My Farm dashboard
My Farm (/app/farm) estimates the greenhouse gases your farming operation produces in a year, from the emission factors the Ministry for the Environment publishes. You enter annual average stock numbers and fertiliser use, and the dashboard reports an indicative profile - split between biogenic methane and long-lived gases, and broken down by where the emissions come from.
Agriculture is not in the ETS - nothing is owed
This is the most important thing to understand about this dashboard, and it is why it looks different from My Obligations.
Agricultural emissions are not covered by the New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme. Processor-level obligations were repealed in 2024 before they took effect, and there is no farm-level emissions return or surrender obligation in New Zealand law today. My Farm therefore has no units owed, no shortfall, no compliance deadline and no cost to cover, because there is nothing to surrender against. It is a planning tool.
What is real, and what the dashboard shows under What is actually coming:
- In law - biogenic methane is accounted for separately from long-lived gases under the Climate Change Response Act, against its own target.
- Policy only - the Government has signalled an on-farm emissions pricing system by 2030. The design, coverage and price are not settled, and nothing is in force.
- Voluntary - a number of processors, banks and supply-chain buyers ask for an emissions figure as part of their own programmes. Requirements differ by programme.
Where the numbers come from
All figures come from the emission factors published by the Ministry for the Environment in Measuring Emissions: A Guide for Organisations (2026 release), in the agriculture, forestry and other land uses section.
- Livestock - a factor per head per year for each type, adding enteric fermentation, manure management and agricultural soils (nitrous oxide from urine and dung deposition). Eleven types are published, including dairy cattle, non-dairy cattle, sheep, deer, goats, swine and poultry.
- Nitrogen fertiliser - a factor per kilogram of nitrogen applied, not per kilogram of product. Urea coated with a urease inhibitor has a lower factor than uncoated urea.
- Lime and dolomite - a factor per kilogram of material applied.
The livestock factors are national averages that already contain the metabolisable-energy modelling the Ministry applies nationally. They take no account of your liveweights, productivity, soils, region or management practice.
Why methane is on its own line
Because New Zealand accounts for biogenic methane against a separate target, the dashboard never reports a single blended tonnage without also splitting it. On most sheep, beef and dairy operations methane is the large majority of the profile, so combining the gases would hide the number that matters most. The split appears on the headline figure, on the summary tiles and on every farm row.
Where it comes from
The breakdown shows four sources, largest first:
- Enteric fermentation - methane from rumen digestion. This is usually the largest single source.
- Manure management - methane and nitrous oxide from effluent and manure.
- Agricultural soils - nitrous oxide from urine and dung deposited on pasture.
- Fertiliser and liming - nitrous oxide from applied nitrogen, and carbon dioxide from urea, lime and dolomite.
Per-hectare intensity
If you record effective hectares against a farm, the dashboard also shows tonnes per hectare. Leave it blank and the figure is simply omitted rather than shown as zero.
Your registered forest sits alongside, not against
If you have blocks in My Forest, My Farm shows the units they have earned to date next to your farm profile - but it does not subtract one from the other, and there is no combined or net figure anywhere.
That is deliberate. NZUs earned by a registered forest are a separate legal entitlement you can hold, sell or surrender for a forestry obligation. Farm emissions carry no obligation at all, so there is nothing for those units to offset. Presenting a net number would imply a balance that does not exist in law. Dollar values, when a last traded price exists, are shown against the forest units only - never against the farm emissions.
Adding and managing farms
Use Add farm to record a property: a name, an optional region and effective hectares, then one line per livestock type and one line per fertiliser. Each type can appear only once per farm - combine mobs of the same type into a single annual average. You can track up to 20 farms. Editing a farm recalculates the profile immediately; archiving one removes it from your totals without deleting the record.
Trying it without an account
The farmers and growers page has the same calculation available publicly, with no account and no sign-in. It returns tonnes only - no prices.
What this is not
The profile is indicative. The factors are national averages published for voluntary organisational reporting, they are revised every year - the agriculture numbers moved measurably between the 2025 and 2026 releases - and any recognised farm-level programme will use its own approved methodology, which will produce a different number. My Farm is not a farm inventory, not a compliance filing, and not financial, legal or tax advice.