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All farmers in NI have the potential to add carbon stocks to their soils, but there is no doubt tillage farms have “more headroom” to sequester greater amounts, Professor John Gilliland has said.
Addressing agricultural journalists visiting the Best family’s farm at Poyntzpass last Thursday, Gilliland accepted that continuous ploughing has contributed to lower carbon levels in arable soils.
In the future, Gilliland believes farmers will be rewarded for improving their carbon position, and he has previously advocated for a system of carbon credits that will incentivise farmers to build carbon stores on their farms through better land management.
On arable farms, potential actions to improve soil carbon include adding in organic manures, cover crops or increased usage of minimal tillage techniques.
For livestock farmers, many of whom work with permanent pastures that might not have been tilled in many decades, a carbon credit system may prove to be less attractive.
However, Gilliland points to a long-term slurry experiment at the Agri Food and Biosciences Institute (AFBI) in Hillsborough, which continues to show that soil can accumulate carbon under an intensive cutting and nutrient application regime.
Running for over 50 years, the research highlights that plots receiving significant applications of cattle slurry in three applications across the year have not yet reached a point of carbon saturation.
Acton House
The Acton House farm run by Simon Best, along with his father John and brother Rory, extends to 1,200 acres (ac) of predominantly arable land.
Simon has been one of seven NI farmers taking part in the ARCZero project led by John Gilliland, which aims to measure and manage carbon flows on farm, including that taken in by soils, trees and hedgerows.
Initial analysis using Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) technology showed that there is an estimated 1,774t of carbon held in trees and 68km of hedges on the Best farm.
But that is still dwarfed by the 65,004t of carbon in the top 30cm of soils.
Similar LiDAR and soil carbon data is to be made available to farmers who participate in the £45m soil nutrient health scheme, ultimately establishing a baseline for the amount of carbon managed by farmers across NI.
According to John Gilliland, the aim for the industry should be to repeat the exercise every five years, which will give robust data on how much carbon is being sequestered and what management practices are delivering the biggest positive impact.
Sustainable
On the Best’s farm, the aim is to produce high quality food ingredients in an ethical and sustainable way, emphasised Simon.
A lot of effort has been focused on building soil organic matter, with a composting facility on the farm that deals with green waste.
Schemes
The farm has also participated in various agri-environment schemes, although the current scheme runs out at the end of this year.
“We will have no support [from agri-environment schemes] for the first time in 23 years. It is completely contrary to what we should be doing,” said Simon.
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