Until recently, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and carbon fines dominated much of our media coverage and agriculture was frequently in the firing line due to the emissions it produces. With this in mind, it is encouraging to learn that at least one tillage farmer seems to be able to farm commercially and still capture an additional 2t/ac of carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2e) per annum. This puts tillage, as a land use, in a position to seriously contribute to our overall national and agricultural obligation, but it has not been mentioned in this debate to date.
While this finding comes from monitoring software rather than measured data, it suggests that tillage not only has much lower GHG emissions than livestock enterprises, but it appears to have the potential to build soil carbon levels while performing to the highest level of output.
This type of carbon footprint information has become increasingly important, as a number of tillage crop markets, especially users of grains in the drinks industry, are now asking for sustainability criteria on purchased raw materials. Indeed, only last week, Irish Distillers Limited announced a sustainability scheme to pay an additional €15/t to growers who could meet its criteria on carbon and biodiversity.
One such producer and assembler of barley for this market is The Cooney Furlong Grain Company in Wexford. As a producer Walter Furlong Farm has been involved in min-till to help reduce carbon loss. In the first eight years this was accompanied by straw incorporation to add carbon and this was swopped for catch crop production and incorporation for the past 12 years.
Some time ago it was decided to assess what had happened in the soil during this period. Soil testing indicated that soil organic matter levels increased from an average of around 4% back in the early 2000s to almost 6% on average now. With the ongoing need to meet the changing requirements of the market, it was decided to assess the sustainability of the farming business from a carbon and biodiversity perspective.
As they did not have the ability to physically measure carbon, they used the ‘cool farm tool’, one of many carbon auditing programmes available, to monitor the balance on the farm. This can assess greenhouse gas balance, biodiversity contribution and even water use. It is also used by others in the industry.
Positive carbon balance
Using this programme, Philip Reck found that the 1,800ac used for spring barley production had a positive carbon balance of 2.12t CO2e/ac, or 637kg/t of grain produced last year. This was mainly achieved through the continued annual use of catch crops, which helped protect the soil from rain damage, sequester carbon during the non-cropping period of the year and contribute to improved soil health and organic matter.
If all of the malting barley area produced a similar performance, it could be worth over 130,000t CO2e per annum. And if all of the spring crop area did the same thing, it could be used to capture up to 500,000t of CO2e per annum.
The fact that this land had been growing cover crops for a number of years is regarded as the main contributor to this high carbon performance. The continued use of these crops has also helped yield potential and decreased the need for artificial fertiliser, especially nitrogen. Philip noted that the soil now smells more like fresh ley than a worn tillage soil.
The spring barley area only forms part of the business on the Furlong farm, with other winter and spring crops also grown.
Because the length of time that a catch crop is in the ground is an important factor in its net benefit, winter crops showed a lower carbon benefit on the farm.
However, the average net figure was still positive across the 4,000ac, with 981kg supposedly accumulated per acre.
Spring beans were also a big benefit and came out with a positive 992kg carbon balance per acre, as they also followed catch crops and had no nitrogen requirement.
A typical catch crop grown on the Furlong farm showing surviving tillage radish, where peas and lupins have already been killed by winter frost.
The need for sustainability
While the farm had a curiosity about its own performance, it was also obliged (as a supplier to the brewing and distilling industry) to conduct a similar exercise across its business and supply base. So, the Cooney Furlong Grain Company also assessed the possible footprint of its growers from the basic farm details of its suppliers.
Using baseline figures for inputs, the same programme was used to assess suppliers using the following systems:
20% of suppliers used min-till with cover crops and had increased soil organic matter, used less fertiliser and had higher yields.20% of suppliers used min-till with cover crops and had higher yields.20% of suppliers used a plough-based system with cover crops.40% of suppliers only used a traditional plough-based system with nothing else. On average across the four different categories, the carbon (CO2e) balance was calculated to be 56kg/t of grain. This may not seem like much, but it is about 170kg/ac of carbon saving compared to other enterprises that might show 2-3.5t/ac of CO2e emissions. But the results varied for the different farming systems, as shown in Table 1.
Making an impact
It looks like tillage has the potential to make a significant impact in the net GHG balance of agriculture. The estimated GHG emissions from the ‘mainly tillage’ farms in the national farm survey is 2t CO2e/ha as indicated in Teagasc’s 2017 Sustainability Report indicated. This compares with an estimated 8.5t/ha from dairy. The report also indicates that over 75% of the emissions on these farms came from the livestock present, which would put an average tillage-only hectare at around 0.5t/ha of emissions.
The numbers put forward in the audit on the Furlong farm indicate that this relatively low level of carbon emissions can be turned into positive carbon sequestration with good farm and soil management. While we must acknowledge that any audit software option does its calculations based on generic figures, the majority of such tests on farms tend to show a net loss of carbon from farming systems.
Even if the calculated results from the program in this example are not exactly correct, it shows that it is carbon positive, which is potentially beneficial for agriculture. While this farm business is unique in that it has been pursuing a range of soil-preserving management options for the past two decades, many other tillage farms may also be or become carbon positive by virtue of the good farming systems they employ.
This merits further examination and verification by Teagasc. The roll-out of the Teagasc ‘Sign Post’ farms provides a great opportunity to seriously examine this and other farm situations. We need to know the potential situation regarding carbon emissions on worn tillage land compared with this type of environment- and soil-friendly management. The even greater benefit for growers is easier soil management and higher yield at lower cost over time. High yield and continuous cover cropping are the major factors in this finding.
Land in tillage has much lower greenhouse gas emissions than other land uses.Farm monitoring has shown that the 4,000ac farmed by Walter Furlong had a positive carbon balance of almost one tonne per acre.The area used for spring barley had a positive balance of over 2t/ac of carbon dioxide equivalent, which was significantly helped by the catch crops grown between main crops.These findings now need to be monitored and evaluated by research measurement.
Until recently, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and carbon fines dominated much of our media coverage and agriculture was frequently in the firing line due to the emissions it produces. With this in mind, it is encouraging to learn that at least one tillage farmer seems to be able to farm commercially and still capture an additional 2t/ac of carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2e) per annum. This puts tillage, as a land use, in a position to seriously contribute to our overall national and agricultural obligation, but it has not been mentioned in this debate to date.
While this finding comes from monitoring software rather than measured data, it suggests that tillage not only has much lower GHG emissions than livestock enterprises, but it appears to have the potential to build soil carbon levels while performing to the highest level of output.
This type of carbon footprint information has become increasingly important, as a number of tillage crop markets, especially users of grains in the drinks industry, are now asking for sustainability criteria on purchased raw materials. Indeed, only last week, Irish Distillers Limited announced a sustainability scheme to pay an additional €15/t to growers who could meet its criteria on carbon and biodiversity.
One such producer and assembler of barley for this market is The Cooney Furlong Grain Company in Wexford. As a producer Walter Furlong Farm has been involved in min-till to help reduce carbon loss. In the first eight years this was accompanied by straw incorporation to add carbon and this was swopped for catch crop production and incorporation for the past 12 years.
Some time ago it was decided to assess what had happened in the soil during this period. Soil testing indicated that soil organic matter levels increased from an average of around 4% back in the early 2000s to almost 6% on average now. With the ongoing need to meet the changing requirements of the market, it was decided to assess the sustainability of the farming business from a carbon and biodiversity perspective.
As they did not have the ability to physically measure carbon, they used the ‘cool farm tool’, one of many carbon auditing programmes available, to monitor the balance on the farm. This can assess greenhouse gas balance, biodiversity contribution and even water use. It is also used by others in the industry.
Positive carbon balance
Using this programme, Philip Reck found that the 1,800ac used for spring barley production had a positive carbon balance of 2.12t CO2e/ac, or 637kg/t of grain produced last year. This was mainly achieved through the continued annual use of catch crops, which helped protect the soil from rain damage, sequester carbon during the non-cropping period of the year and contribute to improved soil health and organic matter.
If all of the malting barley area produced a similar performance, it could be worth over 130,000t CO2e per annum. And if all of the spring crop area did the same thing, it could be used to capture up to 500,000t of CO2e per annum.
The fact that this land had been growing cover crops for a number of years is regarded as the main contributor to this high carbon performance. The continued use of these crops has also helped yield potential and decreased the need for artificial fertiliser, especially nitrogen. Philip noted that the soil now smells more like fresh ley than a worn tillage soil.
The spring barley area only forms part of the business on the Furlong farm, with other winter and spring crops also grown.
Because the length of time that a catch crop is in the ground is an important factor in its net benefit, winter crops showed a lower carbon benefit on the farm.
However, the average net figure was still positive across the 4,000ac, with 981kg supposedly accumulated per acre.
Spring beans were also a big benefit and came out with a positive 992kg carbon balance per acre, as they also followed catch crops and had no nitrogen requirement.
A typical catch crop grown on the Furlong farm showing surviving tillage radish, where peas and lupins have already been killed by winter frost.
The need for sustainability
While the farm had a curiosity about its own performance, it was also obliged (as a supplier to the brewing and distilling industry) to conduct a similar exercise across its business and supply base. So, the Cooney Furlong Grain Company also assessed the possible footprint of its growers from the basic farm details of its suppliers.
Using baseline figures for inputs, the same programme was used to assess suppliers using the following systems:
20% of suppliers used min-till with cover crops and had increased soil organic matter, used less fertiliser and had higher yields.20% of suppliers used min-till with cover crops and had higher yields.20% of suppliers used a plough-based system with cover crops.40% of suppliers only used a traditional plough-based system with nothing else. On average across the four different categories, the carbon (CO2e) balance was calculated to be 56kg/t of grain. This may not seem like much, but it is about 170kg/ac of carbon saving compared to other enterprises that might show 2-3.5t/ac of CO2e emissions. But the results varied for the different farming systems, as shown in Table 1.
Making an impact
It looks like tillage has the potential to make a significant impact in the net GHG balance of agriculture. The estimated GHG emissions from the ‘mainly tillage’ farms in the national farm survey is 2t CO2e/ha as indicated in Teagasc’s 2017 Sustainability Report indicated. This compares with an estimated 8.5t/ha from dairy. The report also indicates that over 75% of the emissions on these farms came from the livestock present, which would put an average tillage-only hectare at around 0.5t/ha of emissions.
The numbers put forward in the audit on the Furlong farm indicate that this relatively low level of carbon emissions can be turned into positive carbon sequestration with good farm and soil management. While we must acknowledge that any audit software option does its calculations based on generic figures, the majority of such tests on farms tend to show a net loss of carbon from farming systems.
Even if the calculated results from the program in this example are not exactly correct, it shows that it is carbon positive, which is potentially beneficial for agriculture. While this farm business is unique in that it has been pursuing a range of soil-preserving management options for the past two decades, many other tillage farms may also be or become carbon positive by virtue of the good farming systems they employ.
This merits further examination and verification by Teagasc. The roll-out of the Teagasc ‘Sign Post’ farms provides a great opportunity to seriously examine this and other farm situations. We need to know the potential situation regarding carbon emissions on worn tillage land compared with this type of environment- and soil-friendly management. The even greater benefit for growers is easier soil management and higher yield at lower cost over time. High yield and continuous cover cropping are the major factors in this finding.
Land in tillage has much lower greenhouse gas emissions than other land uses.Farm monitoring has shown that the 4,000ac farmed by Walter Furlong had a positive carbon balance of almost one tonne per acre.The area used for spring barley had a positive balance of over 2t/ac of carbon dioxide equivalent, which was significantly helped by the catch crops grown between main crops.These findings now need to be monitored and evaluated by research measurement. 
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