Field-by-field data helping to measure regenerative impact on dairy farms

Independent

23-02-2025

Pioneering field-by-field data has been helping dairy farmers measure the real-world impact of regenerative farming as they work to roll out greener methods.
Nestle has been working with First Milk, a farmer-owned dairy co-operative in Ayrshire and Cumbria that supplies milk for products like KitKats and Nescafe.
The consumer giant pays farmers bonuses for taking measures to protect and enhance the natural assets on their land, such as rotational grazing, restoring hedgerows, cutting down herbicide use, enriching the lives of cows, promoting biodiversity and engaging with communities.
In efforts to monitor the real-world impact of these changes, First Milk has been gathering data of what is happening on every single field managed by 80 farmers in the regenerative programme for the last few years.
The data set, thought to be the first of its kind on this scale, contains detailed information on what is going on in each field on every farm.
This includes the number of hedgerows, whether multi-species pastures have been planted, where cows are rotationally grazing and how watercourses are being protected.
The co-operative can then monitor farmers' regenerative journeys and work with them on where new actions could be taken depending on their land.
The data also aims to track which regenerative interventions are – and are not – working as farmers carry out worm counts or test water holding capacity and levels of carbon in the soil.
Ashley Swan, commercial executive at First Milk, said: 'We needed a lot of data to support this and we really needed to start understanding every single thing about the farms with an easy input for farmers.
'Without that detail, we don't know whether we're going in the right direction or not.'
The co-operative claims to be the first to develop a system that has such a level of data in the UK.
'We started from scratch,' Ms Swan said. 'There wasn't a system out there. I don't think the supply chain or the processor has ever asked a farmer for that level of detail before.'
The co-operative is also gathering data on the amount of carbon measured in the soil on farms, starting with baseline measurements taken by the firm Agricarbon in 2021 – the first-of-its-kind soil carbon capture project.
Agricarbon will soon be measuring soil carbon levels on the farms again to see how planting a mixture of grasses, broadleaves and clovers on fields has helped alter CO2 levels over time.
'It's the density and quality of that baseline data we can really rely on to be accurate,' Ms Swan said.
The programme has not come without challenges, such as upfront costs, financial risk and fostering a huge culture shift among all stakeholders in the supply chain.
For a sector that has been crippled by rising costs, increasingly tight margins, tough market conditions and climate change, sharing the risk across the supply chain has been critical for farmers rolling out the regenerative measures.
James Smith, a farmer at Cotehill Farm in Brampton Cumbria, said: 'This is where Nestle comes in.
'We have to have a bit of faith that this science is going to work because we might go to the cost of planting this and it might take a year to see the full benefits as we switch from a more conventional (method of) spreading a lot chemical fertiliser to a lower input, more natural fertiliser.
'In that time you might see a bit of a loss in performance of the land, so if we have the support of Nestle it's really useful to us to know they're helping us on that journey, they're sharing the risk.'
Trust between supply farmers and Nestle has been built over the long term after decades of its presence in the region. The nearby factory in Dalston processes an estimated 1% of UK milk production.
Matt Ryan, regeneration lead at Nestle UK & Ireland, said: 'If we want those factories to continue to be there and to continue to be as productive as they are now, we need to be thinking about the future.'
To do this, Mr Ryan said the company is careful not to prescribe farmers with set sweeping measures they must take all at once.
The team instead wants to be 'nudging' its suppliers towards less impactful practices, he said.
Mr Ryan said: 'It's an encouragement I suppose, a direction of travel.
'A lot of these things are new and there's a risk associated with implementing some of these practices. So, that's where we see our role as supporting through that transition.'
Mr Smith said that while the programme provides a baseline level of practices for farmers to role out, its flexibility is also crucial.
'You can pick which options suit your farm,' he said, adding that Cotehill is a grazing farm so they need to stagger any reseeding of fields as cows continue to pasture.
In terms of keeping Nestle executives on board, Mr Ryan said visits to farms are a key part of driving that culture shift and showing the programme's potential to contribute towards the firm's science-based climate targets.
He added: 'From our side, (it's about) getting our senior leaders who sign the cheques for this big programme to understand that this isn't a big red button that you press and everything's fixed.
'A mindset shift from a senior management perspective is really important.
'You're working with nature, you've got a target you've set at the end of your commitment. The road to that commitment to that target is going to be a bit rocky.'