Climate plan will not impose cap on herd

Actions for the agriculture sector to reduce emissions outlined in the newly-published Climate Action Plan will encourage farmers to diversify, but there will be no cap on cow numbers as feared by some.

To meet the required level of emissions reduction by 2025, a number of recommendations will be implemented from the Food Vision sectoral groupings, including significantly reducing use of chemical nitrogen as a fertiliser to a maximum usage of 330,000 tonnes by 2025 (and 300,000 tonnes by 2030); and increasing the uptake by farmers of low emissions slurry spreading by 90% by 2025.