The East Lothian Climate Hub is interested in how we can support local farmers to become business and growing resilient and support biodiversity in a changing climate. We put on two sessions in the first half of 2025 to support farmers to understand the new government requirements of Whole Farm Plans, auditing and how these can enhance your farm resilience. Please see below to read about these session on Whole Farm Plans and Understanding Carbon Audits. You can watch the session on Understanding Carbon Audits here.
We will be looking to host an event on cluster farming in the Autumn. Please get in contact for more info (tess@eastlothianclimatehub.org).
In February, the Soil Association delivered a workshop on Whole Farm Plans (WFP) called Planning for Change. As of May 2025, all farmers claiming Basic Payments (BPS) must complete at least two of the five audits which form the Whole Farm Plan. This session explored what WFPs mean for your farm and how the framework can be used to improve farm resilience, as well as potential benefits of reducing climate impacts of farming operations (e.g. using an IPM plan to reduce the need for expensive inputs).
We had 20 people attend the session from farms at Ratho to far east in East Lothian. Robert from Lochhouses farm hosted the event and we had a farm tour. We used Lochhouses farming enterprises to understand how data is used to inform decision making. The tour of the farm gave us food for though on how features such as margins, wetlands and woodlands can be used to boost whole farm resilience and operations, such as planning for more frequent floods, storms and droughts. Robert showed us his excellent ponds that allowed him to extract clay for his fields and to pool water in floods; his use of wild seeds for winter birds that was funded through AECS and how he manages his hedgerows and margins.
At this event, participants asked for support with navigating carbon audits, including the best platforms to use and the best way to complete them. Pasture for Life offered to host such an event and on 12th June, they delivered a webinar called Understanding Carbon Audits – What They Mean for Your Farm and Scotland. You can watch the recording here.
The webinar was hosted by Nikki Yoxall, farmer and Technical Director at Pasture for Life. Nikki gave us an excellent overview of why we need to carry out carbon audits and some of the challenges of recording the carbon cycle on your farm including problems around entering situation specific information (e.g. carbon audit tools can assume outwintering cattle includes high levels of slurry and carbon emissions). She also gave some excellent advice on how to deal with some of these challenges.
One top tip was to use the same carbon auditing platform to keep consistency of your data – so don’t switch tools as you go.
Jock Gibson of Edinvale Farm (in Moray) joined as a guest speaker. Jock brought a farmer’s perspective on carbon auditing, having used audits to improve efficiencies, strengthen the farm’s environmental performance, and support his decision-making. He was able to share practical reflections on what’s worked, what’s been challenging, and how carbon data is helping him shape the future of his farm.
If you want to claim BPS you have to do a carbon audit, so we encourage you to watch the webinar recording to get extra advice on completing the audit.
We will be looking to host an event on cluster farming in the Autumn. Please contact Tess to get more information on this: tess@eastlothianclimatehub.org
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