Carbon farming! What are the challenges?

[dafnesartorio]

Hi everyone,
I’m currently looking into the topic of carbon farming and would love to speak to farmers and farming organizations who are interested in this topic.

I really want to know what are the challenges you guys see to adopt those practices and also how benefitial do you think this could be for farmers, financially speaking.

Do you know anyone who can help?

Thanks in advance !

 

[John Slejpner]

All farmers are carbon farming...we move carbon from atmospheric CO2 into more useful / and or marketable stuff.
Some government "here to help" types want to monetise carbon fixing into soil somehow.
Bless em.

 

[melted welly]

Hi everyone,
I’m currently looking into the topic of carbon farming and would love to speak to farmers and farming organizations who are interested in this topic.

I really want to know what are the challenges you guys see to adopt those practices and also how benefitial do you think this could be for farmers, financially speaking.

Do you know anyone who can help?

Thanks in advance !

Being cynical, I’d say that “carbon farming” would mostly be beneficial to the advisory and auditing industries. Would ultprovide nothing to growers, customers or environment.

Sounds a great idea, but really what would happen is another load of shiny suits and Schoffels, attracted by government grants shoehorn their way into the supply chain between producer and consumer, invent some arbitrary “standard” that then becomes mandatory and thus providing a nice little job for life.

Added cost for no added value.

Oh and just to keep things up to date, they’ll roll out ever more pernickity stipulations to the scheme each year to prove how indispensable they now are, as X number of producers haven’t conformed to the new rule of only baling straw on leap years or something equally stupid, so they need to be ever present to check that everyone conforms.

First hurdle m to cross is to address the issue of livestock actually being positive in the sequestration of carbon. There’s a tricky one, coz it’s very popular to treat opinions to the contrary as accepted fact because they get repeated often and loudly.

 

[Bman]

will stuff like this above actually happen as country's try to rebuild there economies?

 

[Brisel]

will stuff like this above actually happen as country's try to rebuild there economies?

Yes - Greta, Monbiot and Cwis Packham will be back as soon as Covid 19 has faded further back in the news. Expect a carbon tax on fertiliser - we already have fuel duty & the ag exemption was threatened in the most recent Budget.

 

[Brisel]

Hi everyone,
I’m currently looking into the topic of carbon farming and would love to speak to farmers and farming organizations who are interested in this topic.

I really want to know what are the challenges you guys see to adopt those practices and also how beneficial do you think this could be for farmers, financially speaking.

Do you know anyone who can help?

Thanks in advance !

Carbon is a very broad church. Anything specific? Offsetting? Building soil carbon? Agroforestry?

Have a look around the website of BASE UK here Also, have a look at conservation and regenerative agriculture. It's more about saving the farm's bottom line and sustainability than saving the planet, though that's a side benefit.

 

[dafnesartorio]

Carbon is a very broad church. Anything specific? Offsetting? Building soil carbon? Agroforestry?

Have a look around the website of BASE UK here Also, have a look at conservation and regenerative agriculture. It's more about saving the farm's bottom line and sustainability than saving the planet, though that's a side benefit.

Hi Brisel! thanks for that! We are mostly looking into building soil carbon. There are some companies building marketplaces around it, but to be honest they challenge is that there are so many intermediaries that farmers get very low profitability from this. I'm working with a big company on this and they are trying to find a way to increase the amount of $$ farmers actually get in the end. For this reason, I'd love to understand more from a farmer's perspective.

 

[Pilatus]

Hi Brisel! thanks for that! We are mostly looking into building soil carbon. There are some companies building marketplaces around it, but to be honest they challenge is that there are so many intermediaries that farmers get very low profitability from this. I'm working with a big company on this and they are trying to find a way to increase the amount of $$ farmers actually get in the end. For this reason, I'd love to understand more from a farmer's perspective.

What is the big company you are working with hoping to "actually get out of it at the end" and by what means ?????
Oh what does an "Innovation Consultant" like yourself actually do?? I live a very sheltered life so not up to speed with all these newfangled job titles

 

[matttargett4]

Carbon farming is simple

its about taking it from the air and putting it somewhere else

from a farming perspective you have to put more carbon in than you take out

crops harvest carbon, if it’s a tree crop the crop lasts a long time, if it’s an annual it doesn’t.

as an arable farmer removing crop residue and cultivation’s release carbon, do less of these and you sequester carbon.

as a stock farmer, you remove crop residue, animals eat it, then you haul it back again, with a good bit of the carbon intact, so in a roundabout way you remove less crop, also any bought in feed contributes to carbon.

in essence it’s really simple, the idea of selling the service I don’t like, for the above reasons and also the process is not simple, regular accountable enough to be able to make big promises to the likes of easy jet on the back of.

 

[steveR]

Hi everyone,
I’m currently looking into the topic of carbon farming and would love to speak to farmers and farming organizations who are interested in this topic.

I really want to know what are the challenges you guys see to adopt those practices and also how benefitial do you think this could be for farmers, financially speaking.

Do you know anyone who can help?

Thanks in advance !

I would be very interested to hear what is your (or your Clients) definition of "carbon farming" to be quite honest.

 

[SilliamWhale]

Carbon farming is simple

its about taking it from the air and putting it somewhere else

from a farming perspective you have to put more carbon in than you take out

crops harvest carbon, if it’s a tree crop the crop lasts a long time, if it’s an annual it doesn’t.

as an arable farmer removing crop residue and cultivation’s release carbon, do less of these and you sequester carbon.

as a stock farmer, you remove crop residue, animals eat it, then you haul it back again, with a good bit of the carbon intact, so in a roundabout way you remove less crop, also any bought in feed contributes to carbon.

in essence it’s really simple, the idea of selling the service I don’t like, for the above reasons and also the process is not simple, regular accountable enough to be able to make big promises to the likes of easy jet on the back of.

Nitrogen fecks it all up though

 

[DanniAgro]

Hi Brisel! thanks for that! We are mostly looking into building soil carbon. There are some companies building marketplaces around it, but to be honest they challenge is that there are so many intermediaries that farmers get very low profitability from this. I'm working with a big company on this and they are trying to find a way to increase the amount of $$ farmers actually get in the end. For this reason, I'd love to understand more from a farmer's perspective.

If you could genuinely increase the number of ££ farmers directly receive from the building of soil carbon without too great a cost or investment, then you might have something to offer. But these sorts of scheme always seem too general, without specific operating methods. so perhaps you should say how your company hopes to build soil carbon and the actual way that farmers will make money from it.

 

[Pilatus]

If you could genuinely increase the number of ££ farmers directly receive from the building of soil carbon without too great a cost or investment, then you might have something to offer. But these sorts of scheme always seem too general, without specific operating methods. so perhaps you should say how your company hopes to build soil carbon and the actual way that farmers will make money from it.

Being a cynic I expect it will be "1 for the farmer who takes all the risk", "2 for the company who has no where near as much risk as the farmer". A bit like Tesco "every little bit helps" ,yes, Helps Tesco!!

 

[Muddyroads]

Until carbon can be accurately and inexpensively measured, it’s difficult to see how things can progress, even if farmers can gain anything without middlemen (or women) taking it all. Measuring carbon percentage isn’t good enough, as certain practices build soil, not just carbon.

 

[Pilatus]

If you could genuinely increase the number of ££ farmers directly receive from the building of soil carbon without too great a cost or investment, then you might have something to offer. But these sorts of scheme always seem too general, without specific operating methods. so perhaps you should say how your company hopes to build soil carbon and the actual way that farmers will make money from it.

Perhaps one could start up a company called for example, “Industrial Ash Removal Services”, which charges the customer to take their industrial ash away, then goes along to Mr Farmer saying , I have got this fantastic ash which if spread at “X”tonnes per ha will increase the carbon in your soil by “Y” amount , and it will only cost you “Z”
amount per tonne. No doubt some forward thinking enthusiastic carbon free farmers would fall for it, especially if farmers eventually get payed a subsidy to be trying to farm carbon neutral.

 

[DanniAgro]

Perhaps one could start up a company called for example, “Industrial Ash Removal Services”, which charges the customer to take their industrial ash away, then goes along to Mr Farmer saying , I have got this fantastic ash which if spread at “X”tonnes per ha will increase the carbon in your soil by “Y” amount , and it will only cost you “Z”
amount per tonne. No doubt some forward thinking enthusiastic carbon free farmers would fall for it, especially if farmers eventually get payed a subsidy to be trying to farm carbon neutral.

Sounds like a plan, please send me your prospectus when you've got them printed!

 

[Pilatus]

Sounds like a plan, please send me your prospectus when you've got them printed!

As I am 69yrs I will leave it up to the younger ones who are wondering what to diversify into.

 

[DanniAgro]

Looking at your suggested proposal, I seem to remember the original idea of carbon credits was that the Industrial Ash Co would not actually charge "Z" but would make its money out of selling carbon credits to government or someone and might even pay the farmer something to go along with its plan.

 

[Pilatus]

Looking at your suggested proposal, I seem to remember the original idea of carbon credits was that the Industrial Ash Co would not actually charge "Z" but would make its money out of selling carbon credits to government or someone and might even pay the farmer something to go along with its plan.

Ok you have lost me ,so I will not comment.
Thanks.

 

[Goweresque]

Perhaps one could start up a company called for example, “Industrial Ash Removal Services”, which charges the customer to take their industrial ash away, then goes along to Mr Farmer saying , I have got this fantastic ash which if spread at “X”tonnes per ha will increase the carbon in your soil by “Y” amount , and it will only cost you “Z”
amount per tonne. No doubt some forward thinking enthusiastic carbon free farmers would fall for it, especially if farmers eventually get payed a subsidy to be trying to farm carbon neutral.

I think the water companies stole your business plan........