Our Stance on Greenhouse Gas Emissions

At Bear & Twigg, we believe that looking at greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions alone doesn't tell the full story of a farm's environmental impact. A farm's GHG emissions have nothing to do with crucial factors like soil health, biodiversity, or ground cover. We find it frustrating that a grass-based sheep farm, like ours, generally has a higher emissions footprint than a crop farm, primarily due to methane emissions from the sheep and nitrous oxide from manure and pastures. This is frustrating because cropping farms often have negative environmental impacts, including monocultures, fossil fuel use, chemicals, and reduced ground cover.

Our Carbon Strategy: Beyond the Numbers

The main component of our farm's emissions footprint is methane from our sheep. While tree planting is a quick way to reduce carbon emissions, we recognize that our landscape is naturally a treeless plain. Instead of planting monoculture plantations like pine or blue gum, which yield the most Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) but offer limited environmental benefits, we are focused on planting trees that are native to our area. We'll concentrate on waterways and floodplains to build a Black Box chenopod grassy woodland landscape.

These strategic tree plantings will provide shade, shelter, and increased biodiversity and habitat for native animals. While these projects may not generate as many ACCUs as monoculture plantations, they align with our purpose of building a healthy natural landscape. We see a real opportunity in the ACCU market for farmers, but we believe ACCU production must be synergistic with a farm’s purpose and goals. We are also exploring the potential of soil carbon projects, especially given our farm's heavy clay soil, which can store carbon more stably than sandy soil. We believe that GHG emissions and ACCU production must support our efforts to build biodiversity and maintain a healthy, productive farm.