A digital product is helping livestock producers in France and beyond assess their environmental impact.
CAP’2ER®, an application from Institut d’Elevage (Idele), uses 30 data sets entered in five categories by participating farmers – livestock, manure management, fields, feed, and energy consumption – to calculate agro-ecological indicators.
From this, farmers receive a report featuring recommendations on how to improve aspects of production such as greenhouse gas emissions, carbon sequestration potential and nutrients produced for human consumption.
The reports feature easily-understood numbers and graphics, while the output is compared to reference values within the same production system, allowing farmers to see where their performance stands in relation to competitors.
Digital help for sector under fire
Livestock producers have faced criticism in recent years for the environmental impact of their work, meaning that technology which could help farmers make impactful changes on site may be in demand. So far, the app has been used for 23,000 farm evaluations in France.
“Farmers and the dairy industry are motivated to use this tool, not only because it helps improving the economic and environmental performance of the farms, but also looking to the future and the potential support for ecosystem services,” said Jean-Pierre Germain of the Pamplie dairy cooperative, which has promoted the application to its members.
A European version of the application, using a common methodology linked to national specifics, is now available.
