After a multi-year hiatus, VicNoTill was back on-farm talking all things soil, carbon and extra cash in the back pocket.
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The two-day event kicked off on Grant Sims’ Lockington property and drew an unexpectedly large crowd with people from Victoria, NSW, South Australia, Queensland and the United Kingdom in attendance.
The carbon fungi
Mick Wettenhall didn’t mince words when he talked about a carbon sequestrating fungi being trialled in Australia.
“We looked at each other and thought, here is a way to orchestrate the largest carbon drawdown in history,” Mr Wettenhall said.
“Obviously that’s shooting for the moon, but I’d rather dream big than dream small.”
Mr Wettenhall is a Trangie farmer and co-founder of Loam Bio.
Loam Bio has developed a soil carbon inoculum based on the filamentous fungi capable of boosting carbon capture rates.
Farmers can either treat their seeds with the fungi in a concentrated powder form or use a liquid inject product.
Mr Sims is one of the farmers who has been trialling the project — and getting paid for his results.
“They came in before seeding to measure the soil carbon and then came back after harvest to read it again. They paid for the carbon gained,” Mr Sims said.
“We found these guys really good and easy to work with. It’s like treating your legumes — it was easy with our canola, we did it (seed treatment) in a cement mixer.”
Mr Sims said the carbon payment was a no-brainer when you factored in how risky cropping can be.
“A canola crop can be high risk, you can get frosted and have a total wipeout, but when you go ‘hey, wait a minute, we’ve got this much carbon drawdown that they’ll pay for’ it helps,” he said.
Mr Sims was one of three farmers involved in Loam Bio’s 2021 canola pilot program for the fungi.
Loam Bio estimates the entire canola crop — all 1154 hectares of it — sequestered 7518 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent into the top 30cm of soil.
Mr Wettenhall said the potential of what can be done under a single six-month crop was quite exciting.
“One of our trials was severely impacted by mice, but that farmer got a carbon cheque at the end to soften the blow,” he said.
“We are in an ironic situation. Climate change is farming’s biggest threat, but it’s also the biggest opportunity coming towards us. The monetisation of carbon will be a game changer.”
Agronomist Guy Webb — another Loam Bio co-founder — likened the carbon fungi to legume inoculants.
“When legume inoculants were first realised, it was the government who paid for all the research in the 1950s that gave us those group charts and made sure the product was consistent,” Mr Webb said.
“We want to hold this technology to the same integrity. As much as we depend on rhizobia for nitrogen, I hope we’ll come to use similar methods for carbon.”
Loam Bio co-founder Tegan Nock said they were currently seeing a five per cent increase in total organic carbon per season when the fungi inoculation is used.
“Unfortunately there is a reason these fungi aren’t in our farming systems anymore,” Ms Nock said.
“We find them in the ground, but fallow periods and certain plants can kill them off, so we are looking at it being an annual application.”
The fungi captures carbon from the plant root as it grows and produces carbon-rich compounds for the soil.
It has been extensively tested and works best with barley and canola.
Rainfall simulator
A rainfall simulator was used to show the difference between four soil samples taken from around the Lockington farm — one from the roadside, a cover crop, a zero-till paddock (disc seeder crop) and the last from a cultivated (tilled) paddock.
Soil systems engineer Michael Eyres said the rainfall simulator was a good way to see what your soil was actually doing.
“Erosion is a massive issue across our landscape,” Mr Eyres said.
“You want the water going in, not off.”
Mr Sims said the recent rainfall meant these samples were producing a lot more run-off.
“When we do this test in February or March after a dry summer, that entire inch will go through,” Mr Sims said.
Mr Sims said the best rainfall test he ever saw was a Tasmanian one where all samples performed phenomenally.
“They were in an old forest area, so their soils were very, very carbon-rich, and the rain up there is a fine mist all year so there isn’t erosion,” he said.
“We had people there from America who’d seen hundreds of rainfall tests and they said they’d never seen anything like it ... I find the more carbon you can get into your soil, the more forgiving it will be.”
Answers are in farmers’ heads
The purpose of the VicNoTill conference was wrapped up nicely by this quote from Mick Wettenhall: “The solution to the problems are trapped in farmers’ heads”.
“We’re highly cognisant that farmers are very resourceful people,” he said.
“We partner with farmers to get some scientific rigour behind what farmers have figured out on their own properties.”
Loam Bio soil carbon researcher Daniela Carnovale said they were currently looking at the effect of intercropping and biological fertilisers on soil carbon.
“We are interested in the systems you are running, rather than us telling you what you should be doing,” Ms Carnovale said.
VicNoTill was also celebrating its 20th anniversary at the conference.
Journalist