High-tech drones are being deployed across Scotland as part of an innovative project aimed at estimating how much carbon is stored on the country’s farms.

Environmental specialists at SAC Consulting, part of Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC), are using drone-mounted LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) sensors to estimate above-ground carbon storage in hedges and trees. Combined with laboratory soil analysis, the project will deliver an estimate of farm carbon stocks as part of the drive towards net zero.

The sites in Scotland’s first 'Farm Carbon Storage Network' represent five of the country’s main farming systems – upland beef and sheep, sheep, dairy, arable and crofting, which together account for nearly 90% of agricultural land use.

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It is hoped data from the project – which has received money from the Knowledge Transfer and Innovation Fund (KTIF) – could support future projects where carbon sequestration from different management practices can be estimated, including rotational grazing, cover cropping, integration of livestock, hedge planting and minimum tillage.

Seamus Murphy, from SAC Consulting, said: “While we all understand that trees, hedges, and soils on farms make a positive contribution to climate change mitigation, this project will give us a greater understanding of the scale of this contribution.

“By improving estimates of carbon stored on farm and improving our understanding of base carbon storage, it will help to support work to quantify the impacts of certain agricultural management practices.”