Blain Hjertaas - talks about soil carbon sequestration.

[grassfarmer]

A YouTube presentation by a SK farmer making the case for carbon sequestration and why he thinks he should get paid for it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utSD7u6OH9c

[sumdumguy]

I need all the carbon I can get. Because God gave us photosynthesis, carbon the backbone of green growth and food production has sustained life on this planet. Those blind bats who can't see that have too much red in their eyes.🙈 Bats. (Couldn't find an emoticom of a bat)

[Rareearth]

It’s a good video, the concepts and results have been proven in many a garden, can it be applied to broad acre farms?

It might not be sustainable though. If we put 20 head per acre on ever acre meat markets would crash ( over supply of the commodity).
He does make a few exaggerated comments.
- all grass species get knocked over to the ground by winter snow, hail storms, wild fires, and heavy rains. It doesn’t have to be a cow or sheep.

- I’m not sure what the organic matter was in our soil prior to crop farming, does any body know or sampled native prairie? He says 12% which is very good. We do have lots of native, unbroken prairie in our area, water seems to run off of it just fine(🙂) I’ll take pictures and take note this summer. The pastures seem to dry up, Brown if no snow cover. His pics seem to be .... unbelievable

- Rotational grazing results are proven, he didn’t compare apples to apples. He compared his best system to open grazed pasture system

- I have to wonder how or if he measures mycorrhizae health, type and numbers ( or do we take his word for it)

[Rareearth]

I’ll pour a drink now,

[seldomseen]

I can't help but think of the old saying "50 miles from home everyone's an expert"

He compares his farm to his neighbour's often. I would like to here from his neighbour.

[grassfarmer]

Rareearth, undoubtedly we would have an overproduction of meat - however note that he also mentioned more use of "cover crops" in farming systems to protect the soil and keep something growing for longer - I think these are more likely scenarios than abandoning grain production totally in favour of livestock.

I'd disagree with your comment on all grass getting knocked over in the absence of animals - go look at your nearest ungrazed Ducks land and you'll see multi years of old lignified growth still standing. Even with high density stocking we still leave more standing than I'd like sometimes. A huge snowpack can completely level old growth but it seems we don't get them too often.

What's the management on the native prairie that the water runs off? likely overgrazed like most of the pasture in the country.

I really posted this to show one approach to explaining your carbon sequestration efforts and seeking reward for that service. He reckons it's worth $175/acre a year. I can't say i'm in favour of such a reward system but I thought it might spark some debate for the guys that insist they are sequestering carbon and should be getting paid for it - without really having any evidence they are and no idea who or how to approach getting paid for their contribution.

[westernvicki]

An interesting option for some as grain prices adjust to new global price points. Crowd grazing offers interesting options for a minimal land base operation, requiring high management this seems to be a a diversion from the current trend of herd management which focus on less handling but requires larger land bases for grazing.

Ruminants have always been good for the land, natural fertilizer c/w organic matter for the land is the best source if you can access.