# How does a dairy cooperative or brand count member farmers' emissions in its Scope 3?

Canonical: https://senseible.earth/answers/dairy-member-farm-emissions-scope-3

Member farms are outside the dairy's control, so their emissions go in Scope 3 Category 1, purchased goods, even in a cooperative the farmers own. Estimate them from a sample of member farms: herd numbers, milk yield and feed, converted with IPCC methods, then scale to total milk procured.

## Where the boundary sits in a cooperative

- Union or brand plants, chilling centres and tankers it owns: Scope 1 and 2.
- Bulk milk coolers at village societies: Scope 2 of whoever has operational control of the cooler. If the society runs it, its power is part of the purchased milk footprint; if the union runs it, it is the union's Scope 2.
- Member farms: Scope 3 Category 1. Farmers owning shares in the cooperative does not bring their farms into its control.
- Cattle feed from the union's own feed plant: the plant's energy is the union's Scope 1 and 2. Do not count the same feed plant energy again inside the farm footprint.

## What to collect from a member sample

1. Pick a sample of farms across villages and herd sizes, weighted by the milk each group supplies.
2. Record animals by type: milking cows, dry cows, buffalo, young stock.
3. Record milk supplied per farm from the society's collection records, which you already hold.
4. Record feed: concentrate, green and dry fodder, and how manure is handled.
5. Repeat each year with the same method so trends mean something.

## The sources to include

All of these are CO2e. State the GWP edition you used, for example AR6, and keep it.

- Enteric methane from each animal type, from IPCC Tier 1 factors or Tier 2 if you have feed and yield data.
- Manure methane and nitrous oxide, from how dung is stored or used.
- Feed production, including fertiliser and diesel for fodder.
- Farm electricity for pumps and chaff cutters, and diesel.

## Scaling and reporting

Divide the sample's emissions by its milk to get kg CO2e per litre, then multiply by total milk procured in the year. Report it as a separate Category 1 line, labelled as an estimate from a sample, with the sample size. Where only milk payments are known for a group of suppliers, a spend-based estimate fills the gap, labelled with its wider uncertainty.

## Worked example: enteric methane only, from a sample (illustrative)

- Sample: 1,000 dairy cows supplying 20,00,000 litres a year
- Enteric methane: 1,000 x 58 kg CH4 (IPCC 2006 Tier 1, dairy cattle, Indian subcontinent) = 58,000 kg CH4
- In CO2e at AR6 GWP 27: 58,000 x 27 = 15,66,000 kg CO2e
- Per litre: 15,66,000 / 20,00,000 = 0.783 kg CO2e
- Scaled to 10 crore litres procured: 0.783 x 10,00,00,000 = 78,300 t CO2e

Enteric methane from cows only. Buffalo, manure, feed and farm energy are added the same way.

## What Senseible does here

Senseible puts purchased milk and other Scope 3 lines in a separate supplier evidence trail and gives spend-based estimates, labelled as spend-based, where only payments are known. The member sample survey and herd calculation are done by the dairy.

- [Dairy enteric methane in India](https://senseible.earth/answers/dairy-enteric-methane-emissions-india)
- [Bulk milk cooler electricity](https://senseible.earth/answers/bulk-milk-cooler-electricity-per-litre)
- [Scope 3 supplier evidence](https://senseible.earth/scope-3-supplier-evidence)

Sources: [GHG Protocol Scope 3 Standard (2011), Category 1, purchased goods and services](https://ghgprotocol.org/corporate-value-chain-scope-3-standard), [IPCC 2006 Guidelines, Volume 4, Chapter 10, Table 10.11; IPCC 2019 Refinement, Volume 4, Chapter 10](https://www.ipcc-nggip.iges.or.jp/public/2006gl/), [IPCC AR6 WG1, Chapter 7, Table 7.15 (methane GWP)](https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg1/)

Last reviewed 2026-10-18.