OT_215: FAR/AgriLINK (Barber 2004) Energy Use on Arable Farms, NZ diesel L/ha

Source

https://www.far.org.nz/resources/no-41-energy-use-on-arable-farms — original source (opens in a new tab; the file is not redistributed)

Context: ni · Feeds D02 + D01 (farm-machinery diesel, cropping baseline)

Summary

This AgriLINK/FAR study measures energy use on New Zealand arable farms and is the retrieved primary behind the model’s cropping-diesel intensity. It reports diesel use directly in litres per hectare (not as a dollar cost), which is what the model needs for farm_diesel_l_per_ha_cropping. The figures support lowering the interim 130 L/ha to about 100. It is Canterbury, wheat-led, and 2004 vintage, so it is a sound order-of-magnitude coefficient rather than a current precise value.

Key claims

- claim: "NZ ARABLE DIESEL INTENSITY (the cropping baseline). In-field diesel use is 71-85 L/ha; total diesel use (in-field plus associated operations) is 86-109 L/ha; average total fossil fuel use is 108 L/ha/yr, on Canterbury (wheat-led) arable farms. [verified against the raw: 85, 108 and 109 L/ha confirmed by text extraction]"
  source_location: "Barber (2004), Energy Use on Arable Farms tables (in-field vs total diesel; average total fossil fuel 108 L/ha)."

Model use

  • Firms farm_diesel_l_per_ha_cropping. Recommended value ~100 L/ha/yr (defensible band 85-110 per cropped ha), down from the interim 130. The interim was high for a per-cropped-hectare figure; 130 or more is only defensible if contractor and whole-system diesel are deliberately folded in. OT_215

Notes

  • Role. The direct-litres primary for cropping diesel. Preferred over the crude national-volume-divided-by-area derivation (see OT_126) because the “arable + contractors” volume bucket is confounded by contractor fuel used across all farm types.
  • Caveat. 2004 data, Canterbury. Order-of-magnitude coefficient, flag the vintage.
  • Provenance. FAR/AgriLINK research report (Andrew Barber), authoritative first-party PDF, read via text extraction. Diesel L/ha figures verified against the raw.

Connections

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