About Us
Our mission is to support change in farming practices to:
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Increase productivity and profit while simultaneously reducing emissions of greenhouse gases;
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Increase resilience and so reduce the impact of drought and climate change and
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Produce wider natural resource management benefits, including water quality.
The Carbon Grazing Trust supplies two services. The first is communication and information provision centred around speaking engagements, the development of training and education materials, presentations, and paper formulation. The second is the supply of new on-farm technology in the form of a unique one pass tree and shrub planter for planting into marginal conditions.
The Carbon Grazing principle, as outlined in our book, explains how to maximise the flow of carbon into the terrestrial landscape. The principle focuses our attention on when the bulk of the carbon arrives. Applying this principle will reduce the amount of methane produced per a kg of production by ruminant animals like sheep and cattle. .
On 9th June when Alan presented at the 2010 Deakin Lecture Series titled "The Climate Change Challenge", he released his Methane Offset Calculator. This new approach to dealing with methane emissions from ruminant animals was reported in the media the next day.The carbon footprint of kangaroos influences Australia's net carbon balance. If policy makers only include commercial livestock and do not consider kangaroos in decision making, then they risk locking in a higher cost of living for urban Australians.
Since the original methane discussion paper was released in September 2007, and more specifically the period since the book launch, Alan Lauder has spoken at a range of events and forums. The Carbon Grazing Trust has presented papers and been asked to collaborate on a range of projects. The most recent published paper being "Maximising carbon in the Australian landscape".
Recently, the Purves Environmental Fund has funded us to undertake a feasibility study to ascertain the potential market uptake of converting the content of the book "Carbon Grazing - The Missing Link" into a range of different formats.
Tim Flannery invited Alan to join the panel of the
Deakin Lecture Series 2010 "Innovation and Climate Change". Alan was part of the panel on the topic "Carbon Down on the Farm" where he spoke on the Carbon Grazing principle and carbon flows, which was featured in a recent Queensland Country Life edition. For the video of Alan's presentation and details of our other activities please refer to our Events page.The Carbon Grazing Trust has authored articles in newspaper and journal articles and written conference and policy papers.
Our book "Carbon Grazing - The Missing Link" was launched by the renowned scientist Dr John Williams from the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists .
The book focuses on the importance of maintaining carbon compounds in the landscape. Using simple to understand language, the book explains the processes of plants, the soil and animals and highlights how they are all inter-related. The flow of greenhouse gases is included in this text, highlighting that the greenhouse outcomes of agriculture are a reflection of economic efficiency
Both the book and the Carbon Grazing principle are gaining wide acceptance in the scientific community as well as throughout the braoder agribusiness industry and also with rural producers.
At the launch Alan Lauder explained why the book was written.
"You have developed a big concept and explained it simply. It is also well written and illustrated. Personal experience, anecdotes from others and a smattering of science gives it a very readable tone. Then bringing it all into the worldwide Carbon debate of the current age was a brilliant idea. In my day we didn't go past calling it organic matter, which has no appeal at all. Your way of explaining it gives it focus and builds it into the worldwide Carbon framework." (former CSIRO Rangeland scientist, Dr Alan Wilson)
The book launch was not long after our poster presentation at the Australian Rangelands Conference 2008 in Charters Towers, where the poster below won "Best Poster Paper of the Conference in the Open section" (see below)
"Carbon Grazing: The Missing Link" has now been released as a hard copy publication with copies of the book now available.