Aussie stations help UK fund deliver negative carbon balance

A foreign agricultural asset manager has revealed it sequestered three times more carbon than it produced in the last 12 months. See the details.

A UK-based agricultural asset manager involved in two high profile NSW rural property sales last year has revealed it sequestered three times more carbon than it produced in the last 12 months.

London-based Sustainable Land Managament Partners, with $610 million in agricultural and forestry assets under management in the USA, Australia and Ireland, has sequestered an estimated 100,000 tonnes CO2e of carbon in soil and vegetation - the equivalent to emissions from 23,000 barrels of oil.

From its agricultural portfolio SLM Partners produced 30,400 tonnes CO2e while sequestering 99,996 tonnes CO2e.

The regenerative land manager’s report also said it had sold a total of 1.8 million ACCUs, equivalent to 64,777 tonnes CO2e, creating a net negative carbon balance of 4819 tonnes CO2e.

In Australia SLM Partners manages $152 million worth of assets under management spanning 291,967 hectares, producing annual crops, grass-fed beef and carbon credits, using a mixture of minimising tillage and soil disturbance, planting cover crops, diverse crop rotations, reducing synthetic fertilisers and integrated pest management.

SLM Partners owns four properties in southern Queensland and northwest NSW as part of their Australia Livestock Fund. Picture: NIGEL HALLETT

SLM’s Australia Livestock Fund is its major investment vehicle in Australian agriculture, comprising three stations near Cunnamulla, Qld, and a fourth station south of the border near Bourke, covering a combined 284,500ha, with backing from Danish pension fund Pensionskassernes Administration (PKA).

Globally, the SLM Partners portfolio now spans a total of 300,000 hectares, producing 21,000 tonnes of pasture-raised beef, nuts, olives and more than ten species of grains, with 22,000 m3 of timber.

Managing partner Paul McMahon said investors seeking regenerative agricultural and forestry assets was the driver behind a significant expansion of the portfolio in the last year.

“For too long, short-termism has driven the degradation of land itself – its soils, its freshwater, its biodiversity – and the healthy ecosystems farmers and foresters rely on to operate land profitably for the long term,” he said.

“It is time for landowners to wake up to the risk from degradation of their assets and embrace the upside presented by regenerative management.”

SLM Partners are managing the Gilgal Station near Cootamundra with Impact Ag Partners.

Last year SLM Partners launched a joint venture with Impact Ag Partners to invest in mixed farming and carbon opportunities in NSW, with the duo now managing Palgrove’s 3605 hectares Gilgal Station near Cootamundra, and the Fairholme Aggregation near Forbes, both of which were purchased by a German family office via LAM LUF Overseas GMBH, a subsidiary of Lukas Asset Management’s Land und Fortwirtschaft fund.

The results of SLM Partners’ portfolio comes as the Australian Government announced a $63.8 million package in the 2024-25 Budget to support the reduction of emissions in the agriculture industry.

The federal government announced $30.8 million across four years from 2024-25 to 2027-28 to build on the Carbon Farming Outreach Program.

$28.7 million has also been allocated from 2024-25 to 2027-28 (and $900,000 ongoing from 2028) to improve greenhouse gas accounting in the agriculture and land sector at the national through to farm level.