Innovative data-led approach combines nutrient footprinting and satellite mapping to target action at catchment scale

First Milk is rolling out a new freshwater strategy across its 700 member farms, addressing a long-standing challenge for the dairy sector: how to measure and target water quality risks practically and consistently at farm and field level. 

The work comes amid growing national focus on river health, freshwater resilience and the need for more targeted, evidence-led approaches to land and water management.

Drawing on two years of nutrient footprinting, developed with Farm Carbon Toolkit, and satellite-led risk mapping produced by Senus, the approach identifies where nutrient pressure and landscape risk overlap. This allows support and intervention to be prioritised where it can have the greatest impact on rivers and waterways while supporting productive, resilient dairy farming.

At the heart of the strategy is nutrient footprinting, which tracks the flow of nitrogen and phosphate through a farming system. This helps identify where nutrients are being used efficiently and where imbalances may create unnecessary environmental pressure, providing farmers with practical insights to improve both resource use and environmental performance.

Together, these tools provide a practical, scalable way to identify, prioritise and manage water quality risks across one of the UK dairy sector's largest on-farm freshwater datasets, supporting more targeted catchment-level action.

Early analysis shows that lower nutrient-footprint farms can achieve similar milk production levels to higher-footprint farms, suggesting productive dairy farming and stronger water stewardship can go hand in hand.

The nutrient footprinting work has identified different drivers behind potential nutrient imbalance. The analysis shows that nitrogen pressure is most closely linked to land use, fertiliser and stocking density, while phosphate pressure is more closely linked to feed use and efficiency.

Meanwhile, the Senus water risk maps assess every field according to factors including slope and proximity to watercourses, helping farmers identify where there may be a higher risk of nutrients moving into rivers and streams.

The strategy builds on measures already embedded within First Milk's regenerative farming programme, including rotational grazing, maintaining living roots, improving soil structure and fencing watercourses.

First Milk says the new approach will also support more targeted collaboration at catchment level with local partners and community groups focused on improving water quality.

Commenting on the initiative, Ric Cooper, representative of The Cleddau Project in Pembrokeshire, said:

"We absolutely applaud this pioneering First Milk initiative. There is an old saying that, in order to manage something, you first need to measure it, and farm-level nutrient footprinting has the potential to be a game-changer for river restoration. 

"Catchments such as the Cleddau, with high densities of livestock farming, will only be restored to good health if losses of surplus nitrogen and phosphorus to water are reduced. Nutrient footprinting offers a new way to help identify and reduce nutrient pressures, while also supporting farmers to improve efficiency. 

"It is exactly the kind of practical, evidence-led approach needed to improve water quality across our catchments."

First Milk's Head of Regenerative Farming, Lee Truelove, added:

"Protecting water quality is essential for society and central to the future of regenerative dairy farming. The water cycle is as crucial as healthy soil to a regenerative farming system, and this approach gives us a much clearer picture of where the risks are, what is driving them and where action can make the biggest difference. 

"By embedding nutrient footprinting and water risk mapping into our regenerative model, First Milk is demonstrating how to strengthen safeguards for our rivers and landscapes while maintaining a productive, resilient dairy sector. It is also an important part of our wider work to build robust evidence around the real-world environmental outcomes that regenerative dairy farming can deliver.

"Critically, this is not about asking farmers to choose between performance and environmental responsibility. Our data shows that productive dairy farms can also have a lower nutrient footprint. This approach enables targeted, practical, evidence-led change that protects rivers, strengthens farm resilience and delivers long-term value for our farmer members, customers and communities."