Hard work needed to earn soil carbon credits says NSW farmer

A NEW South Wales cattle producer who has become the latest recipient of soil carbon credits says a ramped-up management program has underpinned the project over the past eight years.

Nick Blomfield from Cheyenne Pastoral at Walcha has long been a proponent of regenerative agriculture and was recently issued about 12,000 Australian Carbon Credit Units for his project through carbon developer Carbon Link.

Mr Blomfield said the project was based on increasing stocking densities and rest periods – with the property now hosting 144 paddocks over 750ha.

“It was all about intensifying our grazing system with water and wire, we had a do a lot of fencing and a lot of plumbing to start the project.

“I did a little bit of pasture cropping but it didn’t up being part of my management program. I found that in the winters that were wet enough for the pasture crop to grow, it was wet enough to grow native grasses and when I really needed it we didn’t have enough rain to grow the crop.”

The project was credited for gains in carbon between 2016 and 2021, which included bushfires and drought. As part of the first group to receive large-scale issuances of soil carbon credits, the project has been with the Clean Energy Regulator for the past two years, undergoing multiple audits.

As soil carbon is a relatively new part of the agricultural industry, Mr Blomfield was asked what his advice would be to other producers considering it as an option.

He said it was a complex process to start and recommended producers go to providers that take thorough measurement.

“Starting a project is relatively complex, it takes a lot of time and a lot of paperwork – which our provider took care of,” he said,

“Having been through the process, I can’t possibly see how a low-cost provider can get the project across the line – it takes a lot of information to keep the regulator happy and countless hours of paperwork.

“When you get statistical variation because you haven’t done enough measurement the regulator discounts you credits. So, you can end up in a situation where you have put away carbon, but you might not get anything for it.”

Mr Blomfield acknowledged that the costs and complexity of signing up soil carbon projects was a barrier to entry and said a simplified system would unlock the market to a lot of other producers.

“The barriers to entry are huge, they are still developing the carbon industry for the regulator which a bit of a strange thing,” he said.

“I have had the project for eight years now and I have only earnt credits, I actually haven’t made any money from it yet.”

Mr Blomfield is currently able to monetise his soil carbon credits and has an obligation to keep the carbon in the ground for the next 20 years. He said recent changes to the methodology allowing them to test every three years will help with cashflow issues.

“We have already done the preliminary testing for the next round of credits, which appears to be another increase,” he said.

“We will go forward from here every three years, which bring forward the cashflow and stop us from having to deal with such long-distance lumps of cashflow. Carbon for me is the single biggest increase in productivity anyway, so I will keep managing my land in a way that promotes carbon sequestration.”

Potential for soil carbon to benefit the industry

Mr Blomfield said there was real potential for soil carbon to benefit the livestock industry in the long term – by unlocking new income for improving management.

“I don’t think there is an agriculturalist that is not interested in soil health and soil carbon is the biggest step into soil health,” he said.

“Since it has been monetised, soil carbon has taken over from regenerative agriculture – which can be a bit of a distraction.

“Once people realise they can improve land management and earn more income it will catch on like wildfire. It’s a bit like low till and no till farming back in the day, when people realised they were saving more money on diesel than they were losing in yield, they took it on massively.”

Mr Blomfield said the leg up in soil carbon has improved the carrying capacity of his property.

“Before we started making these land management changes, the property ran about 2500 DSE,” he said.

“Now I am able to run about 5000 DSE, generally in low annual rainfall years. We are not required to spray a heap of country of use fertilisers to do it – so I think those production gains will be fairly sticks and hard to reverse.”

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Source credit: Beef Central. Eric Barker