A new Carbon Calculator tool from ForFarmers provides environmental footprint information for cows’ diets in relation to a litre or kg of fat and protein corrected milk produced.
The calculator takes into account each individual part of the diet including forages, plus the performance of the rumen under this diet (and therefore the methane production), producing a CO2 value for the complete ration via the Optifeed rationing programme.
The Carbon Calculator then takes the CO2 value for the ration and the performance detail of the herd and converts the figure into one corrected for the fat and protein content of the milk.
The base of the carbon footprint information is sourced from the Global Feed LCA Institute (GFLI) database and FeedPrint International LCA tool. The carbon footprint (CFP) figure from the FeedPrint is built into the ForFarmers formulation program to produce the correct information for each manufactured product and then into ForFarmers Optifeed rationing program, along with CFP figures for all other products that go to make up a ration.
