Archive Article: 2002/08/16
SUSTAINABLE FARMING: 9
ENERGYEFFICIENCY
Moving to non-inversion tillage will help increase energy efficiency on the farm as well as bringing big benefits to the environment, believes Northamptonshire LEAF demonstration farmer Duncan Farrington.
"Where minimum tillage is carried out correctly there is a substantial reduction in CO2 emissions. It can also help weed control, improve soil and root structure and assist straw breakdown."
A good place for growers to start is to monitor fuel use by recording machinery gauges, he continues. "That gives you an immediate comparison between cultivation techniques. And it can also be used to compare current with past performance."
A record of the time taken per hectare from stubble to drilling is another useful indicator. But making comparisons between the energy input and output from any one farming system is difficult to do, acknowledges Mr Farrington.
"Theres a lack of information for this type of exercise," he notes.
The next step is to have some energy balance data, he believes. "We need to know whether using glyphosate and stale seed-beds is more efficient than ploughing. But until we are aware of the amount of energy used to manufacture pesticides, that is impossible to do."
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The UK Government is committed to a 10% reduction in CO2 emissions by 2010, continues Mr Farrington. "Farmers in Spain and parts of Germany are already paid to practice non-inversion tillage. So all the indications are that it has a real energy benefit."