Carbon farming has more benefits than simply offsetting emissions, says agroforestry leader

Romsey prime lamb producer Patrick Francis is urging his local authority, Macedon Ranges Shire Council, to encourage small farmers to look closely at carbon farming to help it reach net zero emissions targets.

Carbon farming seeks to optimise carbon capture by implementing practices that are known to improve the rate at which CO2 is removed from the atmosphere, through improved pastures and agroforestry.

Jigsaw Farm's Mark Wootton, Hamilton, says mass tree plantings also resulted in an increase in biodiversity and improved productivity.

"We have just been through a horrible five days (over Easter), it was rain on-and-off and we have sheep 'off shears'," Mr Wootton said.

"We have put them in the plantations, or next to them, and we haven't lost one," he said.

Over Easter, the area was hit by low temperatures, wind and 26 millimetres of rain in 24 hours.

"We have about 12,000 Merino lambs, they were very vulnerable," Mr Wootton said.

"Historically, around here, you have had 10-20 per cent losses in the open areas - the sheep have no wool or no lanolin on them.

"It's basically like you are running around naked in a blizzard."

Jigsaw Farms is a carbon neutral sheep, cattle and agroforestry operation just north of Hamilton.

Environmental works and agroforestry cover 18 per cent of the land area, resulting in the properties being carbon neutral since 2010.

The 3300 hectare property, run by Mr Wootton and Eve Kantor, integrates forestry with a mixed grazing operation, turning off prime lambs, producing fine wool and running an Angus/Hereford breeding program.

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Mr Wootton said farmers would have to act on carbon neutrality, in response to market signals.

"Coles are doing it now, with their carbon neutral beef - what they do is a carbon measurement on your farm, which is everything, the ruminant animals and all your energy costs," he said.

"If they want to use your product they, or you, have to buy offsets elsewhere

"Logically, if you can have more insets, so the carbon is kept within the farm landscape , you use that on your product you are ahead by miles."

He said 69 of the biggest 100 economies in the world were companies, not countries.

"Once they say they have a net zero carbon goal by a certain date, they are going to be looking for suppliers to help them get to that goal," he said.

"It's a trend, and if you don't look at that from a business planning point of view, you are a bit of a goose, really."

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Mr Wootton said the biggest limitation was that carbon credits could only be counted once.

"If the landholder is claiming carbon credits to sell to third parties or make their own product carbon neutral, that doesn't mean the council can claim it for their own," Mr Wootton said.

"The analogy I used with farmers is you only have one lot of barley and you can only sell it to one person."

Councils could have a role in acting as a "carbon aggregator", particularly when it came to those with a large number of smallholdings.

"Councils, or the local catchment management authority, could act as a coordinating body for all the small farms," he said.

"They could put together a corridor planting, through a whole range of smallholdings."