Carbon Calculator
To access the TBA Stud Carbon Calculator please click here.
The TBA Stud Farm Carbon Calculator is a digital tool that estimates the amount of carbon dioxide produced by a stud’s activities, and helps to identify opportunities to improve efficiency, resilience and profitability.
The calculator accounts for emissions across six key areas of a breeding operation:
- Land Use
- Horses
- Manure Management
- Feed and Bedding
- Energy Use
- Horse Transport
Calculating a carbon footprint offers several practical benefits for breeders, including:
- Highlighting emission hotspots
- Improving efficiency, often leading to reduced input costs
- Recognising carbon storage in grassland, soils, trees, and hedgerows
By understanding both carbon emissions and carbon storage, stud farms can make informed decisions that support the production of thoroughbreds while maintaining healthy soils and productive grassland.
Things you need to complete the Carbon Calculator
- A tool to calculate total land area such as https://www.freemaptools.com/area-calculator.htm or https://www.calcmaps.com/
- Google maps for calculating distances
- Invoices for fertiliser, feed and bedding
- Utility bills for electric and renewables (if applicable)
- Fuel invoices and receipts
- Horse numbers and horse movements
Data you need to collect to complete the Carbon Calculator’
This guidance has been prepared to assist with collecting the data necessary to complete the TBA Stud Farm Carbon Calculator.
- A clear farm boundary must be established for accurate data capture. If the enterprise is a mixed farm, this should be taken into account when defining the boundary.
- A defined 12-month reporting period should be set for data capture, such as the breeding year or financial year.
| Land Use | Data Required |
| Total land area (hectares) in the established farm boundary | |
| If any land is harvested for forage | Amount produced (tonnes or number of bales) over the set 12-month period |
| Disposal method for bale plastic waste | |
| If manufactured fertiliser is used on land | Fertiliser product |
| Amount purchased (tonnes) or applied (kg product/ha) over the set 12-month period | |
| If organic materials are applied to land | Type of organic matter |
| Amount applied by volume (m3) or application rate (t/ha) over the set 12-month period | |
| If a woodland is within the boundary | Total area of woodland (hectares), age and type (broadleaf, coniferous or rewilded) |
| If hedgerows are within the boundary | Total length of hedgerows (metres), average width, average height and age |
| Horses | |
| Total number on the farm over the set 12-month period categorised by stallions, pregnant mares/foal at foot, empty mares, weanlings, yearlings, 2yo’s+ in/out of training and other (teasers, retired mares, leisure horses etc) | |
| Average time each category spent on the farm over the set 12-month period | |
| Management type for each category i.e. stabled/turned out | |
| If livestock graze on farm |
Number of animals and number of weeks grazed over the set 12-month period |
| Manure Management | |
| Frequency field manure is picked | |
| Method of muck heap disposal and frequency | |
| Feed and Bedding | |
| Forage i.e hay/haylage/straw | Amount purchased (number of bales or tonnes) over the set 12-month period |
| Disposal method for bale plastic waste | |
| Distance from supplier (km) | |
| Bagged feed i.e stud cubes/sugar beet/bran | Amount purchased (tonnes) over the set 12-month period |
| Disposal method for packaging | |
| Distance from supplier (km) | |
| Other bedding i.e paper/shavings | Amount purchased (tonnes) over the set 12-month period |
| Disposal method for packaging | |
| Distance from supplier (km) | |
| Energy Use | |
| Grid electricity | Usage (kWh) over the set 12-month period |
| If farm has solar/wind/biomass/biogas | Usage (kWh) over the set 12-month period and quantity exported back to grid |
| Fuel on site (e.g farm has own diesel tank, property heated by oil) | Usage (litres) over the set 12-month period. Categorised by red diesel, diesel (horse transport, diesel (other), petrol, LPG and heating oil |
| Contractors fuel for activities such as hay making, hedge cutting | Time (hours) spent on farm by contractor over the set 12-month period. Categorised by size of tractor: 90hp, 120hp, 160hp |
| Purchased fuel from service stations | Total mileage (km) over the set 12-month period. Vehicles categorised by petrol car, diesel car, 4x4, pickup trucks, vans, LGV’s and HGV’s |
| Horse Transport (outsourced transport) | |
| Arriving by road | Number of horses arriving categorised by distance: <15km, 15-75km, 75-250km and overseas, over the set 12-month period |
| Arriving by ferry/plane | Number of horses arriving, categorised by departing country, over the set 12-month period |