Calculating volume and value of soil carbon

(This is an excerpt from a paper by Dr Christine Jones*, produced for the Living Soils seminars held in NSW recently. Information about Christine's Managing The Carbon Cycle Forums for the second half of this year appears at the end of this post.)

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Calculating volume and value of soil carbon

Soil carbon content is usually expressed as either a concentration (%) or a stock (t/ha). Unless the depth of measurement and soil bulk density parameters are known, it is not possible to accurately convert from one unit of measurement to the other.

For the sake of illustration however, some simple assumptions can be made. Changes in the stock of soil carbon (t/ha) for each 1% change in measured organic carbon (OC) status for a range of soil bulk densities and measurement depths are shown in Table 1. Numbers in brackets represent tCO2 equivalent. An explanation of these terms follows.

Soil bulk density (g/cm3) is the dry weight (g) of one cubic centimetre (cm3) of soil. The higher the bulk density the more compact the soil. Generally, soils of low bulk density are well structured and have ‘more space than stuff’. The lower the bulk density the more room for air and water and the better the conditions for soil life and nutrient cycling. Bulk density usually increases with soil depth. To simplify the table it was assumed that soil bulk density did not change with depth

CO2 equivalent. Every tonne of carbon lost from soil adds 3.67 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) gas to the atmosphere. Conversely, every 1 t/ha increase in soil organic carbon represents 3.67 tonnes of CO2 sequestered from the atmosphere and removed from the greenhouse gas equation.

For example, from TABLE 1 we can see that a 1% increase in organic carbon in the top 20 cm of soil with a bulk density of 1.2 g/cm3 represents a 24 t/ha increase in soil OC which equates to 88 t/ha of CO2 sequestered.

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TABLE 1. Changes in the stock of soil carbon (tC/ha) for each 1% change in measured organic carbon (OC) status for a range of soil bulk densities and measurement depths. Numbers in brackets represent tCO2 equivalent.


.....................Value of soil carbon.................

Sequestered carbon is a tradeable commodity. It has different values in different markets and the price is subject to market fluctuation. If the CO2 equivalent in the above example was worth $15/t, the value of sequestered soil carbon in ‘carbon credits’ would be $1,056/ha. If the soil carbon concentration was increased by 1% to a depth of 30cm rather than to 20 cm, this would represent 132 t/ha sequestered CO2 at a value of $1,980/ha.

If organic carbon concentrations were increased by 2% to a depth of 30 cm in the same example, this would represent $3,960/ha, that is, almost $400,000 in ‘carbon credits’ per 100 ha of regenerated land. These levels of increase in soil carbon are achievable, and have already been achieved, by landholders practicing regenerative cropping and grazing practices.

Even if organic carbon levels were only increased by 0.5% in the top 10 cm of soil this would represent 22 t/ha sequestered CO2 valued at $33,000 per 100 ha regenerated land (assuming a soil bulk density of 1.2 g/cm3 and a price of $15/t CO2 equivalent).

Carbon credits for sequestered carbon are not an annual payment. In order to receive further credits, the level of soil carbon would need to be further increased. It is also important that the OC level for which payment was received is maintained.

This is not difficult with regenerative regimes in which new topsoil is being formed. Biological activity is concentrated in the top 10cm of most agricultural soils, but regenerative practices rapidly expand this activity zone to 30 cm and deeper. Many benefits in addition to potential carbon credits accrue to increased root biomass and increased levels of biological activity in soil.

The majority of Australian soils have lost enormous quantities of organic carbon and this process needs to be reversed. What has gone up must come down. Soils, plants, animals and people will benefit when we take ‘recycle and re-use’ to the next logical step and recycle the excess carbon currently in the atmosphere.

Carbon and nitrogen

Nitrogen moves between the atmosphere and the topsoil in similar ways to carbon. The main difference is that the ‘way in’ for atmospheric carbon is via green plants whereas the ‘way in’ for atmospheric nitrogen is soil microbes. Soils acting as net sinks for carbon are usually also acting as net sinks for nitrogen. The flip side is that soils losing carbon are usually losing nitrogen too. In poorly aerated soils, some of this loss is in the form of nitrous oxide (N2O), a greenhouse gas up to 300 times more potent than carbon dioxide, while other losses include easily leached nitrate (NO3-) which often takes calcium, magnesium and potassium with it, leaving the soil more acidic (lower pH).

Rewarding landholders for farming in ways that build new topsoil and raise levels of soil carbon and nitrogen would have a significant impact on the vitality and productivity of Australia’s rural industries, reduce the incidence of dryland salinity and soil acidity – and reduce levels of greenhouse gases.

As a bonus, regenerative farming practices result in the production of food much higher in vitamin and mineral content and lower in herbicide and pesticide residues than conventionally produced foods.

A new era

If landholders were rewarded for regenerative practices that aggregate rather than aggravate soil structure, it would move us a long way towards solving the greenhouse gas ‘problem’, without the need to measure soil carbon levels at all. Any farming practice that improves soil structure is building soil carbon. When soils become light, soft and springy, easier to dig or till and less prone to erosion, waterlogging or dryland salinity - then organic carbon levels are increasing. If soils are becoming more compact, eroded or saline – organic carbon levels are falling.

Water, energy, life, nutrients and profit will increase on-farm as soil organic carbon levels rise. The alternative is evaporation of water, energy, life, nutrients and profit if carbon is mismanaged and goes into the air.

It’s about turning carbon loss into carbon gain.

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*Christine Jones is a grassland ecologist with more than 30 years experience studying plant species. She has a PhD in agronomy and botany.

‘Managing the Carbon Cycle’ Forums will be held in Horsham, VIC, 26-27 July 2006; Katanning, WA, 2-3 August 2006 and Kingaroy, QLD, 25-26 October 2006. See www.amazingcarbon.com or contact Christine@amazingcarbon.com

Heroes of Australian Agriculture join the Coalition

The Carbon Coalition has it's first Council, with the first Council 4 members accepting an advisory role in the campaign to have agricultural soils recognised as the repository of tradable carbon credits..

They are Christine Jones, who, in 30 years of research and teaching, has earned a reputation for scientific accuracy and belief in perennial grasses' ability to enrich soils and build carbon. Christine is Australia's best-known agricultural soils scientist.





David Marsh, Central West Conservation Farmer of the Year 2004, is a multi-award winning grazier from Booroowa. He is a carbon farmer, devoted to the principle of soil health, and made a profit each year in the recent drought.





Col Seis, the co-inventor of Pasture Cropping, was Central West Conservation Farmer of the Year 2005, has made a major contribution to carbon farming and soil health. He is pictured presenting the CWCFA Conservation Farmer of the Year 2006 to Maree and Robert Goodear from Casslis, who signed up as members of the Carbon Coalition the moment it was announced.

















Rick Maurice from Spicer's Creek is the chairman of the Central West Conservation Farmers' Association and a long time 'carbon farmer'.









We have approached several other 'heroes' to help guide the Coalition towards its objective. Keep your ear to the ground for news.

JOIN UP NOW!

To join the CARBON COALITION, email your contact details to michael@newhorizon.au.com. Or you can respond to this blog by clicking on the "Comment" pencil below and including your contact details in the Comment box. Or you can call 0417 280 540.

Michael Kiely
Convenor

Hooray for Abe from Vermont!

We got this comment about the launch of the Carbon Coalition a few moments ago...

" HOORAY!!!We are grass dairy farmers in Vermont, USA. We practice Holistic Management. We practice Keyline soil-building. We believe in soilbuilding. We love atmosphere. We think it can be done. We are with you. We are working to drum up more like us. Onward!!

Abe Collins"

Photo: Big Bill's Cow Pages, www.gl.umbc.edu/~dschmi1/links/cowpics.htm

The chief product of agriculture is character

"The chief product of the farm and of agriculture is persons," says Johnson D. Hill in Roots In The Soil. "Farming is not simply an economic 'money wage' activity; it is a way of life.... The farmer's work on the soil,as a aparticipation in nature's creative processes, must proceed in accord with nature's laws in order to be beneficial and successful. Learning in farm life... occurs by means of striking defeats, Nature is a serious and exacting master over its creatures. Discipline, patience, obedience, responsibility, and self-reliance are among the morally-worthy traits the farmer's mission engenders in him."

Native peoples, closer to the soil than western society, know this instinctively. "We are part of the earth and it is part of us... What befalls the earth befalls all the sons of the earth," said Chief Seattle in 1852.
It is part of a deep instinctive knowing that we all have and either respond to or shun out of ignorance or fear. But it gets you in the end. "The soil is the great connector of our lives, the source and destination of all." - Wendell Berry

Land is a fountain of energy

"Land, then, is not merely soil; it is a fountain of energy flowing through a circuit of soils, plants, and animals."

- Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac, 1949

It also flows through humans because we are made of it.
"...the Latin name for man, homo, derived from humus, the stuff of life in the soil." - Dr. Daniel Hiller

OOOpps! Guess she launched it...

She did it! Launched the Carbon Coalition with a few words at the end of her presentation yesterday at the Conservation Farmers and Stirpa Conference in Wellington... Christine Jones, the Carbon Goddess, was so excited when I sent her "The Soil Carbon Manifesto" (below) that she couldn't stop telling people about it. I wanted to seek advice from the senior regenerative farming figures that I know - Col Seis (inventor of pasture cropping), David Marsh (holistic manager extraordinaire), Rick Maurice (long time conservation farmer), Bruce Maynard (creator of the CWCMA's innovative Farm Systems training program that we are engaged in) and the Carbon Goddess herself. "Keep your eyes and ears open. Soon you'll be hearing a lot about the Carbon Coalition - a non-government not-for-profit organisation designed to bring carbon credits to your door," she told the 250 people attending. Then she lowered the boom and let the cat out of the bag. Several people signed up for it straight away. We were able to announce a blogsite at the end of the day: http://carboncoalitionoz.blogspot.com

Here's the cat:

The Soil Carbon Manifesto
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Carbon Coalition is a group of concerned Australians who believe the globe is facing a crisis of CO2 overload leading to Global Warming and that one of the most effective strategies for locking up carbon in our atmosphere is to be found in fostering deep-rooted plant species on land used for agriculture.

We urge governments and the business community to acknowledge the role that agricultural soils can play in addressing the Global Warming crisis. Farmers can play a central role in sequestering carbon in their soils by fostering deep-rooted perennial plant species that have significant biomass in their root systems.

Soil biomass is a natural carbon sink and should be used to create carbon credits which can be traded alongside those currently traded for forests.

SOILS CAN SAVE THE WORLD

We stand by the following facts:

• The terrestrial biosphere currently sequesters 2 billion metric tons of carbon annually. (US Department of Agriculture)

• Soils contain 82% of terrestrial carbon.

• "Enhancing the natural processes that remove CO2 from the atmosphere is thought to be the most cost-effective means of reducing atmospheric levels of CO2." (US Department of Energy)

• "Soil organic carbon is the largest reservoir in interaction with the atmosphere." (United Nations Food & Agriculture Organisation) - Vegetation 650 gigatons, atmosphere 750 gigatons, soil 1500 gigatons

• The carbon sink capacity of the world's agricultural and degraded soils is 50% to 66% of the historic carbon loss of 42 to 78 gigatons of carbon.

• Grazing land comprises more than half the total land surface

• An acre of pasture can sequester more carbon than an acre of forest.

• “Soil represents the largest carbon sink over which we have control. Improvements in soil carbon levels could be made in all rural areas, whereas the regions suited to carbon sequestration in plantation timber are limited.” Dr Christine Jones

BENEFITS FOR THE NATION AND THE COMMUNITY

The benefits of rewarding farmers for contributing to carbon sequestration include the following:

• Improved soil health, protecting our most precious national resource

• Increased soil fertility, boosting productivity and competitiveness

• Better usage of water, reducing erosion, silting, and salination

• Reduced danger of rising salt levels, lowering the water table

• Reduced loss of topsoil to wind and runoff with 100% ground cover

• Increased farm incomes, increasing viability in volatile industries

• Increased farm values, giving farm families financial flexibility

• Foster growth in farm communities, providing employment opportunities and protecting social infrastructure

FOUR LEVELS OF INVOLVEMENT

There are four ways people can get involved in the Carbon Coalition:

1. Advocacy - helping to get the message to the right people, the decision makers who can make this happen.

2. Learning Centres - a network of farms which can demonstrate to farmers how to increase carbon levels in their soils and qualify for 'carbon credited' status

3. Registered Growers - primary producers who have their soils baaseline tested for carbon so they may be elegible for backdated carbon sequestration credits when the trading system begins.

4. Consumers - a "This Product is Carbon Credited" logo could be attached to consumer goods made from produce grown on Carbo0n Credited soils, giving growers the prospect of a premium market price and enabling consumers to shop knowing they are having the least effect on the environment.



ACTION PLAN

The Carbon Coalition Action Plan includes the following:

1. Recruit advocates and influencers from within industry, government, and agriculture.
2. Form partnerships with companies and organizations dedicated to the same ends.
3. Identify and validate a soil carbon testing methodology that is commercially reliable and seek official recognition of its reliability.
4. Establish a register of agricultural operators wishing to record their base line soil carbon.
5. Establish a market for soil carbon credits by engaging governments and commercial operators.
6. Act as an "aggregator" of individual farms for commercial quantities of soil carbon.
7. Seek to establish a 'carbon futures' market to bring certainty to farmers' carbon sequestration incomes.

ISSUES THAT MUST BE ADDRESSED

The following issues must be addressed immediately to achieve a valid trading system:

1. Standardisation of a soil carbon measurement methodology.
2. Perceived risks associated with security of sequestration in soil.
3. Implication of sequestration for farm management.
4. Implication of sequestration for lan ownership and transfer.

YOUR IDEAS ARE WELCOMED

We need your help.
Please nominate other issues or provide comments on the issues identified.

TO JOIN THE COALITION

Simply respond to this post via the comment facility (click on the pencil) below, sending us your email address plus other contact details. You can email this blogsite to a friend by clicking on the envelope symbol.

Thank you for your support.

Michael Kiely
Co-Convenor

…………

The blogsite http://carboncoalitionoz.blogspot.com is the temporary home for www.carboncoalition.com.au while we build the website... The blogsite will continue to be used to update you on our activities.

Don't stress the sheep!

Q.1 What's the fastest way to move a mob of sheep? A.1. Slowly. Q.2. What's the worst thing you can do to a sheep? A.2. Confuse them.
These truisms are told as jokes around the backblocks and in country pubs. The worst thing you can do to your return on investment in stock is to stress them. Bruce Maynard, the creative mind behind the Central West Catchment Management Authority's innovative Farm Systems training system, is also "The Lazy Farmer" who believes there are simple ways to reduce the workload of people on the land.
Bruce offers a course called "Stree Free Stockman-ship". Stress is bad for animals because it burns up energy and causes them to lose conditon. "Livestock stress costs a lot in terms of lost time and production," says Bruce. Animals can be stressed by the way you choose to handle them. They can also be stressed by the layout of your yards and by how you position gates, shutes, etc. Bruce teaches you to look at the world through the animal's eyes. In this way you discover there are situations that simply do not compute for animals, zones they should never be forced to enter, and amazing ways of moving sdeep without need of large numbers of people and even dogs. He can advise you on stockyard design and getting exsting yards to work more efficiently. David Marsh, a friend of mine from Booroowa, says his observation skills have improved as a result of the course. "I have been able to put mobs of stock past 'impossible' obstacles and into places (without dogs) that I would not have tried before doing the course." George Taylor, whose Mumblebone Merino Stud is not far from us, near Wellington, says, "I can even take mobs of weaned lambs away without dogs." (Ie. seperate babies from their mothers and walk them away without a gang of yapping yard dogs snapping at their heels.)
Apart from offering the course to classes of 20 people at a time, Bruce also makes it available to charities to offer as a fundraiser. You can contact Bruce on 0429 014 118.

Top picture shows Daniel negotiating with his dogs, hoping they will go the right way next time. The dogs know which way is right, but they enjoy harassing their master.

Welcome to the 'real world' Captain Carbon!

The irony of this illustration sticks out like dogs' balls when you read this blog. It was on a flyer handed out to promote a management consultancy at our Edge Management meeting. To me it represents a farmer handing over his farm to the next generation in the midst of a cataclysmic crisis.

...

There were some dumbfounded looks and even some hostility shown when Louisa and I revealed our business plan to our 'new board' in Edge Management. Jenny, the facilitator for our session, took me aside at lunch afterwards and suggested that what we presented was unsettling for some farmers because it challenged their basic models. But, she said, when I drew on the board a graph that they could use to identify where they stood, the temperature in the room came down. Given how radical our plan is, these people showed enormous flexibility and professionalism to come to terms with it/


















The graph I drew was the Bell Curve of Diffusion of Innovation (picutred here somewhere.)

What is Edge Management? It is an independent group of farmers and agribusiness operators who form themselves into self-help groups of 6 families to help each other develop ideas or solve problems and build business plans, assisted by a facilitator. Members act as 'board members' for each other. My observation is that these farmers are in the top echelon of their profession. They deny it, but they have great expertise and management smarts. It is a great education for Lousia and I to be exposed to their conversation. As indeed it is for them to be exposed to ours.

We are 'regenerative' farmers who believe traditional high input, 'plough, spray, sew, graze, go back to go and start again' farming is raping the soil and depleting our most precious resource. Destroying the micro-ecology, making soils acid, encouraging salinity, etc. Two of our board agreed they were raping the soil*. They sued the term "mining" which means depleting a resource by over exploitation. This level of self-awareness gave us a glimmer of hope. We don't want to be seen to be pushing a greenie agenda. In fact we oppose most green beliefs, especially the bedrock belief that mankind's presence is always contrary to nature's interests.

As it turned out, the board members go into it and contributed mightily to our brainstorming up new dieas to help us put together our 'pitch' for the Catchment Management Authority's $100,000 Farm Systems challenge.

To give you a taste of what we presented, here is a Business Statement (Vision):

1. What do we want to achieve?

To transform a grazing business into a profitable, integrated wool production, trading, education and communication enterprise.

2. Why do we want to achieve this?

To demonstrate that agriculture can be managed in a way that regenerates the ecology and proves that man has a role to play in the natural environment and is not by nature a toxic intruder.

3. How will we produce this result?

• Move 'Uamby" into a 100% Holistic Resource Management operation through creating the 80 paddocks where there are 23 at present, to increase our soil carbon scores and become the first of a network of carbon-rich demonstration farms.
• Establish a Learning Centre at "Uamby" where the Philosophy of Agriculture is discussed and taught, revealing the existence of options in the paradigms farmers live by.
• EStablish the Carbon Coalition which recruits farmers to be part of a carbon credit trading scheme.
• Establish a Carbon Credit Brokerage or Bank.
• Establish "Carbon Credited" as an endorsement brand for produce from Carbon Rich properties.
• Build an online fanbase for "Uamby" via blog and web sites so we can sell "Carbon Credited" products from our own production.
• Buy more land in syndicates of local and city-based families and investors to bridge the city/country gap and gain advocates for Carbon
• Write a book on the Carbon Revolution that is turning farmers into environmental defenders.
• Promote the concept of "Back To The Farm Week" whereby city families stay with country families and learn what life is like on the land.

*Several years ago, during a consultancy to the Tasmanian Timber Industry Association, an old timber miller admitted to me, wistfully, "We've buggered these forests." And they have, destroyed old growth forests, selling the timber off for low prices because of a low value added strategy. It was a moment of truth for the old man and for me. It didn't stop the continued depletion of this resource/ These guys will continue until governments step in to stop it.

Magic from the sky

We just arrived home after 3 days at the Edge Management conference (blogged later) to find the rain gauge more than half full after 2 cracking storms late Wednesday and Thursday. We'd been a month without rain and average temperatures of 42°C or 108°F have dried out the pasture, turning the fields from green to parchment tan colour. But the soil responds immediately to rain. (Unfortunately the weeds respond too. I'll blog Bathurst Burr - my nemisis - later).

Dogs' day out...

The puppies born to Patch and Ravi (we think), our two sheep dogs, have been venturing out from beneath tank stand (we moved them out of the stables because of the heat - 48°C some days...)
Chengerai, the Rhodesian Ridgeback, is an ‘auntie’. She mothers the pups although she’s never had a litter herself. She is top dog in the pack, despite her age.

Already we’ve had two expressions of interest in the pups from local farmers who want a working dog to train up.

They are handsome little dogs and yelp for their food. We have started feeding them tinned cat food as a supplement to their mother’s milk. She’s lost interest in them already.

Global warming: kiss your arse goodbye

PRESIDENT BUSH CAN'T SING HIS WAY OUT OF THIS ONE

The jig is up! The US Government has abandoned the fight to save the Earth from global warming. It says it is a national security issue!

(This document was found at http://www.fossil.energy.gov/programs/sequestration/cslf/sequestrationfactsheet_06_18.pdf.)

"Carbon Sequestration Research and Development

"Introduction
"Fossil fuels will remain the mainstay of world energy production well into the 21st century. Coal, for example, is abundant, comparatively inexpensive, and geographically diverse. The International Energy Agency estimates that overall world coal use will increase by about 50 percent between now and 2030, and by nearly 67 percent for power generation, mostly in developing countries.
"The United States has an estimated 250-year supply of coal. In terms of energy value (Btus), coal constitutes approximately 95 percent of U.S. fossil energy reserves. Because of its abundance and low cost, coal now accounts for more than half of the electricity generated in the United States.
"Availability of fossil fuels to provide clean, affordable energy is essential for the prosperity and security of the United States."

THE TWO GEORGES SUGGEST WAYS TO MAKE THE MOST OF HURRICACNE DAMAGED CITIES


Further on in the document it is revealed that the USA - the world's largest user of fossil fuels and the main source of global warming gases in the atmosphere - has set itself a puny target for reduction:

"The Global Climate Change Initiative set forth by President George W. Bush calls for an 18 percent reduction in the carbon intensity of the United States economy by 2012."

In the bad old days when the threat of a nuclear holocaust hung over our heads, we were given the following advice on what to do if the bombs started falling: Bend over, place your head firmly between your legs, then kiss your arse goodbye. I guess this advice is useful again, for when you see the next tsunami coming.

Carbon 101 - It's Amazing!

Carbon is the basis for life. Organic chemistry is simply innumerable combinations of carbon chains. Carbon is life. We are made of it. We eat it (plants and animals), breathe it out (Carbon Dioxide), burn it for power (oil and coal), wear it as jewellery (diamonds). We need it in the soils that grow the plants we eat and feed the animals we eat or we suffer from poor nutrition. All around the world the soils have been depleted of carbon, through centuries of "take take take", through misguided, one-dimensional scientific farming methods that create more problems than they solve. At the same time we have been pumping carbon into the atmosphere as CO2 which is apparently heating up the globe and causing tsuamis and cyclones and rising sea levels and all sorts of other bad things. This 'free radical carbon' can be locked away where it does more good than harm, in plant life which absorbs it and locks it up in the soil in the form of nutrients. Locking away carbon in this way is called 'sequestration'. Already the Europeans are trading "carbon credits" - planting huge forests to soak up free radical carbon - in a market worth billions of dollars. But forests aren't as efficient as grasslands in soaking up carbon. The critical fulcrum role that carbon management can play in transforming the productive power of our soils - the source of all life on the planet - make it the most important issue of the early 21st century.

Meet The Carbon Goddess

CHRISTINE JONES is not comfortable with the title "The Carbon Goddess". But she's going to have to get used to it. Because she is. Christine has almost single-handedly brought carbon to the attention of the people who can do the most about it: farmers and graziers. And the opportunity she reveals to them is the chance to protect us all from global warming while enriching their soils and boosting the productivity of their farms. Dr Jones, who describes herself as a 'grassland ecologist', has studied the dynamics of plant and animal life for 30 years. She has an holistic vision, developed by close contact with real world agriculturalists, earnestly striving to rebuild natural resources and make a profit at the same time. Christine has written more articles and given more presentations on native grasslands than I've had hot dinners. She has written songs and developed schools prorams about carbon. Christine is a passionate advocate for regenerative farm management techniques and has made many personal sacrifices to popularise the issues. She deserves to be recognised in the Queen's Birthday Honours List, but she'd hate the attention. Christine is a very reluctant goddess, but the earth needs goddesses to help build better relationships between Mother Nature and her children.

Christine's web address: www.amazingcarbon.com

(Apologies for the quality of the photo. Best we could do in the time.)

Why are pastures a better global warming solution than forests?

An acre of healthy native grassland pasture continuously removes more carbon from the atmosphere and releases more oxygen into it than an acre of rainforest. Carbon in the atmosphere - as CO2 - is the main culprit in global warming. Locking carbon up and removing it from the atmosphere is called 'sequestering'. There are two major reasons why grasslands are better at sequestering carbon than are forests. Reason No. 1: an acre of grass includes a huge mass of photosynthetic green tissue whereas a forest contains large amounts of nonphotosyntheitc trunks and branches. Reason No. 2: grasses can have up to 90% of their 'biomass' below the surface of the soil while trees have 90% of their tissue above ground. Finally, a rainforest actually releases carbon dioxide through the process of rot and decomposition.
So the future of carbon credits lies in healthy pastures grown on healthy soils. Farmers will save the ecosystem from destruction. Another great reason to support your local farmer!

Five Kings come to stay

A family of five king parrots have made Uamby their temporary home. The parents and three fledglings are feasting on our plumbs and pears and the seeds on the Crepe Myrtle and other trees. The harassed parents move from tree to tree, looking thoroughly bored with their adolescent children who keep up a constant stream of demands and nagging.
Other recent visitors include the melodious Grey Shrike Thrush, enjoying the heat. We also have regular visitors like the Dollar Bird who flies down from New Guinea each year to spend Christmas with us, perching on the highest point on the dead tree that holds our letterbox.STRIATED PARDELOT
And we have Striated Pardelots who nest in the ivy on the garage. We have a huge, unruly gang of White Cockatoos who hang out in the trees along the river. And the usual suspects, the Galahs. We also have a family of Welcome Swallows nesting on our verandah. There are also Pied Mudlarks, Straw Necked Ibis, White Faced Cranes, Magpies, Top Knot Pidgeons, Zebra Finches, Blue Wrens, Silvereyes, Grass Parrots, Apostle Birds, Blue Eyed Honeyeater, Eastern Rosella, Azure Kingfisher, Black Ducks, Moor Hens, White-wingfed Cheough, Little Ravens abound, especially during lambing. Little Wattlebirds and Noisy Friar Birds sqwark and fight in the silky oaks, especially during flowering... Boobook owls call at night. Black SHouldered Kites and Kestrels can be seen hunting. And a big Brown Falcon lives somewhere along our access road. Occasionally we'll get a black swan on the largest dam, and a Pelican or two, stopping over for up to a couple of weeks on their way somewhere else. Then there is the song bird whose tuneful carolling enlivens each morning: the Butcher Bird. Noisy Mynas. A couple of years ago we had a young Wedge Tailed Eagle set up camp in one of the trees down by the river. My little Canon Digital isn't ideal for 'shooting' birdlife. I need great deal of cooperation from the birds. Thankfully the Kingies sat still for me. I've put in an order for a telephoto lens. You'll know when I get it.

Psychofarmers bamboozle psych tester

As part of the Edge MGT selection process we are put through the Myer-Briggs psychological profiling process.

Lousia it turns out is an "INFJ" (Introversion, Intuition, Feeling, Judging)

"Succeed by perserverence, originality and desire to do whatever is needed or wanted. Put their best efforts into their work. Quietly forceful, conscientious, concerned for others. Respected for their firm principles. Likely to be honoured and followed for their clear convictions as to how best to serve the common good."

I am an "ENFP" (Extroversion, Intuition, Feeling, Perceiving)

"Warmly enthusiastic, high-spirited, ingenious, imaginative. Able to do almost anything that interests them. Quick with a solution for any difficulty and ready to help anyone with a problem. Often rely on their ability to improvise instead of preparing in advance. Can usually find compelling reasons for whatever they want."

Consultant Jenny Webber, who administered the rest, asked us: "But how do you make any decisions?" (Both of us are "F" (feelers) instead of "T" (thinkers).) Feelers consider other people's feelings, but they are not guided by logic, are not objective, are less organsised, are uncritical and over-accepting, and base justice on feelings. WHAT A DISASTER! I want to be a Thinker: They are logical, objective, and organised. They are just and stand firm. Good. They don't notice other people's feelings, they don't care about conciliation, they show less mercy and they don't care to persuade. They just punch people out.

This is how we make decisions: Louisa is the farmer. She rules on the farm. I'm the off-farm business manager. I rule off-farm. We take advice from each other before making decisions.

Celebrate "Back To The Farm" Week

I propose the Central West of New South Wales be the launch pad for a movement that will sweep the world. It's called "Back To The Farm Week" when city families go out to stay with farm families for a few days to experience life on the land. Many city people love 'going bush' because they love getting close to nature and they want an authentic farm experience. Many farm people are traditionally very hospitable and enjoy showing visitors how they work and talking about their farms. It's my idea for bridging the 'city-country gap'. It can have important environmental and social benefits for society, building understanding on both sides about many critical issues.
Of all the problems the farmers of the world face, the one that grates on their nerves is called the 'city-country gap'. That means, city people have no idea what farmers deal with, they don't understand where their food and clothing and shelter comes from, and they don't care. Aldo Leopold, the father of the modern ecological movement, was a farmer. He said that the 'spiritual anger of not owning a farm' lay in assuming that breakfast comes from the supermarket.
Bringing people together on a micro level can solve big macro issues... such as the following:

• farmers are often more environmentally concerned than they are pictured in the popular press and stereotyped by environmentalists
• city people don't know the hardships farm families live with while they produce food and other goods for city people to consume
• some farmers don't fully appreciate the sincerity of city-based people in their concern for land degradation and species survival
• city people are often ignorant of the importance of primary industries to their modern lifestyles

"Back To The Farm" is a big farm stay program that invites ordinary farmers to invite ordinary city families into their homes for a stay. Most farm houses have sufficient beds for a few extra people. And city people would be told not to expect professionally-managed accommodation, but to be treated as one of the family and tucked into bed in the spare room. The farm families who wish to get involved will be briefed about the simplest way of handling their guests.

A central authority - perhaps the NSW State government - could coordinate the necessary organisation required for attracting applicants on both sides of the gap and assigning families to farms.

This could become an annual event and spread to other countries. Bringing people together - to break bread and share their homes - is the msot effective way to bridge the gap between sections of our community that need each other to survive.

*************************IF YOU THINK THIS IS A GOOD IDEA*************************

1. Please email this blog to someone who can help make it happen (a politician, a corporate who could sponsor it, etc)
2. Leave a comment at the end of this blog
3. Email us at michael@newhorizon.au.com

Big game hunting!

This is what we hunt at Uamby. Foxes. Feral cats. Introduced species. And we take the occasional roo for meat for the dogs. The foxes are so prevalent, you could shoot this many every night and they just keep breeding and breeding. They kills domestic chickens, they kill lambs and ewes having trouble lambing. They kill small marsupials, like native mice. They have wiped out many species of fury animals and birds since some idiot from England thought to bring them here so he and hsi mates could 'ride to hounds'. Funny, you can still ride to hounds in Australia, but not in England. They banned it. Because they want to protect the foxes over there.
Feral cats are terrifying. They are the most vicious animal in our area. More aggressive than a brown snake. Perhaps wild pigs are worse. Feral cats can grow as big as a dog. I saw a large, heavy furred one come down to our sheep ayrds one day and it stood as high as the third railing - it looked through the gap between the second and third railing. I hought it was a wild dog until I saw its fur. Here pussy. Bang!
We keep five dogs loose at night to warn off foxes and feral cats from the homestead. They break out barking twice or three times a night. It's nice to hear them.

Uamby joins Edge Management

I'm a great believer in serendipity and synchonicity, both of which mean things happen for a reason, so keep your eyes and ears open. I sat next to this man Ian Crafter in a flight from Melbourne to Sydney one day. I didn't say anything to him until we were 15 minutes from landing, but it turns out he's got a property not far from where we are here at Uamby and it turns out he's part of a farmers' "self help and mutual mentoring group" management group. Now the odds of sitting next to someone from our neck of the woods are slim. The odds he'd be part of management group when we are badly in need of business disciplines and looking for a solution that didn't involve 'consultants who really don't know much about farming' were slimmer.
Well, we joined this fellow's management group and attended our first meeting yesterday in Dubbo (the largest regional centre in the central west of the state). It's called Edge Management and it was started by a group of innovative farmers in 1992. It has around 30 farm families as members, divided into 5 or 6 "boards". Each board acts as a peer advisory panel for each member. They hold 4 meetings a year, at which each member presents their business plans and reports on progress, seeks advice or ideas from their peers, and swaps stories. Board members often become close friends. You're never working with people from your own district and there is strict confidentiality. The sessions are facilitated by experienced facilitators, in our case David Duffy and Jenny Webber.
The Edge system is all about systems - there are systems for everything managerial, such as planning new enterprises, prioritising workloads, succession planning (bringing the kids into the business and then retiring) and the like.
Again, like the Catchment Management Authority farm systems training program we were selected for, the calibre of the people on our tentative "board" is stunning. These are "smarter-than-your-average-bear" farmers, Boo Boo. All of them have far larger properites than we do (which means nothing because you can't compare properties further out on the plains with those closer in on the tablelands like ours). But they are all successful and plugged in and professional. I hope some of that rubs off on us... we're freshmen in this farming game, nowhere near to turning a profit. (That's because we bought a run down property and are restoring it to optimum production - note: not maximum production. We are conservation farmers. We grow healthy soil, we don't mine it.)
The members of the group were selected via Myers-Briggs testing to get a good range of leaders, thinkers, carers and doers. (more of the personality tests in a later blog.)
I couldn't take photos of the group as I don't know them well enough yet - later. Here's a photo of the white board instead.

Billions in the Carbon Bank?

Carbon left in soil could one day be used as part of an emissions trading program under the Kyoto Protocol to reduce carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. Agricultural soils could absorb more than 10 percent of man-made carbon dioxide emissions worldwide, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
But first, researchers will need to develop ways that carbon stored in the soil can be measured accurately through time.
The Kyoto treaty, which took effect in February, has already spurred investments in forestry. In Europe, brokers help industrial firms purchase the right to emit specific amounts of carbon dioxide above their government-mandated limits, in exchange for making investments in projects that plant or protect trees. Like all green plants, trees absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it in their cells.
In mid-April, a company seeking to exceed its allotment of carbon dioxide emissions paid about $20 in forestry investment per ton of emissions, according to Point Carbon, a European emissions broker in London. Analysts at the firm expect $3.2 billion in worldwide carbon dioxide emissions trading this year, and predict more than $40 billion per year by 2010.

Simple soil carbon test arrives

Ohio State University researchers have developed a method for measuring soil quality that involves mixing the soil with a non-toxic solution and measuring active carbon content by matching the colour of the solution to a colour-coded chart. The work is in association with Ray Weil, a soil scientist with the University of Maryland.
Rafiq Islam, a soil and water specialist with Ohio State's South Centers at Piketon, said the simplified test would enable users to measure soil quality directly on site and make soil management practices based on the results.
"With this test anyone can monitor the quality of their soil right in the field and measure it over time based on what management practices they've applied," said Islam. "It's not meant to replace the commercial soil tests, but it's just another tool for farmers who can then conduct additional soil tests or consult professionals if they do have poor soil quality." Soil organic matter is a core indicator of soil quality, and soil quality is usually characterized by high levels of active carbon. Active carbon includes microbial biomass, amino acids, soluble carbon and soil carbohydrates. Any changes in the levels of active carbon changes the level of organic matter, resulting in either a degradation or improvement in soil quality.
"Most organic matter is not active," said Islam. "So acquiring results from a test that also accounts for inactive carbon is not a very accurate assessment of soil quality. We needed a test that separated the active carbon from the rest of the soil content."
The result is a method that can accurately identify active carbon in field and lab situations on soils around the world. Researchers were also able to test for active carbon between plowing and no-till production systems compared to methods that tested for total carbon content. They found that while neither system showed any significant difference in total carbon levels, the no-till system produced a higher active carbon content under the new testing method.
The researchers equate the test to soil pH kits. "It's simple and cost effective, requires no elaborate equipment and can be tested on a wide variety of soil types," said Wright.

Can these men change the world?

This is Angus and Rick Maurice (right). They are 'conservation farmers'. You'd better hope they are successful or the world is going down the tubes fast. Rick is a conservation farmer from way back, before it was almost fashionable (it isn't, yet). His property Gillinghall, which is nearby, is run along Holistic Resource Management principles. I first met Rick and heard him speak so eloquently about regenerative farming at a conference in Armidale called Managing The Carbon Cycle, put on by Christine Jones, the Carbon Goddess. (More about Christine in a later blog. She is an epic story all on her own.)
Rick and Angus are yet another farming family chosen by the Central West Catchment Management Authority for training in whole farm planning. The quality of the people on this course is gobsmacking. We feel humbled and out of our league with these veterans of agricultural innovation. Now I just wanted to introduce you to Rick and Angus. (Angus recently got married, so he'll be in need of my book Man Overboard: A Self Defence Course for Men In Marriage - see http://manoverboardbook.blogspot.com) In a later blog I will open up the discussion about soil carbon and how we graziers are going to reduce global warming by growing masses of native pasture, the deep roots of which will lock away in our soils - where it can do most good - much of the 'free radical' carbon in the biosphere. Carbon will be the topic for the next few blogs. Tune in and see how Rick and Angus and conservation farmers all around the world are going to save it by improving soil health and productivity.

Man is not from outer space

Some of (a lot of) our friends are believe that nature would be great if we left it alone to do its thing. Stop agriculture and let the wilderness reclaim the Earth. (Where they would get the fuel to drive to the supermarket where all the food comes from does not trouble them.) It is a common form of illogic that these mostly-highly educated people can maintain in their logical brains. If white man had not come to Australia, nature would be pristine and the native Aboriginals would be living in peace with each other and the animals.
Well even Tim Flannery (The Future Eaters, The Weather Makers) doesn't believe that. The Aborigines hunted the giant kangaroos and emus and wombats to extinction. They destroyed the natural environment by setting fires to catch prey and provide their prey with fresh pasture, turning the landscape over to the gums and acacias that predominate today.
SO the "noble savage" concept doesn't fly. The Aborigines adapted the earth to their needs, as did the indigenous people of all lands. In New Zealand, the Maori hunted to extinction the big bird that gave them their name - the Moa. The Indians of the Amazon jungle had completely transformed it before Columbus arrived in 1492, according to an article in Atlantic Monthly entitled "1491" by Charles Mann. "Indian societies had an enormous environmental impact on the jungle. Indeed, some anthropologists have called the Amazon forest itself a cultural artefact - that is, an artificial object," he wrote. "Amazonia is all human-created."
Scientists believe there is an area the size of France - 10% of the Amazonian Forest - where the soil has the curious capability of being able to regenerate itself, resisting the nutrient-depleting effect of heavy rainfall that makes so much forest soil poor. Soil geographer WIlliam Woods from Southern Illinois University believes humans created this self-regenerating soil as part of a process of transforming the jungle which was interrupted by the arrival of Columbus. The bison plains of North America were similarly transformed by man. "Rather than domesticating animals for meat, Indians retooled whole ecosystems to grow bumper crops of elk, deer, and bison. They did this by using fire to keep down underbrush and 'create open grassy conditions favourable for game," writes Mann.
The "Leave It Aloners" who market the strategy that says the only way to heal the earth is to leave it alone "are, at the very least, guilty of false advertising," writes Dan Daggert in Gardeners of Eden.
In fact, long term human habitation leads to species stability and diversity, according to ethnobiologist Gary PAul NAbham in his book Cultures of Habitat. Comparing maps of continental America, he discovered that "where human populations had stayed in the same place for the greatest duration, fewer plants and animals had become endangered species; in parts of the country where massive in-migrations and exoduses were taking place, more had become endangered." Where humans are only visitors - like wilderness areas, the habitats society defines as most pristine - plant and animal populations have been less stable and less diverse. "This is the opposite of what we are told by contemporary environmentalism," says Mr Daggert.
The same effect has been recorded in Africa. Allan Savory, who invented Holistic Resource Management, is a conservationist who has proved that "locking away" land from herding animal impact leads not to a flourishing of plant life, but to desertification as much as overstocking does.
So the world's indigenous populations - who had never heard of or seen the Bible - have since time immemorial following Yahwey's instruction to Adam to "go forth and subdue the earth".
For there can be no simplistic green solution that obeys the Laws of Leave It Alone - even if you hunt mankind to extinction. Logically you cannot protect species diversity by eliminating species.
Leave It Alone is emotionally satisfying and superficially appealing. But a less blinkered view reveals that it is caring engagement that nature requires, agricultural practices that restore the soil to health so it can provide sustenance in a mutually-regenerative relationship with man as its steward.
Then we can understand the meaning of the ancient Hasidic saying: "When you walk across the fields with your mind pure and holy, then from all the stones, and all growing things, and all animals, the sparks of their soul come out and cling to you, and then they are purified and become a holy fire in you." Mutual regeneration.