With UK farmers looking to do even more for the environment, here are some phrases to watch out for.
Deciding what is best for you and your farm when it comes to alternative farming methods can seem like a minefield.
The Princes Countryside Fund study revealed that 81 per cent of farmers want to do more for climate change and, in a bid to simplify the process, we want to help farmers across the country navigate their way through the library of environmental language.
Biodiversity net gain
This is an approach to land development which aims to leave biodiversity in a better state than before. As more land gets swallowed up by development projects, they can be designed to improve biodiversity by 10 per cent through various ways, including improving or leaving natural habitats or causing minimal damage to the lands natural biodiversity.
Landscape-scale approaches
Traditionally it has been down to individual farms to manage the biodiversity and natural habitats on their land, but this system encourages a joint approach, whereby neighbouring farms can form groups and partnerships to create greater environmental potential.
More collaborative working will probably be more common in the coming years, especially if you look at, for example, Catchment Management Schemes, which require those who can have an impact on water quality, such as farmers and landowners, to solve problems together.
Silvo arable and silvo pasture
Planting trees is seen as a way to have a huge impact on climate change and farmers can also see financial gain from this.
Silvo arable and silvo pasture is the process of either planting trees on arable land or land used for livestock.
Trees planted on land for livestock can provide extra shading and foliage can provide extra nutrients and minerals for animals.
Integrated nutrient management
This is a scheme which refers to the maintenance of soil health through the use of integrated inputs organic, inorganic and biological components and fertilisers.
It essentially merges old and new concepts to create a more economical and environmentally friendly farming system.
Carbon sequestration
The term carbon sequestration refers the natural capture of carbon in the land. Processes which encourage this are hedgerow and tree planting, moving to permanent grassland and introducing grass leys into arable rotations.
This is seen as one of the main ways to help mitigate climate change and a lot of farmers are ramping up practices to increase their carbon capture.
Carbon calculator
Available online, carbon calculators can provide you with a valuable benchmarking tool using farm data from across the business.
Measuring emissions, some calculators estimate how much carbon is captured from the atmosphere into the soil (sequestration).
