Carbon emission reduction: News and technology

[Brian Peacock]

[Brian Peacock]

Not sure I thought this was even possible

An Australian farmer has held the first carbon-neutral cattle sale – here’s how it works
Seven hundred breeding cows and heifers reared in a ‘carbon neutral farming system’ sold in NSW on Thursday. But can a live cow be carbon neutral?

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-n ... gloucester

With caveats ....

...The director of Agricore, Hayden Hollis, said annual soil carbon tests across Mackenzie’s farm were conducted in accordance with Clean Energy Regulator (CER) guidelines. While the regulator’s methodology is widely used by the industry, a consortium of Australian soil scientists have called for flaws in the scheme to be “addressed as a matter of urgency”.

Agricore’s data is proprietary and could not be viewed by Guardian Australia.

One of those scientists is Dr Elaine Mitchell from the Queensland University of Technology. She says intervals of at least five years are usually required to detect statistically significant soil carbon changes.

Prof Richard Eckard, an agricultural economist from the University of Melbourne, said soil carbon should be measured on a 10-year running mean to account for seasonal fluctuations, 70% of which is driven by rainfall patterns....