The farm revolution that can help reduce emissions

“My firm belief is that how successfully we deal with the climate challenge will define the next two decades of this proud industry,” he said. “Banks, insurers, domestic consumers and our international markets are demanding ever higher levels of sustainability.

“Equally, adapting to climate change presents opportunities to Australian farmers and foresters to reduce their costs, to generate new income streams and to build their soil health and other natural capital.”

That should logically fit neatly with another NFF campaign, proclaiming that “Australian farms are where REAL climate action happens”.

But so far, practical progress on this vision seems more reliant on the efforts of individual farmers than a co-ordinated national approach to prioritise productive agricultural land in the massive task of reducing Australia’s emissions to net-zero by 2050.

Yes, some farmers are now beginning to access millions of dollars worth of carbon credits for changes such as improved grazing practices leading to proven increases in sequestered soil carbon. Those numbers – and dollars – will certainly grow.

Strategies include rotating the herds of sheep or cattle to ensure land is not over grazed while plant cover is retained, particularly valuable in times of drought, and leading to better soil quality and water retention as well as improved carbon sequestration.

This can also decrease the need for ever greater concentrations of fertiliser to boost productivity. A joint statement on climate change and agriculture endorsed by state and federal agricultural ministers last July supports these ambitions.

Watt also cites the start of consultations on the Agriculture and Land Plan, describing it as the signature plan to set up the industry for a lower emissions future. But most efforts so far have gone into replanting native vegetation. Keeping farmland productive while reducing emissions requires an urgent, targeted focus by governments on agriculture’s potential contribution to the fervour for valuing “natural capital”.

Yet Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen rarely talks about the potential contribution of the agricultural sector to the government’s 2030 targets, for example, despite agriculture accounting for more than 16 per cent of national emissions last year – and growing.

Environment and Water Minister Tanya Plibersek’s “nature repair bill” allows for improved farm management techniques but is more focused on improving or restoring native vegetation and animal habitat. This involves the reversion of existing farmland back to bushland, with the commercial incentive in the right to acquire tradeable biodiversity certificates.

Alasdair Macleod is one of the farmers arguing Australia needs to do more to combine climate change initiatives, by boosting productivity of prime agricultural land via regenerative and sustainable farming methods.

“For example, we believe there are untapped opportunities in soil carbon sequestration, particularly in well managed grazing systems,” he says. “The most important thing is rest and recovery.”

MacLeod has had a 15-year-long interest in advances in this area after taking over management of Cavan, the 25,000-hectare NSW sheep property originally acquired by his father-in-law Rupert Murdoch in the 1960s.

One result is that sheep mobs at Cavan are now moved more regularly to allow paddocks to recuperate and improve soil quality and water retention. That also allows the carbon to remain in the soil over years rather than returning to the atmosphere in times of drought.

The Wilmot Cattle Company, comprised of four New England beef cattle properties in NSW owned by the Macdoch Ag Group that MacLeod chairs, has advanced even further into solid carbon sequestration.

As well as Microsoft’s recent announcement of a $5 billion investment to build data centres, for example, it bought $500,000 worth of carbon credits from Wilmot two years ago for use as offsets.

It’s an example of the mutual benefits flowing between previously disparate sectors and farmers as part of the need for corporates to report progress on their net-zero ambitions.

This process will become far more rigorous with the growth of a well-regulated carbon market.

How this can work commercially for farmers was evident last June, when the Clean Energy Regulator awarded two Queensland beef properties several millions of dollars worth of carbon credits.

Carbon project developers such as CarbonLink frequently advise farmers on how to manage this. MacLeod has established Atlas Capital as a similar developer.

The NSW government has also announced a modest scheme to help farmers cover the cost of carbon projects, including measuring and improving soil carbon while ensuring farmland remains productive.

It’s just the (belated) start.