What is Carbon Farming & What is an ACCU?

Graziers and farmers do not need to stop farming and grazing or lock up land to make money from soil carbon farming. In fact, it is quite the opposite. This was proven by the two Queensland grazing families who were recently issued a combined 150,000 ACCUs. These families captured carbon as a result of time control grazing NOT as a replacement to grazing and no country was locked up. The two families used RCS principles to farm carbon while grazing. The benefit of carbon farming and being issued ACCUs is that the two families have created an additional revenue stream from their properties.

If you’re not quite sure what carbon farming or ACCUs are, David McLean of RCS Australia gives a quick explanation in this 2 minute video. You can also read about it here…

HOW DID THEY GET THE ACCUs?
An ACCU is an Australian Carbon Credit Unit which is a commodity that can be traded.

To get the ACCUs, the grazing operations had to measure how much carbon was already in their soil. This was their baseline which was done in 2016 by Carbon Link.

They then undertook grazing practices taught by RCS advisors that helped them capture carbon and store it in the soil while continuing to graze their land.

The amount of carbon in the soil was measured again in 2021 and verified to be accurate. There was paperwork involved (RCS can help you understand the paperwork!). The payoff of doing the paperwork was that the Australian government’s Clean Energy Regulator then issued the two grazing families with the record issues of soil based ACCUs. The families can sell the ACCUs now or hold on to them and sell them in the future.

WHO WOULD BUY THE ACCUs?
An example of someone who’d want to buy an ACCU is an airline. If you’ve booked a flight recently you’ll have seen that you can pay a bit extra to offset your portion of the carbon generated from that flight. As a carbon farmer, you could sell your ACCU to an airline via a national carbon market.

WHAT EXACTLY IS AN ACCU?
An ACCU is the equivalent of one tonne of CO2 or, 3.67 tonnes of carbon that has been captured.

HOW DO I LEARN HOW TO BE A CARBON FARMER?
More than 8,000 people have been introduced to farming practices that enable carbon capture by doing a Grazing For Profit or a Farming & Grazing For Profit course with RCS Australia. Capturing carbon and putting it in the soil helps your soil retain water – RCS have been teaching this since the early 1990’s. If you want to find out about more about courses call 07 4939 5255