Guy R. Webb is an Agronomist and Researcher. He is also Cofounder and Global Agronomic Lead at Loam Bio.
When cropping meets the carbon economy: play the offensive game
Guy R. Webb
With business Greenhouse Gas emissions reporting now a reality in Australia, and agriculture becoming increasingly entangled in the carbon economy, how can farmers best position themselves?
As an agronomist in the Australian agricultural carbon space, I see opportunity and risk ahead for farming in the evolving carbon economy. Farmers may be asked to account for, and then ultimately pay for, emissions (i.e., fertiliser, electricity, fuel, methane etc.) created in the production of agricultural produce (i.e., grain, meat, fibre). The philosophy of “Occam's Razor” suggests that the most likely scenario will be that insetting emissions will simply become a requirement to market entry. Importantly, the grower will bear this cost of lowering the on farm emissions i.e., reduce fertiliser, fuel, or livestock from burping. Not a very straightforward task on the farm and often economically very unpalatable.
There is a narrative in the landscape that agriculture should ”socialise” its carbon emissions with the value chain by ”insetting” carbon emissions into its saleable produce. Nice sounding words. It’s actually code for ”the rest of the value chain wants to push emissions downstream, off their books…back to the farmer”.
Why? I call it the ”Pepe-Le-Pew effect”. Remember that old Looney Tunes cartoon skunk that was always being overly amorous with the cat, and the cat seriously didn't want anything to do with the skunks unwanted advances? Well, Pepe-Le-Pew represents carbon emissions and the cat represents businesses.
It’s a game of ”pass-the-(emissions) parcel” and don't get caught with it when the music stops or else you will pay.
That’s where farming has a seriously powerful unfair advantage.
Carbon is good for soils, crops, resilience, and food security. Soils are the largest terrestrial carbon sink on the planet. Farmers manage that carbon sink. No other industry has access to this huge carbon sink. It’s a fortunate ”unfair advantage”, the ace in our hand in this carbon economy.
There are two reasons for this: one, the farmer can grow another valuable enterprise-stacked crop (soil carbon credits); and two, it's a chance to rehabilitate tied soils with more carbon and get paid for it. They call that a ”win-win”, and it's the only way this carbon space is going to truly work in agriculture’s favour I believe.
Science confirms we can indeed build carbon in soils in both grazing and annual cropping systems. This changes the game. When a landholder can reliably store a carbon credit on their own farm, in their own soils, that carbon credit value sits on the farmer's own balance sheet as a financial instrument. No one else owns those credits. The farmer is free to use whatever financial mechanism s/he chooses to wield that influence in the carbon economy.
I'll leave this with the astute to think about what that actually means to a farm business. For mine, I’d rather play offensively, enhance my soil health and be on the front foot in the carbon game than be a defensive bunny in the headlights. Best of all, growing soil carbon credits allows the industry to truly earn a global green image in the climate space by actually physically removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere whilst improving soils … at scale. A virtuous and welcomed win-win-win with legacy.
NEWS
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Trace minerals are required for optimal growth, reproduction, and immunity. Optimising trace mineral status relying solely on oral supplements across a herd may fail because of variation in individual intake and reduced absorption due to antagonism of other ration components and minerals. The use of injectable trace mineral supplements has been associated with positive reproductive outcomes including improved conception rate, increased odds of pregnancy and greater final in calf rate. A study conducted on 2,168 dairy cows, administered injectable trace minerals, four weeks prior to calving and again four weeks prior to the start of mating showed treated animals had a 3.3 per cent greater final in-calf rate, and a reduced time from start of mating to conception, compared to control animals 1 . The Importance of B12 Dr Carl Eden, Technical Services Veterinarian with Boehringer Ingelheim says “Vitamin B12 is sometimes referred to as a ‘super vitamin’ because it is only required in very small amounts but vital to many essential metabolic pathways. However, demand for B12 can vary considerably during the year and we see serum levels of B12 fall at critical times, such as the first few months after calving.” Vitamin B12 contains cobalt, so deficiency in cobalt can lead to deficiency in vitamin B12 because ruminants get most of their B12 as a byproduct of ruminal fermentation where the bacteria in their rumen assemble B12 from cobalt for use by the cow. Sub-optimal trace mineral and vitamin B12 status at calving, mating, and drying off has been shown to negatively impact growth, reproduction, and immunity. Using a trace mineral injectable containing vitamin B12 can improve trace mineral and vitamin B12 status at these critical times. Marks-Min with Vitamin B12 – The Evidence In the largest trace element study to date, Marks-Min Injectable Trace Mineral with Vitamin B12 demonstrated remarkable results when compared to a reference trace mineral injection. “Given the differences between Marks-Min and other products on the market, we wanted to generate a compelling data set to demonstrate how effective it was compared to the pioneer product. We entrusted this work to a third-party research company” says Dr Eden. “We chose farms that were at the top of their game from a reproductive perspective. We made sure that the farms had no evidence of trace element or vitamin B12 deficiencies or excess.” Across all outcomes of interest, Marks-Min demonstrated clear non-inferiority when compared to the reference product. Outcomes measured included submission, pregnancy and conception rates, and six week in-calf rate. Marks-Min demonstrated it is highly suited as an alternative treatment to the reference product. Reference: 1. Hawkins, D., and B. V. S. Franklin. New Zealand Dairy Veterinarians Newsletter 24 (2007): 12-16 Company website: livestockfirst.com.au Company email address: CustomerCare.Australia@boehringer-ingelheim.com Company video: https://vimeo.com/1138807630?fl=pl&fe=cm
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