This plough is intended to be used for meliorative tillage, i.e. to break up compaction and improve the soil as a result. The implement features bodies that plough at alternating depths to create wells below the tillage level in every other furrow, which are then filled with humus-rich topsoil. Analyses of historical trials conducted by the ZALF have shown that more than half of the humus introduced in this manner is retained to secure the long-term storage of CO2 in the soil.

The lower soil layers with little humus which are ploughed up in the process are mixed with the topsoil and form new humus-rich topsoil within a matter of only a few years, as carbon is introduced from crops. Overall, the humus content of soils tilled in this manner therefore increases, and soil fertility improves. At the same time, this sustainable soil improvement creates a new business model in the form of carbon farming.

Breaking up compacted soils while also introducing humus-rich topsoil into wells allows plant roots to grow into deeper soil levels and access the water and nutrients retained there. This approach can increase yields by up to five per cent even in the first year. This effect was established as early as the 1960s and 1980s and has been confirmed by recent field trials conducted by the ZALF.

The method can be repeated diagonally to the main direction of work after five to ten years. In addition to the above benefits, this new carbon farming technology also opens up new income streams for farmers in the form of trade in CO2 certificates. A potential future tax on CO2 emissions is therefore avoided, and the competitiveness of agricultural businesses is improved.

When paired with an iQblue connect module, the Carbon Farming Plough, which is based on tried and tested Lemken ploughs, will be capable of collecting site-specific work data and precisely documenting the depth and position of the wells created. This new plough will be available to purchase from mid-2024.

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Even as soil health practices become more widespread, farmer participation in carbon programs remains relatively low. While 72 percent of respondents are aware of carbon offerings, only three percent are enrolled in a carbon sequestration program. Many farmers indicate that they would consider a carbon program if the payout per acre reached $20; however, it isn’t until the payout per acre would reach an estimated $40 that the majority said they would commit to participation in a program. A recent Purdue study highlights that farmers need to be incentivized to adopt practices and join a carbon program.

Forty-four percent of farmers who have not already adopted these practices report increased interest in on-farm stewardship during the past five years. Lack of access to necessary equipment and services, as well as concern about return on investment, were cited as the biggest barriers to practice adoption.

“We always start with the agronomy to make sure practices are a good fit. Carbon programs can help to offset the costs of new practices to further drive farm profitability and stewardship outcomes. The data shows that many farmers are interested in these practices and will adopt them with a higher payout. As an industry, this means we must work to remove barriers to increase practice adoption and provide farmers with holistic solutions such as carbon programs to drive prices toward that $40 level and beyond,” 

said Ben Gordon, Portfolio Lead, Carbon Ecosystems and Services, Corteva Agriscience.

Other key insights from the Corteva Agriscience survey demonstrate how price points, barriers to entry and trusted advisors are important factors for farmers when considering carbon programs.

Pricing preferences

• The majority of farmers don’t believe that a carbon program sounds appealing until they can get paid at least $40/acre to participate, confirming a recent Purdue article about what farmers would need to switch from conventional tillage to no-till.

Familiarity with carbon programs

• Seventy-two percent of survey respondents said they had heard about carbon programs but didn’t know much about them. Twenty percent are actively looking into and evaluating such programs. Three percent are currently enrolled in one.
• Almost two-thirds (66 percent) of respondents already utilize cover cropping or reduced tillage on at least some of their acres.

Barriers to adoption of soil health practices (cover crop and reduced tillage)

• The biggest barriers to planting cover crops and/or use of strip or no-till are lack of access to necessary equipment or custom applicators, as well as concern that they may not see a return on investment.

Barriers to enrollment in a carbon program

• In most cases, payment/acre as it stands today will not cover their costs to implement the required practices to become eligible for a carbon program.

Decision influencers

• The individuals who have the most influence on farmers’ decisions related to planting cover crops or implementing strip or no-till are consultants/agronomists, other farmers and family.

Interest in on-farm stewardship and conservation issues

• Fifty-eight percent of 617 survey respondents said they have become more or much more interested in on-farm stewardship and conservation in the past five years (40 percent no change, two percent less interested)
• Among non-adopters of cover crops or reduced tillage, 44 percent said they have become more or much more interested in on-farm stewardship and conservation in the past five years.

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Yara, a leading crop nutrition solutions provider, will officially introduce Agoro Carbon Alliance during a global launch event on Tuesday, June 8 at 9:00 a.m. CDT (10 a.m. EDT). The Agoro Carbon Alliance is Yara’s new global business created to decarbonize the farm and food value chain and enable farmers to earn additional revenue through positive climate action.

During the event, attendees will discover Agoro Carbon through the voices of farmers, Alliance partners, and supporters from around the world, demonstrating Agoro Carbon’s farmer-centric approach and commitment to carbon farming and credit generation.

Event speakers include:

• Farmers
• NGOs, Farmer associations
• Technology partners
• Climate-smart ag experts
• Agoro Carbon Alliance leadership
• Yara leadership

The event will also provide the opportunity for a Q&A with the Agoro Carbon Alliance leadership team. In addition, attendees will learn more information on how farmers and potential partners can get involved.

“We’re thrilled about the launch of Agoro Carbon Alliance, and we couldn’t be more excited to share our mission with farmers, partners, and our Yara team across the globe during this event. By helping farmers transform certain practices and generate reliable Farm Carbon Credits and certified climate-smart crops, together we can decarbonize the food value chain and build a better agriculture future for all,”

said Alex Bell, interim CEO and Head of Carbon Strategy and Alliances at Agoro Carbon.

Agoro Carbon Alliance is the only carbon alliance built on an active global knowledge network of open and transparent partnerships that enables permanent, system-wide transformation.

Agoro Carbon Alliance has operations and partnerships across four continents with teams in Europe, Brazil, India, and the United States. The alliance is global in order to activate the power of farm soil across the planet and to make this opportunity accessible for farmers of various backgrounds.

Source: Yara

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Farmers Edge announced the general availability of its data-driven Smart Carbon program for key agricultural markets in North America. The program harnesses the power of technology by combining hardware, software, agronomy, and hands-on customer support to create a truly connected acre that gives farmers and their trusted advisors a 360-degree view of their carbon footprint with data from soil to sale.

A leader in the cleantech space, Farmers Edge has been helping farmers to implement climate-friendly practices since 2005. The company provides the knowledge and technical support to infuse intelligence into decisions and processes on the farm, bringing sustainability, productivity, and profitability together. The technology automatically tracks, measures, and benchmarks improvements in yields, soil health, and efficiencies of practices on a site-specific basis. This synergy results in an economic, environmental, and social value that can be passed down the supply chain for generations to come. It is highly scalable and can be implemented in both data-rich and data-sparse regions, by farms of any size.

The company estimates that the total addressable market within its current customer base will include at least six million new carbon offsets annually through carbon sequestration and emissions reductions. In addition, the company has already secured buyers in North America.

Farmers Edge has a long history as a sustainability innovator in Canada, with extensive experience managing one of the major carbon offset programs in the world, the Alberta Technology Innovation and Emissions Reduction Regulation. Based on this work, the company will expand its sequestration and emissions-reduction projects to other provinces, including Saskatchewan and Manitoba. In the US, the company is planning projects based on the USDA/NRCS foundation of greenhouse gas management. Additionally, Farmers Edge is currently developing broader-based protocols to be used across North America.

“At the heart of our business has always been a deep commitment to agriculture and the farmers who feed us. As stewards of the land, farmers play a leading role in ensuring the stability of the global food supply and the health of our planet; they need collective support to do this. We provide a simple and transparent program that rewards farmers for land stewardship and removes the hassle of dreaded paperwork. We can validate their digital environmental assets in near real-time, reducing risk and creating verified, high-quality carbon offsets. Farmers are part of the climate change solution,”

said Wade Barnes, Farmers Edge Chief Executive Officer, and founder.

Along with scaling its digital, connectivity-fueled carbon program, Farmers Edge is developing a system for food companies and elevators to purchase low-carbon grain.

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The rapidly evolving carbon credit market is a potential revenue channel for farmers in which they can also contribute to the solution for climate change alongside feeding the world’s growing population.

“Carbon sequestration’s revenue potential for farmers through carbon credits incentivizes adoption, investment, and innovation for the betterment of our climate,”

said Louisa Parker-Smith, AGCO’s Global Sustainability Director.

“With half of the earth’s vegetated land employed in agriculture and abundant soil carbon sequestration potential, it’s understandable that the Ag supply potential is over 30 times today’s total credit demand. However, we expect to see carbon-offset credit demand increase exponentially as surrounding markets mature and companies such as Apple and BP work towards self-imposed climate neutrality deadlines. We are undertaking this research to help create a clear path for farmers to successfully harness the revenue potential and climate benefits of biologic carbon sequestration through cover cropping and other regenerative agriculture practices,”

said Darren Goebel, AGCO’s Global Agronomy and Farm Solutions Director.

“We are confident that these trials will demonstrate easy and cost-effective ways to add these practices into existing crop systems.”

AGCO’s Global Agronomy team is collaborating with the company’s global brands to drive research trials at the Martin Richenhagen Future Farm in Zambia, Africa, and the Swiss Future Farm in Tänikon, Switzerland, as well as several sites in the U.S. and Denmark. The studies focus on best practices for cover crop planting timing (before, during or after harvest), termination methods, species selection, and tillage systems to maximize carbon stores.

Watch the video of AGCO Agronomist Jens Christian Jensen’s visit with Steffen Decker, a fourth-generation farmer at Stydinggaard near Styding, Denmark, to learn about his experience with cover cropping over the last 10 years. The research trials are one component of AGCO’s new sustainability strategy, which includes a focus area on-farm solutions for soil health and carbon capture.

“Our goal is to make regenerative agriculture attainable for farmers. As part of our new strategy, we’re conducting these research trials to inform the development of new products to support soil health and carbon management. We’re committed to supporting farmers as part of the solution to the global challenge of climate change.”

said Parker-Smith.

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The Portland plant will be the first vehicle manufacturing plant to achieve CO₂-neutral production in the global Daimler Trucks network. DTNA is making a significant investment in the facility as it prepares for production of the Freightliner eCascadia and Freightliner eM2, the company’s first battery-electric medium- and heavy-duty trucks planned for the start of series production in 2022.

“The commitment we have to CO₂-neutral vehicles starts with how they are produced, and we are on the path to achieving carbon-neutral production, beginning with our Portland truck plant in 2020. With our quickly growing portfolio of battery-electric vehicles and our transformative work in hydrogen fuel cell commercial vehicles that will be on the road within the decade, our future and our industry’s future is electric.”

said Roger Nielsen, president, and CEO, DTNA.

Partnerships to Achieve Carbon Neutrality

The Portland plant developed a strategy with local partners that will have a powerful impact. Through a partnership with Energy Trust of Oregon, the plant has reduced its energy consumption from vehicle manufacturing with equipment replacement and facility upgrades. The upcoming implementation of ISO 50001 will ensure further improvement in energy efficiency for the Portland plant.

As a signing member of Portland General Electric’s Green Future Impact program, DTNA has also committed to the purchase of “green” energy from wind and solar power generation, including from the recently announced Pachwáywit fields, slated to be Oregon’s largest solar facility, located in Gilliam County, about 150 miles east of Portland.

Geoffrey Jansen, plant manager, Portland truck manufacturing plant, DTNA, said:

“Sustainability is not a new topic for Daimler Trucks North America or for those of us here in Oregon, and we are excited to support our global commitments by getting a head start in our own home town. This announcement is even more meaningful since we will begin building the all-new electric Freightliner eCascadia and Freightliner eM2 here within the next couple of years.”

Environmental Leadership

DTNA is committed to ambitious goals to reduce emissions of CO₂ and volatile organic compounds, energy consumption, waste generation, and water consumption in an effort to make a powerful positive environmental impact for the communities in which it does business and on the world as a whole. For Daimler Truck & Buses, sustainability means permanently creating value for all stakeholder groups: for customers, employees, and investors as well as for business partners and society as a whole.

The post Daimler Trucks Commits to Carbon Neutral Vehicle Production by 2025 appeared first on North America FarmQuip Magazine.

As a leading manufacturer of air, fuel and lube filtration products for heavy-duty diesel engines, Cummins began exploring ways to use their filtration production technology to support healthcare providers as they addressed the COVID-19 pandemic.

At the same time, ORNL was searching for ways to scale up production of face masks with equipment used to mass produce precursor material for carbon fiber production at the CFTF.

ORNL’s research team had been working with the inventor of N95 filter media, Dr. Peter Tsai, to develop a novel in-line charging device that could be placed on the precursor production line to electrostatically charge the melt-blown material made of polypropylene or PP. Melt blowing is a nonwoven process that makes microfibers into a fabric by extruding, drawing and scattering a polymer resin with high velocity air and making a randomly deposited sheet of fibrous material applicable for filtration. By electrostatically charging the material with millions of microfibers layered on top of each other, the filter can remove more than 95 percent of submicron particles and viruses like COVID-19.

ORNL’s Merlin Theodore, Director of the CFTF, said:

“We reached our target goal in only a few weeks on pilot scale melt blowing capability at the CFTF and had the capability to produce filter media for 9,000 masks per hour when we connected with Cummins for potential technology transfer and scale up. Cummins was an ideal partner to scale what we had accomplished and helped us produce material that passed all required testing for filter media.”

With a filtration site in Cookeville, Tennessee just a short drive from the CFTF’s Oak Ridge location, Holm said that ORNL was the right fit not only in proximity, but also in research expertise.

Holm said:

“We had the nation’s experts in material science and fiber technology located about an hour from our primary production location. And, as fate would have it, ORNL was already working with the inventor of N95, Dr. Peter Tsai. Their research has made it possible to be where we are today. We can manufacture material that has passed all the required testing for N95 filter media.”

Cummins and ORNL have a long collaborative history, having partnered to develop a method that repairs a diesel engine cylinder head on heavy-duty engines by additive manufacturing and creating a probe to optimize the engine efficiency among other projects.

The filter media project marks the first time Cummins has collaborated with the CFTF at ORNL.

Just two months ago, Cummins had never produced filter media for face masks and today the company has shipped material to multiple customers across the country for the production of millions of masks.

Holm said:

“We knew melt blowing, but we could not have gotten up-to-speed without the interactions with ORNL and Dr. Tsai. Their technical guidance helped us become operational in a short amount of time so that we could meet the demand and supply our customers with material during a time of crisis.”

ORNL’s research team designed and manufactured a custom electrostatic charging device for Cummins at the DOE’s Manufacturing Demonstration Facility at ORNL and assisted in the installation of the device on the company’s Cookeville facility production line.

“We’re now looking for opportunities to expand the scope and performance of the materials we’re making, so we can serve even broader needs in the future,”

Holm said. According to CFTF Director Theodore, industry collaborations like this are the reason national lab user facilities exist.

she said:

“Our goal is to transfer our technology to industry partners to increase U.S. competitiveness in manufacturing. This in turn supplies a critical need for our country, creates job growth and stimulates the economy. We are the catalyst that help industry bring technology to the consumer.”

Source: Cummins

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The carbon tax will apply to everything that is used on farms. The transportation of grain, seed, fertilizer, fuel and shipping of parts will all have an additional cost that cannot be passed on to the end consumer, as grain is sold at world commodity rates.

We wish that the federal government dealt with the agriculture trade crisis in China, Italy, India, Peru and Vietnam as forcefully as they are pushing a carbon tax upon farmers. A carbon tax makes Canadian agriculture products uncompetitive because other farmers do not have a carbon tax.

“Farmers are leaders in environmental protection. The land is our livelihood, our inheritance and what we leave to the next generations of farmers. Over the past decades, we have already taken many steps to protect the land through no-till planting, reduced fertilizer, improved crop rotation and other actions. Legitimately we cannot shoulder another expense right now and a carbon tax does not make us any more environmentally friendly. We would ask that the federal government remove the carbon tax on all agriculture expenses,” said Cherilyn Jolly-Nagel, Saskatchewan Director.

About the Wheat Growers

Founded in 1970, the Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association is a voluntary farmer-run advocacy organization dedicated to developing public policy solutions that strengthen the profitability and sustainability of farming, and the agricultural industry as a whole.

The post Wheat Growers Oppose the Imposition of a Carbon Tax appeared first on North America FarmQuip Magazine.

National Farmers Union (NFU)

The letter, signed by a cross-section of the Coalition’s 60 Participants and Observers, is intended to reinforce the role of carbon capture technologies in any federal policy discussions about climate, energy, infrastructure or job creation. The group expressed support for legislation including the USE IT Act that would build on the FUTURE Act to advance the use of carbon capture technologies nationwide.

“Carbon capture presents family farmers and rural communities tremendous opportunity to both better the environment and enhance quality of life in rural America,” said NFU President Roger Johnson. “These technologies create jobs, produce domestic energy, benefit the U.S. ethanol industry, and reduce carbon emissions that exacerbate climate change. So as Congress looks to reduce our nation’s carbon emissions, we proudly join the Carbon Capture Coalition in urging congressional leadership to advance federal policies that accelerate deployment of carbon capture, utilization and storage.”

Source: National Farmers Union (NFU)

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