CFT Known Issue: Own Crop Feed Emissions Calculations Issue

CFT Known Issue: Own Crop Feed Emissions Calculations Issue

Incident Summary: Own Crop Feed Emissions Calculation Issue

1. Problem Statement

​A potential source of confusion was identified in the Cool Farm Tool (CFT) feed emissions model used in dairy and beef assessments. On the feed tab in a dairy or beef assessment under the DMI approach, the user is asked to enter feed intake weight as dry matter. ‘Dry matter’ is the weight of the feed without moisture, and typically expressed as a % or fraction of the fresh weight. When a CFT crop assessment is used as feed, the user should however enter the intake as farm gate ready amount weight (defined as ‘after farm level drying’). Users may enter the dry matter fraction instead, which means they may be under reporting feed production emissions.

2. Concern Raised

The issue was raised by a member in April 2024. The question was received in the context of ensuring the model handled feed requirements correctly for the major calculation version upgrade CF 3.0 on Cool Farm Platform in 2025. This unfortunately resulted in a delay addressing the immediate operational reporting concerns. The issue was then further investigated by CFA in September. Initial analysis confirmed that the CFT crop assessment farm gate ready amount weight is the weight that should be entered as the feed amount under DMI for own feed crops.

3. Timeline of Events

  • April 2024: Representatives from a member organisation raised the issue. This concern was initially addressed as part of methods development for the upcoming CFT version 3.0 on the Cool Farm platform
  • April – September 2024: Following further engagement, preliminary research was conducted to verify the feed calculation method in use.
  • September – October 2024: Due to elevated concern for potential for impact on users the issue was categorised as an Incident (Severity 3).
    • Initial checks confirmed that CFT crop assessments were being handled as farm-gate amounts in cattle feed calculations.

Resolution 

4. Verification of Actual Calculation

Following further thorough investigation of the model we can confirm:

  • GFLI feeds (not CFT crop assessment): The feed amount should be entered as dry matter fraction, i.e. a fraction of the ‘fresh’/’as fed’ weight. The tool will convert this to fresh weight using the dry matter content factor (see technical description) and apply the fresh weight factors from GFLI to determine the product emissions of the feed.
  • CFT crop assessment feeds: The same feed amount should be entered as farm gate ready amount. The tool treats the emission footprint of the crop assessment as the ‘factor’ for cattle feed product emissions on a per kg basis.

5. Root Cause Analysis

The confusion could be caused due to differing interpretation of the term ‘dry’ and unclear titles or description in the aggregation report, info buttons and technical description. The onscreen guidance for feed entry in the feed tab asks for dry matter, it is not clear that this should be farm dry / farm gate ready amount in the case of own CFT crop feed.

6. Corrective Actions

Going forward, CF 3.0 will allow users to specify whether they are entering the dry matter fraction or farm gate (as fed, fresh) weight, ensuring correct input handling.

7. User Instructions

For CFT crop assessments as feed input, users should enter the weight as per the farm-gate ready amount (without converting to dry matter).


We are very sorry if this confusion has caused any issues and will action the indicated recovery steps straight away. We welcome any suggestions how such incidents can be avoided. 

Thank you for your continued support.