Dairy farmers raise green standard

Published Date: 03 September 2008
By Andrew Arbuckle

BRITAIN'S dairy industry has recently been on the receiving end of criticism over its impact on the environment.
The dairy cow is widely blamed for contributing to the rise in greenhouse gases as she contentedly emits gas from both ends after chewing the cud. Lagoons of slurry produced by large dairy herds have also aroused hostility.Yesterday the industry fought back on these and other issues affecting the public view of milk production.Jim Begg, director-general of Dairy UK, launched a drive to raise awareness of the sector's environmental progress.Speaking at Sorbie Farm, near Ardrossan, Ayrshire, he stated that there had already been massive improvements."We are aware that we have to be in line with what our customers want and we do not want the government to impose regulations on us," he claimed.He instanced research work being carried out that would, in the medium term, see a 20 per cent cut in emissions of methane gas by the ruminating cow. This, he said, could be achieved through improved knowledge of the animal's diet. The event's host, Alan Hogarth, who keeps 250 dairy cows at Sorbie Farm, is pioneering the use of an anaerobic digester to produce energy from the slurry they create.The gas produced on his farm amounts to 85,000 cubic metres a year and this is the equivalent of 170,000 kilowatt-hours. The gas is burned to produce electricity and heating for his farm, his home and a new milk processing and bottling operation.Slurry remaining after the gas extraction does not smell and cows can graze less than two weeks after it has been applied. But perhaps the best bonus for Hogarth is that, despite the cost of fertiliser rocketing in the past year, his own expenditure on bought-in fertiliser has fallen by 15 per cent in the period.So far, the green energy produced on the farm is used entirely on site but Hogarth believes the government is falling behind practice in Europe, where energy produced from renewable projects yields higher payments than conventionally produced energy.His own plant was funded by the former Scottish Executive as part of a plan to reduce pollution on the beaches in nearby Ardrossan. These beaches have now been awarded blue flag status and Hogarth will shortly take over ownership of the digester.Plans at his farm are to further improve his green policies with the expansion of a milk round that he started in May.Running counter to national trends, where a larger and larger percentage of milk is traded by the major supermarkets, Hogarth, believes there is a real niche for milk delivered on the doorstep.Response has been good from the 400 households already supplied and he said customers were really keen on locally sourced milk, delivered in the traditional glass bottle and coming to the door via a small electric float. "We have a niche market and people who are getting my milk are now buying more per head than they used to. We wondered about using plastic bottles and we do use some for the retail market but the householder wants the recyclable glass bottle," he states.Collecting cash on the round is not the burden it once was. A quarter of customers pay through internet banking, taking away a great deal of the hassle from the job. Hogarth's ambition is to push his direct sales up to delivering to more than 1,000 houses by the end of the year.