The modern farm: drought-resilient and lowering CO2

Rotational, or cell grazing, is a regenerative farming practice used to build soil carbon at Wilmot-operated properties.

In recent weeks the federal government has again flagged a potential push towards achieving net zero carbon emissions for Australia by 2050 with a focus on investing in technologies that could help decarbonise the economy. When Energy and Emissions Minister Angus Taylor announced his five-point low emissions technology plan last September, four of his priorities came as no surprise. But a few eyebrows were raised by his fifth — a focus on soil carbon. What, exactly, did he mean? And how was soil going to help the government’s strategy for dealing with the nation’s carbon emissions?

Recently, we saw a hint of how this could work. By employing carbon-friendly farming practices, the Macdoch Group’s Wilmot Cattle Company, which operates two grazing properties in the New England Tablelands, announced it had sequestered enough carbon in its farm soils to attract the attention of Microsoft. This global technology leader had been seeking ways to meet its ambitious goals for “carbon removal”, as part of its plan to become not just carbon neutral, by eliminating many of its ongoing emissions, but also to remove from the atmosphere the aggregate amount of CO2 Microsoft had emitted since it was founded by Bill Gates in his garage back in the 1970s.

So how big is the potential for soil to become a “carbon sink” and remove many tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere? The truth is, we don’t know for sure. But we do know two things that make this a big deal for Australia.

First, the amount of carbon stored in Australian soils before Europeans came here was significantly higher than it is today. The fortunes that were made “off the sheep’s back” came at quite a cost to the quality of Australian soils. The 19th century pressure to expand the nation’s sheep flocks meant every piece of available land and every blade of grass was put to that task. The 20th century saw further damage done by over-tillage and overgrazing, especially as droughts have bitten hard.

Second, we know that so-called “regenerative” agriculture can play a part in reversing this process. By maintaining ground cover to conserve moisture and by reducing the use of chemicals to enhance soil biology, a growing band of regenerative farmers are showing how the past degradation of our agricultural soils can be addressed.

A key regenerative farming practice used to build soil carbon at Wilmot-operated properties is rotational, or cell grazing. This involves progressively rotating mobs of cattle or sheep quite quickly — in a matter of days — through small paddocks which are then left to rest and regrow biodiverse vegetation for longer periods. As well as producing excellent results with livestock quality, this is demonstrably reversing past landscape degradation caused by decades of more conventional, continuous grazing.

Soil scientists do not yet know how far regenerative practices such as this can take the process of reversing the degradation of soil carbon because, to date, it has been difficult, and costly, to measure. But advances in measurement technologies and the accepted protocols for measuring soil carbon at depth will soon change this situation

For these reasons, the Prime Minister announced last week that he would soon be releasing a National Soil Strategy, which, among many other initiatives, will address the methods of measurement of soil carbon. All the evidence indicates that improving soil health offers significant national benefits, including the government’s estimate that soil could remove up to 90 million tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere each year while improving agricultural productivity and soil resilience.

Which brings me back to Angus Taylor’s plan. His decarbonisation strategy champions the development of new ways to account for carbon sequestration in farm soils, through a combination of measurement, modelling and remote sensing that will enable more of our farmers to make use of an accurate and cost-effective methodology to access the Emissions Reduction Fund and get paid for rebuilding their soil carbon.

But the soil story is not just about reducing carbon emissions. It turns out that as farmers build up soil carbon they are also building resilience to drought. And, as the Treasurer well knows, droughts can be very expensive to the public purse as farmers who can no longer afford to feed their livestock turn to the government for help, as happened during the punishing drought that ended, for most farmers, just 12 months ago.

So the government has a unique opportunity to forge policy linking the recently established Future Drought Fund with the Emissions Reduction Fund. By deploying the money held in these two funds, substantial progress could be made in building drought resilience and reducing atmospheric carbon.

How should this be done? The first imperative is to address the soil carbon measurement methodology. The second imperative is to roll out a concerted program to train farmers to become “carbon friendly”. A farmer training program such as this was last implemented during the 1990s under the umbrella brand of “FarmBiz”. Championed by then deputy prime minister and farmer John Anderson, the FarmBiz program was deemed a stunning success and resulted in many family farms developing stronger business resilience.

A similar program is now required to rebuild our soil carbon stocks, increase resilience to drought and help the nation reach that elusive target of carbon neutrality.

Alasdair MacLeod, executive chairman, Macdoch Group