Equine Carbon Calculator

Think of this in the 12 months as this data is being used to determine where the manure ends up. If a horse is out 24 hrs a day in summer, and for 12 hours a day in winter for example, then you would say they are out for 75% of the time, and in for 25% of the time. You would enter their manure management as 75% in-field and 25% farmyard manure.

The best way to manage this situation is to try and think about the full 12 month period, and across that time, how many horses have been on site. The calculator is a model, so breaking it down into individual horses, if you run a yard which has a high turnover of individual animals, is probably not worthwhile. However, if you have 20 horses who are reasonably consistently on site, and 5 are bought and sold, then you could consider the horses in groups. You can select the most appropriate horses from the drop down menus when you do this. The different options include data which is specific to different types of horses.

Your supplier/contractor should be able to give you the details of your product, so that you can input this as accurately as possible. If a contractor applied it, remember as well to ensure that you add any fuel use as appropriate under the fuel section.

Input according to what happened for the 12 month period you are inputting in this case. If in a future year, you do something different with a field, you can include that accurately for the year in question.

For this year, input the nearest match that you have, and make a note of what you selected. By the time you return next year to update this, then you may well find there are other options available.

Machinery, as well as other large infrastructure, has it’s carbon emissions divided over 10 years. Putting in the year it was built enables the calculator to work out how long that period of time runs for. If you have bought second hand machinery (e.g. a horse box or arena leveller which is not brand new) then you should only include it here if it is less than 10 years old.

There are a range of arena surface options available under the "Materials" tab in the "Arena surfaces" section. Use this option for re-surfacing as opposed to installation of a new arena (which you can enter under "Infrastructure").

Go with the option which is the nearest size to what you have.

If this is the case, you may need to omit this section this year. Many arena surfaces are made of mixed materials with processing involved making it harder to estimated the emissions involved in producing them. It would be worth asking your arena supplier if they have carbon emission data for their product. Where that data isn’t currently published, we can’t build it into the calculator, and the more clients ask this question of their suppliers, the more likely we are to be able to include it in future. Hopefully when you come back next time, we might have more information here.

This is not uncommon. It is absolutely a reason to encourage your water supplier to take actual readings more regularly, but for this year, work off the data you have to hand.

Water from a borehole does not require processing therefore there are no emissions to record here. Having a borehole on site is excellent practice. It reduces the emissions associated with using the mains water supply. Mains water has to be heavily filtered and processed all of which uses energy. It is likely that your borehole uses some electricity in terms of pumping water up out of the ground, and you will have reported this under your electricity use.

There is an option under the "Fuels" tab to include fuels used by contractors coming on site, and it would be worth asking your contractors if they know how much fuel they use as part of these activities. If they don’t know this year, but they start to be asked regularly by clients (such as yourselves) for this information, then you may find they can tell you more in future years.

No, you can combine fuel use. For example, everything that runs on diesel. The key number that matters is how much diesel is used in the 12 months, so anything that runs on that type of fuel can be combined and just inputted once

If your meter includes a private house or activities not related to your business then you may need to make an estimation relating to how much fuel is being used by your business and how much is being used elsewhere. The most important thing here is to make sure that you make a note of how you have done this so that you can be consistent over the years. If you are keen to get the data more accurate then you may wish to explore a clip on sensor which tells you how much power for example is going to the yard so that you can input this more accurately.

If staff accommodation forms part of your business then it would be appropriate to include this within your data. You may also wish to explore with them how much fuel they are using within their commute too, as an approximate monthly amount, as this could fall within scope.

The best place to source this information is via billing documents. It may be that you didn't take meter readings on the exact dates that align with the year that you have chosen to consider, and this might be something to set reminders to do for future years. If you do need to do some estimating, due to when billing has fallen, remember that the numbers you input are full 12 months and that energy usage often varies throughout the seasons.

As we develop the Equine Carbon Calculator, more information will be available to support emissions reductions, yard and land management. For now, please check out the following events and training:

• Equine Grassland Management | FarmED (farm-ed.co.uk) 10 September 2024
• Principles of Carbon and Net Zero Basis course (online)

If you would like to add to this list, please email [email protected] 

Yes! Simply head to your report results and hover over the download button - you will see options here for PDF, CSV and JSON download. The PDF option will give you summary charts and tables as they are shown on the results page of the online Calculator while CSV provides key information about the report, as well as the emissions associated with each item you entered in the Calculator (as a breakdown) in a tabular format. JSON allows you to access all the data you have entered into the Calculator for that report (e.g. the number of litres of diesel) as well as the emissions calculated for each item you entered.

The Equine Carbon Calculator is free for all businesses undertaking their own footprint and for academic institutions using the tool for training or teaching purposes.

For consultants or paid advisors using the calculator, we offer professional licenses, bespoke versions and training. Contact us to find out more.

The Equine Carbon Calculator is powered by the Farm Carbon Calculator.

We publish our updated methodology each year - you can read the 2023 methodology here.

We update the Farm Carbon Calculator at least twice a year, sometimes more often. We always publish a list of what has changed since the previous update.

When any emissions or sequestration factors are updated in the Calculator, there will be a change in the carbon footprint of those particular items. Often these are relatively small changes, but are due to new research or changes in scientific understanding of processes, changes over time in composition of the national electricity grid or changes to typical production processes.

For new reports all factors will be derived from the updated list of factors.

This document provides an overview of what’s new for the latest update of the Farm Carbon Calculator (Sept 2023)

Download “What’s new Sept. 2023”

It will show you the total carbon emissions and carbon offsets, expressed as tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e), percentage of total emissions/sequestration, and the carbon balance of your business.

The results also show full detail of the emissions/offsets for every item you enter in the Calculator. Live results also appear as you enter in data, enabling you to compare the results of different items.

Results are shown in varying levels of detail, highlight emissions hotspots, show Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions, emissions of CO2e, nitrous oxide (N2O) and methane (CH4).

As with anywhere where you are entering your farm business information we recommend you take basic steps to ensure a high level of security. Here at Farm Carbon Toolkit we are also doing our part. Choose a strong password when registering your account and set up two-factor authentication from your dashboard for an extra layer of security. Our models allow us to reproduce and benchmark the data you enter but only in anonymous ways as part of a group.

We employ regular internal and external testing to ensure our website, systems and servers are regarded as highly secure in line with industry best practice. Our team will never contact you to ask for your password so do not reveal this information to anyone. If you suspect unauthorised usage of your account or any other breaches of security you must let us know so that we can take action to protect your data and to help prevent further breaches. For details of how we handle your data and of our required response in the unlikely event of a data breach see our Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions.