Low carbon marketing

[Muddyroads]

I’ve done one, and because we’re organic and buy virtually nothing in we appear to be negative, but we had to do sequestration estimates as there’s no historical carbon or OM data as with the vast majority of UK farms I assume. We also have a wide range of soil types for a relatively small farm.
One question I have is whether measuring carbon as a percentage of soil content is an accurate way of doing things? Presumably if soil increases over the years, it isn’t all going to be additional carbon?

 

[holwellcourtfarm]

One question I have is whether measuring carbon as a percentage of soil content is an accurate way of doing things? Presumably if soil increases over the years, it isn’t all going to be additional carbon?

@Kiwi Pete might be able to help there as he's increased both his soil depth and his OM Content.

 

[Kiwi Pete]

The devil will be in the detail. If you have ruminants, you'll have their methane emissions counted. Perhaps the protein leaving the farm will count as exporting carbon?? Well managed PP is a great way of sequestering carbon - maybe a certain biomass quantity per acre as a target?

This isn't sequestering much
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But this really is
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Bonus point for identifying the chap in the hat

He's world famous!

 

[Kiwi Pete]

@Kiwi Pete might be able to help there as he's increased both his soil depth and his OM Content.

It's far from an accurate test, I mean it's interesting enough to observe what's happening here and there on your farm and help you decide what's worth doing and what's not.
But in the context of doling out money to reward what you should already be doing if you want a better future, it's both too simplistic and too flawed

 

[Brisel]

I’ve done one, and because we’re organic and buy virtually nothing in we appear to be negative, but we had to do sequestration estimates as there’s no historical carbon or OM data as with the vast majority of UK farms I assume. We also have a wide range of soil types for a relatively small farm.
One question I have is whether measuring carbon as a percentage of soil content is an accurate way of doing things? Presumably if soil increases over the years, it isn’t all going to be additional carbon?

Interesting. Do you do any cultivation?

The soil carbon is hard to measure. Michael Gove told DEFRA to come up with a metric for it but luckily the professionals managed to explain that it is so inconsistent. What do you mean in your last sentence? New soil or raised organic matters?

I did some basic "soil health"indicators like burst tests, Dumas OM, VESS and worm counts as a baseline for changing management practices with a move towards conservation agriculture (low disturbance drilling, wider crop rotation and soil armour in the form of cover crops). That was for our own information more than anything else.