- Location
- Northumberland
@Maxicl Im a third generation farmer on my mixed farm in the far N of England.
I (like pretty much all farmers) try to farm in a way which is good for the land. Most of the farm is ploughable, and I have a few fields of ‘permanent pasture’ (ie. always grass) fields. The fields that are ploughable I have in a 7-year rotation of 5 years grass then 2 years of arable (barley or oats).
The grass part of the rotation is the ‘regenerative’ part- grass is brilliant at building up soil organic matter (SOM). SOM is excellent stuff for a number of reasons. It increases soil fertility, increases soil drainage and water-holding ability, reduces compaction and so on. Also SOM = carbon compounds so if SOM increases it means carbon is being sequestered; taken out of the air.
I’ve been farming like this for over 20 years now. Previously the land was cropped more intensively (more crop, less grass in the rotation). It worked fine, but I’m confident my levels of SOM are higher now.
The “Cattle and sheep cause climate change” narrative” is a lie based on a wilful misunderstanding of carbon cycles. I’ve lost count of the number of comparisons of livestock emissions vs other sectors (eg aviation), but any comparison is utterly invalid.
The driver of climate change is the build up of greenhouse gasses, primarily CO2, in the atmosphere.
When you, for example, travel by plane, fossil fuel is extracted from under the earth and put into the atmosphere where it stays contributing to the problem.
When you choose to eat a nice juicy steak from a farm like mine, it’s also true that that animal produced a lot of emissions (CO2 and CH4) BUT those emissions are NOT comparable with the ones from the plane because they are not cumulative. The calf that produced the emissions ate grass which photosynthesised CO2 out of the atmosphere- your basic carbon cycle. No extra cumulative carbon is produced to contribute to climate change.
The methane (CH4) issue is a sideshow. It is said to be a more potent greenhouse gas than CO2 but it is not cumulative- it breaks down naturally in the atmosphere in around 7 to 12 years to CO2 and heads back into the carbon cycle.
I hope that’s clearer for you.
I (like pretty much all farmers) try to farm in a way which is good for the land. Most of the farm is ploughable, and I have a few fields of ‘permanent pasture’ (ie. always grass) fields. The fields that are ploughable I have in a 7-year rotation of 5 years grass then 2 years of arable (barley or oats).
The grass part of the rotation is the ‘regenerative’ part- grass is brilliant at building up soil organic matter (SOM). SOM is excellent stuff for a number of reasons. It increases soil fertility, increases soil drainage and water-holding ability, reduces compaction and so on. Also SOM = carbon compounds so if SOM increases it means carbon is being sequestered; taken out of the air.
I’ve been farming like this for over 20 years now. Previously the land was cropped more intensively (more crop, less grass in the rotation). It worked fine, but I’m confident my levels of SOM are higher now.
The “Cattle and sheep cause climate change” narrative” is a lie based on a wilful misunderstanding of carbon cycles. I’ve lost count of the number of comparisons of livestock emissions vs other sectors (eg aviation), but any comparison is utterly invalid.
The driver of climate change is the build up of greenhouse gasses, primarily CO2, in the atmosphere.
When you, for example, travel by plane, fossil fuel is extracted from under the earth and put into the atmosphere where it stays contributing to the problem.
When you choose to eat a nice juicy steak from a farm like mine, it’s also true that that animal produced a lot of emissions (CO2 and CH4) BUT those emissions are NOT comparable with the ones from the plane because they are not cumulative. The calf that produced the emissions ate grass which photosynthesised CO2 out of the atmosphere- your basic carbon cycle. No extra cumulative carbon is produced to contribute to climate change.
The methane (CH4) issue is a sideshow. It is said to be a more potent greenhouse gas than CO2 but it is not cumulative- it breaks down naturally in the atmosphere in around 7 to 12 years to CO2 and heads back into the carbon cycle.
I hope that’s clearer for you.
elephance btw but not when they get in the corn 
