Reducing greenhouse gas emissions is a daunting task for many but in doing so, farmers, abattoirs, auction marts, indeed any business will see levels of efficiency improve and ultimately, net margins.

It’s a project that Anglo Beef Processors (ABP) has taken on big style in its launch of the Prism 2030 programme which aims to significantly reduce the sustainability of red meat.

Since its launch in November 2022, it is now working with 353 beef and sheep farms across the UK in collaboration with The Anderson Centre and Harper Adams to focus on key areas that will help reduce emissions in the sector.

It’s five main goals – to improve pastures, reduce the age at slaughter, improve livestock health, reduce fuel consumption and rely more on by-product feeds – are based on good farming practice.

In doing so, farmers are seeing huge improvements.

Mike Powley, a beef and arable farmer with 360 acres in the Vale of York, was keen to sign up to the programme when he was asked to join.

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“The Prism programme has accurately benchmarked my carbon footprint and efficiency. Access to leading experts has enabled me to make changes to my business and the webinars with leading experts and like minded people have helped with more practical ideas,” he said.

“We’ve always strived to reduce our inputs and be more efficient and the carbon footprint is a direct indication of how efficient you are on farm, how productive and how you utilise that production for less inputs. We can produce 1000 bales of high quality red clover silage without applying any fertiliser and that really gives me quite a buzz,” he said.

Mr Powley also relies on a maternal suckler cow with good foraging ability in a South Devon and Aberdeen-Angus cross coupled with the ‘tremendous output’ of the Charolais bull as a terminal sire.

In turn, he said this has allowed him to finish Charolais cross bulls at 400 days with 400kg carcases, when fed a home-grown barley mix and red clover silage.

“Most of our bulls will gain 1.1kg per day over the winter with the aim being to finish them at 390-400kg deadweight while the heifers produce 360-380kg carcases produced from home-grown wheat and barley ration.

Since the programme was launched, figures from the Prism participants have shown the average carbon footprint of a kg of beef supplied is 26.2kg CO2e per kg dwt, with the equivalent footprint of a kg of lamb supplied being 22.3kg CO2e per kg dwt.

However, there are huge variations within the sector and between the different types of operation.

Early analysis shows that dairy beef finishing units and store lamb operations tend to have the lowest footprints within their sector.

According to those running the programme, such variations are not necessarily better performing or more efficient. It is more to do with the fact that the cattle or lambs on the farm have been bought in.

Hence, the suckler sector has seen considerable variation in carbon footprints, from 6.24 - 123.49kg CO2e per kg dwt, with similar trends seen the sheep sector.

As every farm is different, the challenge now is to forensically examine the dataset to understand exactly what makes one farm different to another, and which key performance indicators or farm attributes are most important in reducing carbon footprints.

Looking long term, there is a lot more that can be done to ensure the type of cattle and sheep are available to produce the progeny that in turn will lower emissions further.

Professor Mike Coffey of SRUC added: “In the short term we can use feed additives. In the medium term we can do a lot to improve those traits we already have a lot of data on. We could rear calves to first calving at two years of age and grow to slaughter weight at 16-18 months.

“We could begin to replace suckler cows with smaller versions.

"The current age at slaughter nationally is around 28 months. Reducing that to 18 months could reduce methane emissions by almost a half and is achievable by management changes. This is also very good for farm profitability, so it’s a win-win outcome.

“Breeding is key for the long term, propagating traits that have a direct impact on methane emissions – age at first calving, age at slaughter, weight of suckler cow, cow and calf survival,” he said.