Mark Mckew – Measuring Carbon On Farm

Mark McKew owns a 654 hectare property in Mount Cole Creek, western Victoria, with over 2000 head of sheep and 77 cattle. Interested to know more about his farm’s carbon emissions, Mark was pleased to participate in an emissions analysis project conducted by Project Platypus.

Mark’s interest comes through a strong environmental consciousness and because, as he puts it, “its better to know what you are up against than not know what you are up against,” in relation to the proposed Australian emissions trading scheme.

Mark, who is also on the Project Platypus sub-committee for climate change, has been farming full-time since returning to the family farm in 1995. He and his father have experienced dramatic environmental change in the past 40 years. Rainfall has significantly reduced in the past 15 years, resulting in dried up creek beds. In 2006, the property recorded just less than 230 millimetres of rain, far short of Mark’s suggested average of 400 millimetres.

Mark realises that “reversing climate change is not an option in our lifetime” and knew his farm was an emissions contributor. He saw working with Project Platypus as an opportunity to get on the front foot and know where he was at. “Being forewarned allows farmers to know what is coming and what can be done to offset it.”

Calculations showed that the major source of greenhouse gas emissions on Mark’s farm is methane from livestock (sheep 56 per cent and beef 24 per cent). Nitrous oxide emissions from livestock dung accounted for 18 per cent and carbon dioxide from fuel consumption accounted for 2%. Cropping (24 hectares of lucerne) only contributed a minor amount.

The Project Platypus farm emissions report suggests a number of activities which could help reduce emissions on Mark’s farm, including:

• Breeding for improved feed efficiency, as methane emissions from livestock represent energy which could be better used for production.
• Increasing the dietary fats, forage tannins and the type of carbohydrates in livestock feed will reduce methane produced in the beasts’ rumen.
• Maintain/improve record keeping of livestock numbers throughout the year.

Mark learned that carbon sequestration in trees was at a minimum and that he could do a whole lot more. Since 2003, 10 hectares had been planted with mixed environmental plantings, mostly to address land erosion. Mark now sees planting trees in the right places as ‘low hanging fruit’ and will work towards using revegetation as a first step to bringing his emissions profile closer to neutral. He suggests that revegetation was a “perceived threat to rural communities, but every farm can have more shelter belts without affecting production; in fact it would probably help their production”.

“Farmers are an innovative bunch, they will take on ideas. If they can improve the bottom line by doing something different and avoiding costs then they tend to do it.” Mark McKew

While Mark sees soil carbon as an important carbon sink in the farming system, he also understands the complexities of maintaining organic carbon over long periods. “Soil carbon is easy to measure, hard to maintain”, said Mark. While improving soil carbon improves water retention, Mark believes that revegetation is a more secure way to hold carbon as it is likely to be less affected by drought.

While being passionate about leaving the land in a better state for the next generation, Mark also has some innovative ideas to change his farm operations and prepare him well for a carbon constrained, future economy. “The future is electric,” Mark said of his plans to have an electric motorbike within the next 12 months, as well as an electric family car in the future.

Renewable energy is also an opportunity for Mark, who is already a purchaser of green power and would be happy for his farm to become a site for future wind energy production.

Marks final words of advice are simple: “Don’t be afraid to measure and find out where you are at. I don’t envisage making money out of carbon, but if you can avoid extra costs, its best to do so.”

Project Platypus - Landcare Network provides critical support

An innovative farm pilot project is assisting farmers, such as Mark McKew, to understand and manage their on-farm greenhouse gas emissions.

During 2008 and 2009, Project Platypus assisted a group of 15 farmers, from small hobby farms to large cropping enterprises, to understand their business’ greenhouse emissions profile.

Project Platypus is a network of Landcare groups within the upper Wimmera River catchment, which aim to improve the land and water quality in the catchment, while enhancing biodiversity and encouraging a sustainable community. Project Platypus Manager, Leigh Blackmore, said that having a range of landowners interested in sharing ideas with each other has been great. Leigh has found the pilot project to be of great value to farmers in the region, as “knowing what you are in control of and what you can change is empowering, and makes farmers less vulnerable”.

A Caring for our Country grant enabled Project Platypus to contract Dr Carly Green from Environmental Accounting Services to provide professional carbon accounting advice to the 15 farmers. This professional collaboration proved to be a key to the success of the project. Initially, Project Platypus had planned on assisting farmers to use the calculators to audit their own farms, but the complexity of these calculators made it difficult for the farmers to do it themselves. Instead Project Platypus collected information from the farmers, then passed on that info to Dr Green who completed emissions calculations for each farmer.

In the future new farm based calculators will provide farmers with a more user friendly way of calculating their own emissions.

“Farmers are an innovative bunch, they will take on ideas. If they can improve the bottom line by doing something different and avoiding costs then they tend to do it.” Mark McKew

Project Platypus staff worked together with Dr Green to gather data from the previous financial year and establish a greenhouse emissions baseline for each farm business. Leigh noted that the information needed for an emissions audit was easily found in well kept farm records.

Farmers involved in the project have received:

• a comprehensive report detailing their farm business emissions profile for the 07-08 financial year, with a breakdown of where their emissions come from, and
• a list of proposed actions for mitigating their emissions from each enterprise.

This information can then be used to assist these farmers in identifying which actions will have the biggest gains in terms of both increased productivity and reduced emissions.

Leigh reflected that “regardless of an emissions trading scheme and carbon marketing opportunities, having more information about the impact of your operations is probably valuable in itself, regardless of the outcomes”.

For more information

Project Platypus - www.platypus.org.au

Greenhouse in Agriculture - www.greenhouse.unimelb.edu.au

DPI is seeking positive and practical stories about climate change action. Contact us on 136 186 if you have a story to share.

View all the Farmers Taking Action case studies online at www.dpi.vic.gov.au/climaterisk

Through the Future Farming Strategy, the Victorian Government is providing information to enable farm businesses to plan for climate change.