UK Dairy Roadmap

Dairy farmers world wide are working toward GHG reductions and improved environmental management.

In the UK dairy processors, farmers and retailers have developed a ‘roadmap’ of environmental improvements with the government. 

At the document’s heart is a series of ambitious targets to reduce water and energy use, cut greenhouse gas emissions and slash waste to landfill. It was published in May 2008 and leads up to a vision of the dairy industry in 2020.  

Here are some of the achievements;

• 61% of dairy managed farmland has been entered into Environmental Stewardship Schemes (target 50%)
• 58% of respondent farms have made changes changes to make better use of water in the last 12 months (target 5-15% uptake of water use efficiency measures)
• 65% dairy farmer’s actively nutrient planning (target 65%)
• 99.6% of dairy farmers have a manure management plan (target 95%
• 94.9% of dairy farmers have Farm Health Plans (target 95%)
• 9 anaerobic digestors in operation (target 30 dairy farms piloting on-farm anaerobic digestion)
• 39.4% of dairy farmer’s trialling new technologies to reduce emissions from agriculture (target 20-30%)
• 100% of dairy farmers, through DairyCo, supporting research into new technologies (achieved through increased investment by DairyCo in this area)