Loam Bio’s CarbonBuilder could ‘change agriculture’

In a world-first, an Australian-made product which ‘will change agriculture’ has been given the scientific tick of approval.

In a world-first, a new Australian-made seed treatment with the power to potentially boost farmer profits by millions of dollars has been given the scientific tick of approval.

Orange-based agtech firm Loam Bio has developed CarbonBuilder, a powder loaded with microscopic fungi which, when spread out over crops, pulls carbon from the air into soil.

The higher the carbon in your earth, the higher the nutrient ability and resilience, therefore better quality crops at a bigger yield.

Farmer Steve Nicholson, from Forbes in NSW, was the first in the world to trial the new product before it went to market, spreading the powder on his canola, wheat and barley crops.

“It’s been 12 months on from last year’s crop and the crop yield was fantastic,” Mr Nicholson said. “We’re still waiting to see how much carbon we actually made.”

Mr Nicholson said projections were for a whopping yield increase of five to ten per cent.

Loam's CarbonBuilder product for wheat, barley and canola crops.

Mr Nicholson, who with his family manages a mixed farming operation growing barley, oats, canola and legumes as well as running sheep, cattle and operating a topsoil business, said the real kicker from using CarbonBuilder was how much money he can make from the carbon, not just his crops.

“The elephant in the room is how much carbon I grow and what it’s worth,” he said.

“(I think) we’ll be able to get 100 dollars per one ACCU (Australian Carbon Credit Unit) per hectare, and that’s the very bottom I reckon.

“If we can get ACCUs granted then we can use those to offset our own emissions, no greenwashing, that’s just it.

“We’re actually carbon-neutral, no bullsh**t about it. We’ve taken x amount of carbon from the atmosphere and stuffed it in the soil.

“And if there’s an excess, we can sell them anywhere in the world.”

Mr Nicholson said if he got one ACCU from every hectare of his family property, which sits at approximately 4000 hectares, he could see a minimum extra $400,000 added to his bottom line.

Loam Bio chief product officer Robbie Oppenheimer is similarly optimistic for the product and what it can do for farms and farmers.

Dr Oppenheimer, an Oxford graduate, was born in New England in the north of NSW, growing up on a sheep property, and is now the research and development lead for Loam Bio, which has more than 130 employees, with facilities in Sydney and Minnesota.

For a long time, he lamented the fact there were “no good tools for broadacre cropping in helping soil carbon,” but believes the company has struck gold with CarbonBuilder.

Loam Bio chief product officer Dr Robbie Oppenheimer. Picture: Rachael Lenehan

“As of right now, we’re pretty fortunate,” he said. “It’s the first product of its type — there’s other stuff out there to fix disease (in soil), but this is the first focused on carbon.

“We know there will be others of its type coming, which is ultimately good for farmers so they have options.”

The company is aware competitors will be hot on their heels after a recently-published Western Sydney University study commissioned by Loam proved the microscopic fungi, when applied to cropping land, can provide up to 9.4 per cent more carbon in soil as opposed to without the fungi.

But, at least for the time being, Loam is winning the race with the product “already being used across tens of thousands of hectares in the two months we’ve been selling it,” according to Dr Oppenheimer.

“We were all so excited when it came together, and how significant it is for farmers. Agricultural soil is the world’s largest carbon sink, and we think we’ve developed the key to unlock it.”

Along with the powder, which has 100 million invisible fungi spores per every gram, Loam Bio has designed a patented box to attach to an air seeder, which has its own metering device with a screen that can sit inside a tractor cabin for ease of application.

Mr Nicholson said the application technology was equally important.

“Over the 40-odd years I’ve been an agronomist and a farmer I’ve seen some great ideas from smart people, but people don’t think about the application,” Mr Nicholson said.

“We always knew there was something else we could do. We could always build good carbon through good farming practice, but it always depends on rainfall.

“We’re just at the head of what it could do for agriculture. If this does what we want it to do and what we expect it will do, this will change agriculture.”