Total Energy Indicators of Agricultural Sustainability:

Dairy Farming Case Study

Technical Paper 2001/3

Prepared by:
Dr Colin Wells, Dept of Physics
University of Otago

ISBN: 0-478-07968-0
ISSN: 1171-4662

August 2001

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

Energy & Power

J joule  
kJ kilojoule 1,000 joules
MJ megajoule 1,000,000 joules
GJ gigajoule 1,000,000,000 joules
TJ terajoule 1,000,000,000,000 joules
PJ petajoule 1,000,000,000,000,000 joules
kWh kilowatt-hour 3.6 MJ
  W   watt   basic unit of power = 1 Joule per second  
  kW   kilowatt   1,000 watts  
  hp   horsepower   0.7457 kilowatt  

Others

ha hectare 10,000 square metres
kg kilogram  
t tonne  
t-km tonne-kilometre one tonne carried one kilometre
CO2 carbon dioxide
DM dry matter
EECA Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority
JCES Joint Centre for Environmental Sciences, Lincoln College and University of Canterbury (now the Centre for Resource Management)
MAF Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (formerly Ministry of Agriculture)
MfE Ministry for the Environment
MS milk solids
NZDB New Zealand Dairy Board
NZERDC New Zealand Energy Research and Development Committee (defunct)
RMA Resource Management Act

Acknowledgements

The author would like to acknowledge the assistance of the following:

Don Bagnall and Kevin Steel, MAF Policy, Wellington

Andrew Barber, Agriculture New Zealand Ltd, Pukekohe, for co-ordination of data collection by Agriculture New Zealand consultants. Kathrine Ball and Ken Muscroft-Taylor, Agriculture New Zealand Ltd, Canterbury, for valuable input into redesign of the survey forms.

Karen Wells, data entry and checking.

Damian Culshaw, ETSU, United Kingdom, for assistance with data collection and literature review for the pilot study while on study leave in New Zealand.

Ian McChesney, Canterbury Regional Council, for access to unpublished reports and answering my many questions about the previous surveys.

Prof. David Pimentel, Cornell University, and Prof. Bill Stout, Texas A&M University for their willingness to share up-to-date information.

Johannes Moerschner, University of Goettingen, Germany, for an interesting international discussion on how to determine agricultural energy indicators.

Lindsay Robertson and Roger Keedwell, NZ Dairy Research Institute, for sharing information from their survey of the New Zealand dairy processing industry.

Don Cleland and Ralph Sims, Massey University, and Gerry Carrington, University of Otago, for peer review (at various stages of this project).

Dr Morgan Williams, Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment (formerly Agriculture New Zealand Ltd), for helping shape the original concept of this project.

Members of the pilot study workshop team not already mentioned above: Dr Murray Paterson, Massey University; Nigel Jollands, formerly Energy Efficiency & Conservation Authority; Doug Clover, Ministry for the Environment, Dr Prue Williams, Crop & Food CRI; Graeme Martin, Lincoln University; Evan Morch, Private Energy Consultant; Ian Shearer, Private Energy Consultant.

This research began while the author was Senior Engineering Consultant with Agriculture New Zealand Ltd, Christchurch.

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