Everything you need to know about Geora’s impact scores

Everything you need to know about Geora’s impact scores and how to improve your profile

In today’s piece we answer all of your burning questions about Geora's Impact Scores including what they are, how we calculate them and how the practices you're investing in on-farm influences each score.

Let's dive in 🏊!

Impact Scores and what they represent

Geora's Impact Scores have been designed to make it easy for you (and your financiers) to benchmark and measure the health of your farm by taking into account both the potential risks of your farm and the impact activities you're actively investing in to mitigate those risks and improve/reduce your environmental impact.

There are five categories we look at which each have their own impact score. The first four are relevant to every farm: Soil, Biodiversity, Water and Climate and for farmers who are grazing animals, there is an additional score for Welfare.

Let's take a closer look at each area:

🌅 Climate: The impact of changing climate patterns on farm productivity and natural capital, and the risk posed by extreme weather events and bushfires.

🌿 Biodiversity: Conservation and regeneration of biodiverse ecosystems, including soil microorganism biodiversity

💧Water: the use and management of water resources as well as the mitigation of drought and flood risk, and measures to prevent water pollution and runoff

🧑‍🌾 Soil: Management of overall soil health including salinity, acidification, structure, and productivity

🐮 Welfare: Responsible animal husbandry and ethical practices

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How your impact scores are calculated

Your impact scores are calculated by taking into account the potential risks aligned with your farms geographical location, climate and commodities and the impact activities you’re investing in that mitigate those risks and reduce your environmental impact.

These scores are calculated in Geora’s impact data engine, through a complex set of algorithms that leverage decades of industry research by government agencies, RDCs, and academic institutions.

The risk factors that apply to your farm will reduce your scores while the impact activities will improve your scores by taking into account all of good practices you are undertaking on farm.

‍Note: Impact scores are also weighted where necessary to reflect your progress in rolling out specific impact activities across your farm.

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Risk Factors

Risk factors look at the localised geographical and climate characteristics of your farm and the broader region, along with your specific production of certain commodities.

There are over 30 different variables we take into account when determining the risks facing your farming operation.

For example, risks that may impact a Climate score can include annual rainfall predictions, bushfire ratings & wind risk levels; for Welfare the models consider risks like shade cover, pasture availability, and moisture risk.

Impact Activities

Impact activities refer to all of the hard work you’re doing on-farm, including specific activities to mitigate nature and climate risks.

Below we’ve outlined a list of the different activities that are currently supported in the platform as well as the impact score they influence (listed in alphabetical order).

Antimicrobial stewardship

Antimicrobial stewardship is the responsible practice of using antimicrobial treatments to ensure effectiveness and reduce the risk of resistance in livestock and people.‍

Influences: 🌿 Biodiversity, 🐮 Welfare

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‍Biodiversity / Conservation Zone

A dedicated area of land set aside and managed to protect and support natural habitats for a variety of plant and animal species. This zone is not used for traditional agricultural activities like planting crops or raising livestock.‍

Influences: 🌿 Biodiversity, 🧑🌾 Soil, 💧 Water

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‍Composting and Organic Fertiliser

The use of compost and organic/natural fertilizer in order to reduce environmental impacts and improve crop productivity.‍

Influences: 🧑‍🌾 Soil, 🌅 Climate

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‍Cover cropping

Planting off-season crops in otherwise fallow fields (like summer sorghum) to maintain ground cover and increase soil fertility.‍

Influences: 🌿 Biodiversity, 🧑🌾 Soil

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‍Fallen timber retention

The act of keeping fallen trees and branches where they fall (instead of clearing or burning them) for the purpose of providing refuge, shelter and resources for plants and animals.‍

Influences: 🌿 Biodiversity

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‍Feed management

Investing in supplementation and/or licks to improve overall nutrition and digestibility of feed composition and to reduce emissions.‍

Influences: 🐮 Welfare, 🌅 Climate

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Husbandry Conditions

Ensuring all livestock have adequate access to shade and water through natural or built resources such as tree lines, shade sheds, dams and troughs.‍

Influences: 🐮 Welfare

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‍Integrated cropping and livestock

Combining both crop production and livestock farming on the same piece of land to optimise resource utilisation, manage pests, improve farm resilience, and enhance overall productivity.‍

Influences: 🧑🌾 Soil, 🌿 Biodiversity

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‍Intercropping

The practice of growing two or more crops in close proximity: in the same row or bed, or in rows or strips that are close enough for biological interaction to improve soil health, provide nutrition, prevent erosion, suppress weeds, enhance biodiversity, and manage pests.‍

Influences: 🌿 Biodiversity, 🧑🌾 Soil

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‍Low or no-till cropping

Growing crops or pasture without disturbing the soil through tillage in order to conserve soil moisture, reduce erosion, and improve soil health.‍

Influences: 🧑‍🌾 Soil, 🌅 Climate, 💧 Water, 🌿 Biodiversity

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‍Organic certification

This is the official certification through ACO (e.g. certified by NASAA) for growing and processing products without the use of synthetic chemicals, fertilisers, or GMO’s.‍

Influences: 🧑‍🌾 Soil, 🌿 Biodiversity, 🌅 Climate‍

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Pasture cropping

Crops are sown directly into existing or established pasture or grassland without plowing or removing the pasture to improve soil health, reduce erosion, and gain more efficient land use.‍

Influences: 🧑‍🌾 Soil, 🌅 Climate, 🐮 Animal Welfare, 💧 Water

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‍Stubble retention

The act of retaining stubble rather than burning or cultivating it in order to protect the soil from erosion.‍

Influences: 🧑‍🌾 Soil, 🌅 Climate

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‍Tree planting

Planting trees on a regular basis (e.g. annually) for the purpose of creating shelter-belts, reducing erosion, reducing emissions, providing shade, maintaining biodiversity, protecting riparian areas, etc.‍

Influences: 🧑‍🌾 Soil, 🌅 Climate, 🐮 Welfare, 🌿 Biodiversity,💧 Water

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Veterinary practices

The care and management of livestock using humane and considerate practices including vaccination and pain relief administration during castration and dehorning etc.‍

Influences: 🐮 Welfare

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‍Water management practices

Implementing practices on farm (like water recycling, dry farming, irrigation scheduling, etc.) to reduce and optimise water allocation and minimise wastage.‍

Influences: 💧 Water

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What makes a good score?

Your impact scores are uncapped, meaning there’s no ceiling for how high your score can be, but a good starting point is a score of 5 or more as this means that you are essentially mitigating the risk factors with your impact activities and are doing really well in that area.

Conversely - a score of between 3.8 to 5 indicates that some risk mitigation work is underway on farm and a score below 3.8 indicates that there is still a high level of risk for your farm on that particular impact area.

How do you increase your scores & improve your profile?

The second most common question we’re asked (next to how your scores are calculated!) is what you can do to increase each of your scores and improve your overall profile.

The short answer to this question is that the more impact activities you have underway on farm, the higher your scores are going to be.

In addition, because your scores are also weighted to indicate how progressed you are in rolling out different impact activities across the farm, the more data you can share about each activity with us, the better your scores are going to be.

For example, if one of your activities is Pasture Cropping, including the species of crops you’re planting (rather than just listing that you’re cover cropping) may increase your scores as specific types of crops have a higher impact on soil carbon sequestration than others.

Our team will work closely with you to ensure your profile is as rich and as accurate as possible!

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Keen to learn more?

If you're excited by what you've learnt about Geora's Impact Scores and would like to learn more - get in touch by starting a live chat with us today or shoot us an email via hello@geora.io.

We can't wait to hear from you!

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