http://www.ag.ndsu.edu/forums/range/list.php?18 Sun, 22 Nov 2009 12:42:39 -0600 Phorum 5.2.11 http://www.ag.ndsu.edu/forums/range/read.php?18,44,44#msg-44 http://www.ag.ndsu.edu/forums/range/read.php?18,44,44#msg-44 Jmstnman Other Thu, 12 Nov 2009 10:12:26 -0600 http://www.ag.ndsu.edu/forums/range/read.php?18,16,16#msg-16 http://www.ag.ndsu.edu/forums/range/read.php?18,16,16#msg-16
As many of you may know, millions of acres in North Dakota are signed up for the no-till portion of the Farmers Union Carbon Credit Program. These are farmers who commit to doing continuous no-till for a minimum of five years. Since continuous no-till increases soil organic matter, this stored carbon can be sold as a "carbon credit."

For ranchers, a new program has just come along that you may be interested in. For those of you who use a prescribed rotational grazing system you can earn carbon credits on that grazing land too. In all seriousness, the vast majority of rangeland in the US is either not grazed at all or grazed under some kind of season-long grazing system, and that won't earn carbon credits. We're talking about pretty high-level management. For ranchers who have implemented a formal grazing plan, and use rest and rotation to increase the forage quantity and quality and hedge against drought, you can earn carbon credits too.

Ranchers who are working with NRCS (maybe with an EQIP contract) and especially those that are in CSP will qualify for sure. Ranchers that have developed their own system (some of which are incredibly sophisticated- like some of the more holistic practices) will also likely qualify. Please visit our website and feel free to contact me any time if you think you might be interested.

I plan to check this forum often, so you can ask questions here too and I'll do my best to answer them.]]> Liz Mathern, NDFU Other Wed, 29 Oct 2008 16:00:03 -0500