The Gunthorpes checking their soil on their property in Central Queensland. They have recently made one of the first large sales of soil carbon credits.
ONE of the first Australian producers to make a large sale of soil carbon credits says he plans to use the income to make more off-farm investments and set the operation up for the future.
Adam and Tracy Gunthorpe of Tarramba Brahman and Brangus, near Banana in Central QLD, recently generated 17,929 Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) as part of the Howson soil carbon project, run in partnership with soil carbon developer AgriProve.
They recently sold 5765 ACCUs via carbon brokerage firm Clima, with the majority of those credits going for $42/ACCU and a small amount going for $47. The sale was worth $233,000 altogether.
At least 320,424 ACCUs have been issued for soil carbon projects to date, with the overwhelming majority of those credits yet to be sold. Beef Central has been told a lot of them are hoping for the ACCU price to rise.
Mr Gunthorpe said he decided to meet the market and take the money that was on offer, with the $42 still roughly a $10 premium to the generic ACCU market.
“That money we are getting now, it takes a lot to run a cattle enterprise that clears that amount,” Mr Gunthorpe said.
“The gross margin on backgrounding steers right now is $250, it is the equivalent of running an additional 900 steers on a block.”
Mr Gunthorpe said he could see plenty of potential for more income to be generated off the soil carbon project.
“We will now do our best to keep the ACCU revenue out of the farming side of the business and grow some off farm investments,” he said.
How the credits were sold
There are a broad range of potential carbon buyers, from large corporations with obligations to offset excess emissions under the Federal Government’s safeguard mechanism, through to companies seeking carbon credits for voluntary offsetting purposes.
In order to navigate the industry that was largely unknown to them, the Gunthorpes engaged a carbon credit brokerage firm called Clima.
With the help of AgriProve they put together a prospectus to share their story of adopting Holistic Grazing and Natural Sequence Farming as part of the soil carbon project, to explain why their credits should command a premium.
As the soil carbon market is relatively immature, Mr Gunthorpe said he was unsure about the appetite of carbon buyers to purchase credits that had been generated a long time ago. He said the first move was about getting into the market.
“Hopefully we can build a relationship with those purchasers over time, so that they can share our story and highlight the co-benefits of improving soil health. It also helps us to have a good buyer that we trust, lined up to make a sale when we generate credits,” he said.
Tarramba Brahman cattle on the Gunthorpes’ property in Central Qld.
“We have sold about half our credits which is about spreading out the cashflow. $233,000 is a fair bit of income for our small business and the only expense is to pay the business back for the baseline soil sampling.
“We spent about $55,000 to do all our baseline testing, and we had a $10,000 Government rebate – which meant we paid about $45,000 all up.”
Ongoing agreement to hold soil carbon
The Gunthorpes have the obligation to keep the carbon in their soil for the next 25 years, which includes the ongoing management changes they implemented at the start.
They established multi-species pastures and leucaena, subdivided paddocks, installed water points and constructed 8km of contour banks and ponds using Natural Sequence Farming principles.
With the use of technology like Maia Grazing, they optimised the time-controlled grazing program with shorter grazing periods, higher density and longer rest.
AgriProve provides the soil carbon project measurement, audit and administration, covers all associated costs, and offers free access to the AgriProve Platform to view their farm and track project progress.
With these elements taken care of, the Gunthorpes have time to focus on what they do best — running the grazing and on-ground management of the property.
“I think it is a pretty good system, considering how complicated the auditing process is and the expenses AgriProve have to incur to go through it,” he said.
“They allow us to do the things we need to do as a grazing business and if they see movement in soil carbon and they want to test, we just say ‘go for it’ because it means faster cashflow.”
The Gunthorpes are also part of Meat & Livestock Australia’s producer demonstration sites project, that aims to build understanding of practices to increase soil carbon and how a soil carbon project impacts the emissions intensity of a livestock business.
Property on the market
In a move that will no doubt be an interesting one for the property market, the Gunthorpes have put one of their ACCU generating properties on the market.
Green Yards is about 37km north-east of Theodore and has already generated 9329 ACCUs as part of the Howson project.
“The sale is a great opportunity for someone who is interested in managing for soil health, to benefit from a soil carbon project where baselining has been done and future measurement costs are covered,” Mr Gunthorpe said.
In the case of Green Yards, the property will be sold with AgriProve as the project proponent, owner who will then re-establish the partnership with the new owners.
