Guest Blog by John Humphries of Hearth, Wind, & Sol Farmand Seven Up Seven Down Ranch
As a fourth-generation farmer/rancher and co-owner of Hearth, Wind, and Sol Farm, I am deeply concerned about the ways that climate change is affecting our land, livestock and communities, and I am also concerned about the ways that “conventional” agriculture contributes to climate change. I believe that regenerative practices have the potential to flip the script about the environmental impacts of agriculture, in general, and livestock production, in particular. By managing our cattle in ways that improve the soil and grasses, ranchers here in drought-prone central New Mexico can play a positive role in reducing the cattle industry’s contribution to climate change.
These practices can also have a positive impact on our bottom line, as (a) improved grasses mean that we can increase stocking rates and decrease feed purchases, and (b) our climate-conscious practices allow us to market our products to consumers who are willing to pay higher prices.
One challenge, of course, is documenting whether our efforts – implementing change does take effort, as well as money – actually make a difference or not. Was our investment worthwhile? Tapping into the emerging carbon markets presents one way to address that challenge by documenting the impact on our soils while also recouping a portion of the costs.
Beginning the Carbon Credit Exploration
An initial step on this journey for me was experimenting with holistic planned grazing (intensive rotational grazing) on 480 acres my wife and I purchased in 2021. HMI organized a field day at our farm in September 2022, so other people could learn from our experiment with creating 1.5-acre paddocks.
We also secured support from NRCS and the East Torrance Soil & Water Conservation District to pursue a Holistic Management approach for one of my dad’s ranch properties. We installed 3.5 miles of high tensile electric fence, 2.5 miles of water line and 3 new drinkers during the summer and fall of 2023. What was a continuously-grazed 2760-acre parcel now has 4 pastures (600-800 acres each), which will be further subdivided during the growing season into 17 paddocks (130-180 acres each) using temporary fencing.
As we wrapped up all that infrastructure work last fall, I headed to the REGENERATE Conference in Santa Fe, pondering the question of how to measure the impacts in the coming years. How can we share our experience with other ranchers in this area, so that they might seriously consider what changes they could make in their own management practices?
At the conference, I spoke with Taylor Coit from Grassroots Carbon about whether the new practices we are implementing in Dad’s pasture would fit their criteria. Over the next couple of months, Taylor helped me understand their model and provided estimates for what return we might expect from participating in their program.
In our dry climate and ecological zone, the anticipated annual carbon storage (“accrual rate”) is rather low (0.4 tons/acre), so the potential economic benefits to the rancher are not as high as in other areas of the country, but can still be a source of additional income.
Some key features of the Grassroots Carbon approach, as I understand them:
The rancher commits to implementing at least three “best practices” from a list of thirteen, which includes planned grazing.
Grassroots Carbon estimates how much carbon they anticipate being added to the soil each year (tons per acre per year).
The rancher is responsible for the sampling costs (soil samples taken at the beginning to get a baseline, and at the end of Year 5 to see what the actual increase in carbon storage was).
Those sampling costs are deducted from Year 1 and Year 5 payments to the rancher.
Grassroots Carbon keeps 20% of gross payments for the carbon credits as their fee.
The contract is for 15 years, but the carbon credits are only for years 1 to 5. Grassroots Carbon withholds a portion (10%) as a buffer (to protect against overestimating how much carbon actually gets stored in those 5 years; and also as insurance that you'll stay in the program for the full 15 years). That 10% is then "released" (paid) to the landowner in installments over years 11-15. There are no payments in years 6-10.
Why I'm Interested
The primary reason I am planning to sign a contract with Grassroots Carbon is to receive independent and professional documentation of the soil impact from the regenerative practices I am already planning to implement. Their sampling method measures carbon content in the soil to a depth of one meter – a much more thorough assessment than I would likely ever do on my own.
A secondary reason is securing some additional compensation for the investments we are making to improve the soil and grasses on our land. The latest estimate from Grassroots Carbon works out to about $2/acre/year over the course of the 15-year contract. The economic return will increase if we are able to reduce the per acre sampling costs by getting other ranchers in the area to sign up at the same time, making more efficient use of the contractor’s time and travel expenses.
For that reason, I want to explore the possibility of finding other area ranchers who might be interested in joining an initial cohort from central New Mexico. Please contact me at HWSfarms331@gmail.com before March 15th to indicate your interest and to receive additional information.
While Grassroots Carbon will work with owners of any size property, Taylor suggests that 1,000 acres might be considered something of a breakeven point economically for ranchers in our region. Properties of less than 1,000 acres may find it more difficult to achieve a positive net return. However, I anticipate enrolling our 480-acre parcel, since the economic return is secondary for me.
Together, we can demonstrate how regenerative ranching can improve soil health and sequester carbon.
If you’d like to learn more about carbon markets, in general, register for this upcoming webinar:
4-part series (beginning Feb 20) from Quivira Coalition and CSU’s Soil Carbon Solutions Center