Long dry spell leads to less Greenhouse Gas

A long, painful dry spell for farmers has helped cut the country's greenhouse gas emissions. As farmers suffer, the latest official tally from the Ministry for the Environment reveals NZ is doing better than expected in the carbon stakes, partly because farms have had to cull more animals reports The NZ Herald. Because the national herd is smaller than expected the amount of greenhouse gas the country is expected to make by 2012 has fallen by 1.8 million tonnes. But that is likely to come as little comfort to farmers. Dairy farmers north of Taupo have been cutting milk production earlier than usual, and so far rain has failed to penetrate soils in the most parched regions. In the Waikato, figures from the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry show the drought has cost farmers an average of between $100,000 and $200,000 this year. The Ministry said the drop in projected greenhouse gases since the last tally in 2009 was because the country had recovered more slowly than expected from a nationwide drought, and some regions had experienced another drought. Sheep numbers fell by 5 per cent, deer numbers by 6 per cent and beef numbers were stable, while dairy numbers increased by 4 per cent, it said. That had shaved 6.4 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (or 3.5 per cent) off expected farming emissions to 2012. The latest estimates, which included the predicted effect of the emissions trading scheme, would leave NZ 11.4 million tonnes below 1990 levels when the four-year total is tallied, mostly because of forests sucking rising gases from other sectors. That would leave the country with credits worth $231 million at today's carbon prices.