year we have hosted the event at Courteenhall and it was brilliant to see the room packed with farmers from across the UK, talking about this important topic together and sharing ideas and knowledge.
“The farming industry has an important role to play in mitigating climate change with nature-based solutions such as more sustainable soil and water management, increased biodiversity and greater energy efficiency.
“As an estate, we take a nature-led approach to farming and have recently embarked on an in-depth carbon count which will allow us to accurately measure our baseline and what we need to do to reduce it.”
If you are interested in finding out more about our corporate venue hire please get in touch via info@courteenhall.co.uk or call 01604 659222.
