Soil carbon sequestration

Graham Finlayson: I've been out in this area all my life, grew up only 30 km away. 

It's a semi-arid, dry environment, brittle environment.

And we're finding that using cattle is the best way that we have of improving on our ecology.

Scott Brown: Yeah, fourth generation farmer. Great grandfather took up place in 1909.

I'm sheep, run sheep and cattle and trying to be a grass farmer.

Our climate here, we get all four seasons, often in one day. Our natural
perennials here are phalaris/coxfoot based pastures. 

Graham: Hi, I'm Graham Finlayson. I'm at Bokhara Plains. My wife Kathy and our daughter Harriet and her partner Chad all live out here. We're 35 km north of Brewarrina in Western New South Wales. It's a 23,000 acre cattle breeding operation predominantly and we have a strong focus on trying to improve our environment and using intensive cell grazing management.

Scott: My name is Scott Brown. I farm here at Grovedale, Trunkey Creek, south of Blayney, Central Tablelands. 

I run sheep and cattle. Sheer around about 4,000 sheep, and trade cattle throughout the year as the feed allows me. Got about 80 heifers on at the moment.

We've started. We've done all our baselining. 

Things are changing probably quicker than I imagined, but not quick enough.

Most things that start out simple, but they do get more complex as you go into it. There's definitely challenges, but I believe there's lots of rewards along the way. And it's not actually the carbon stuff at the end of the day. It's
the extra production, the more you get to know your own place and your own animals.

Graham: There's been a big shift in our grazing management where we are right at the moment with that carbon project area because we've got the cattle in there. 

Um, yeah, we've doubled the density of animals that we would normally have in there per hectare. It's tracking along pretty well. We've had a reasonable year like we're a little bit above our average rainfall. 

So we've put a lot of fencing in. We've got two sort of sides of that. One we're developing country to be more intensive. That gives us two sort of positive outcomes. One is more density and more evenness of graze. And the other is we're going to build in a longer recovery to drive biodiversity as well as perennial grass growth. So you know those both of those things will help us get more soil carbon into the ground.

Scott: Changes here mainly come down to uh stock density. So a lot of that's wire and water to get smaller paddocks. Mob up sheep. In time gone by 150 sheep was a big mob for us. It was all set stocking. Now the ewes are in mobs from 800 to a,000. They just are moved about regularly to maintain the growth in the grass.

Graham: We have long recovery periods out here and long periods where it doesn't do much. So, what I am at the moment is really happy with the condition of our land where we've been through those areas with the more intensive grazing and what's going to happen when it rains. And I don't know when it's going to rain, but when it does, um it's going to be really interesting to see what happens.

Scott: The application of lime here is fairly critical as in we are a acidic soil type here. So to try and get a balance back in to get all the bacteria working and to make use of our nitrogen and phosphorus that's already in the soil.
Actually using lime helps release some of that. But instead of going for one big hit as we would traditionally do, smaller applications over time so as that all the plants get to adjust as they go through their cycles.

Unexpected benefits along the way are probably the how quickly it can increase production in certain areas. It has a cost to it. There's no risk about it.

But just the change in landscape to me, some of the places that I've never seen grass grow actually will grow grass if it gets a chance, if it gets that rest period. I've done a lot more multi-species stuff. And my pastures now instead of having a straight phalaris coxfoot pasture as traditional here, I like to see the turnips and the chicory, all the deep rooted stuff that I can get the soil actually working with. And the stock love the variety. If they go into a paddock you actually see them, they don't just hit the one thing, they'll go across the
whole smorgasbord. 

Graham: We're not stepping into something that's completely new. It's just an intensification. So, our animals are handling it really well and we put a lot of effort into getting them right. 

You know, too often there's been people go into an intensive livestock grazing system and not got that animal welfare component nailed and and we're very conscious of doing that properly.

We're not doing anything that other people can't learn how to do. And you know my advice to anyone would be to get as much education as you can about doing things from your business, through the ecology, through animal management and go from there. And just don't be frightened to make mistakes but keep going forward. 

Scott: Get good advice, get good help so as that you are going in with your eyes open and know what you need to record, capture.

So in the next 10 years, hoping to see the changes where all the paddocks get a 40-day rest period before the stock go back in it. That figure may change. It may go up or may go down as we learn as we go along.

For the future of the place, yeah, I'd like to see it go to my kids for the tradition to continue on, but to continue on in a way that is viable both financially and economical. 

Graham: We've always diversified and we're willing to do anything and you know to give a financial return. But to have the place not only be profitable enough to give our daughter and her partner a great life but to also let us have a great retirement phase, cos I'll be still poking around here moving cows around.

I'm sure that that's retirement for me. People think of it as work. I think if I can get to the stage where that's all I did, I'd be happy.

Sean Hoobin, Atlas Carbon: There are a whole range of activities that a carbon service provider can do. 

A land holder can employ them just for the very start to get the project off. to get it registered. We like to put a lot of work in up front to get the property right, to get the actions right, and the financials right, so the project's set up well. 

We make sure we're there for the entire journey so we can work with the landholder to make sure the right actions are happening on the property to build soil carbon. So they don't just register the project and walk away. They're going to help you with the how of a soil carbon project. How to implement it, how to build soil carbon, and how to monitor that. 

So you got to check out what services they offer and if they're going to support you and what you need. See which one you have the best relationship with and who offers what you need for your property and your values. 

So it's important to take your time in the initial stages. 

There are things like the industry code of conduct and carbon service providers who sign up to that they are committing to a range of standards basically to inform the client of what's happening, to give them the information they need and to treat them fairly and make sure they get proper financial and legal advice. 

So we're registering under the 2021 soil carbon method which is part of Australia's ACCU scheme - Australian Carbon Credit Unit Scheme.

An ACCU is an Australian carbon Credit Unit. It is equivalent to one ton of CO2. 

It is a government piece of legislation so it is quite rigorous but that's a good thing in the end because the credits that come out will be of high value. 

You can't get a carbon credit just for business as usual but you need to do something new. A grazier needs to sort of change their grazing practice, look after this soil, do pasture improvement. 

You take a soil sample across the property at the baseline. You do your activity and then you do the soil sampling again. So you can actually measure the carbon growth. And then when you report on these and demonstrate they've been achieved, you can get payment from the government or from the market depending on what the ACCU price is. 

We're looking to register about 12 grazing properties for the project and it'll cover around 20,000 hectares and generate over a million ACCUs for the 25 project year period. And they do vary quite a lot. Like we've got some properties which are 6,000 hectares and some that are 500. 

So this is going to be an interesting part of the project to see how different properties in different regions with different rainfall and soils respond to the activities that happen there and hopefully prove up that soil carbon projects are viable across different regions in New South Wales.

It’s important for land managers to understand the soil and landscape to maximise potential soil carbon capture. This webinar will showcase NSW soil and land data that farmers and advisors can use to determine their farm’s soil carbon potential.

Soil data available to inform soil carbon management – Fact sheet

Presented by: Peter Dahlhaus (Federation University), Brian Jenkins and Linda Henderson (NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water).  

Hosted by: NSW Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development. 

What does the data say about your land’s suitability for a soil carbon project?  Learn how to interpret soil data and understand land capability for building soil carbon, including:  

• Above and below ground factors.
• Interpreting soil data to assess land suitability for increasing soil carbon.
• Identifying opportunities for additional land management practices to optimise soil carbon. 

Thinking about a soil carbon project? Understand soil data first – Fact sheet

Presented by: Karl Anderson (NSW Department of Primary Industries and Regional. Development) and Brian Murphy (Soil Knowledge Network)