Dairy industry says farm’s green scheme is cream of crop

Sector working to reduce impact on environment

By Joe Watson

Published:

Britain’s dairy industry yesterday proved that environmentally-friendly milk production can be cost effective – and give farmers a marketing advantage.

Trade body Dairy UK used Sorbie Mains at Ardrossan in Ayrshire to showcase the efforts of one entrepreneurial farmer and launch a new national initiative to convince the many doubters of the sector’s green credentials.

The scheme – under the “green and white” banner – comes as a range of extreme environmentalists suggest the simplest solution in tackling greenhouse gas emissions is to rid the country of cattle and sheep.

Dairy UK, however, argues otherwise, saying that the sector it represents is already making strenuous attempts to reduce its impact on the environment and that the retention of livestock is vital.

It yesterday called on all parts of the dairy chain from farmers to processors to join an effort that director-general Jim Begg said was no longer a moral target for the minority. And it cited Alan Hogarth as an excellent example of what could be done on farms across the country.

He has in the last six months launched his own direct-from-the-farm milk delivery round through which he is supplying 400 homes as well as 20 shops and cafes within five miles of the 600-acre unit at Sorbie Mains.

Central to the operation is an anaerobic digester that was installed by the former Scottish Executive to address bathing water problems off the Ardrossan coastline.

It converts the slurry produced by the 250 dairy cows and the farm’s beef herd into biogas. That gas is then used to fire the boilers needed to heat the water in the on-farm milk processing unit as well as in the farmhouse and a cottage. The gas will also shortly be used to power a generator to charge up the two electric floats Mr Hogarth uses to deliver his milk.

Mr Hogarth said among the main benefits of the digester was the waste slurry which was more nutritious than the raw product and which had far less dangerous bacteria in it. He said: “The digestate (the waste) is a huge benefit to us because it has helped reduce bought-in fertilisers. Our fertiliser bill is down £10,000 (about 15% of the total).”

Mr Hogarth said consumers in Ardrossan also liked the idea that milk was coming straight from a local farm rather than transported all over Scotland before reaching them.

Mr Hogarth is also looking at making the farm more self sufficient in the types of feeds it uses and he is deliberately not pushing for high milk yields as consumers appeared no longer interested in factory farming methods. But he had one complaint and called on the Scottish Government to redouble efforts to reduce the tariffs charged by electricity companies for connecting green energy schemes such as biogas generator to the national grid.

Mr Begg maintained the dairy sector was working hard to reduce its environmental impact, highlighting ongoing work to use natural feed additives to reduce the methane let off by livestock and which it hopes will be used by 20% of farmers by 2015.

Industry had also already agreed with the government to reduce water use by 5-15% per litre of milk by 2010 and ensure that recycled materials are in 10% of plastic milk bottles by 2010 and 50% by 2020.

It also wants 40% of energy used on farms by 2020 to come from renewable sources and that anaerobic digestion is used on many more farms.