Ted Chamberlin Ranch—
Exploring the Emerging Carbon Farming Market BY ANN ADAMS
T
he Chamberlin Family from the Santa Ynez Valley, California is committed to improving rangeland health through sequestering carbon. They are improving the soil water holding capacity by applying compost and using planned grazing while finding profitable business models in challenging times. For that reason their enterprise mix includes the development of a Carbon Farm Plan which consists of 12 different practices recognized by the National Resource Conservation District (NRCS) for increasing the amount of carbon in the soil. The Chamberlins are focusing on two of the practices, planned grazing and applying compost to degraded rangeland.
Carbon Farming Initiative
Working through the NRCS in collaboration with many agencies including, The Cachuma Resource Conservation District, California Carbon Project, CalPoly University, Carbon Cycle Institute, Community Environmental Council, LegacyWorks Group, Santa Barbara Air Pollution Control District, Santa Barbara Foundation, UC Berkeley, UC Davis, UC Extension, UC Santa Barbara, and the USDA
NRCS, the Chamberlins have implemented a pilot project for monitoring and measuring the change in soil carbon on their ranch. A quarterinch application of compost was applied to the NRCS test sites in November 2017. The site saw a 16% increase of forage Two generations of Chamberlins are now involved on production the first the Chamberlin Ranch. year with a rainfall of 25 inches. The second year produced a 25% increase of Initiative to spread compost on 60 acres this forage production with 11 inches of rainfall. (The fall. These larger sites will have differing terrain average rainfall is 15” and the past seven years and soil types to see how they respond. The have been the driest in recorded history). The soil organic matter is about 2% and applying a Chamberlin Ranch is one of 15 test sites spread quarter inch of compost requires about 34 cubic throughout California to further test the theory yards per acre. of compost application. There are two recent Adding compost potentially captures 1.49 reports written for California’s Fourth Climate Mg/acre/year of carbon. The goal is in ten Change Assessment reporting on finding a years to “treat” 428 acres/year for a carbon “detectable and significant net increase in soil sequestration of 638 Mg/year. The models carbon storage” from this practice. (1) suggest this one time application should last up The current NRCS compost test site is only to 30 years. Due to topographical limitations, a few acres in size. In collaboration with many the Chamberlins can spread compost on 4,300 of the same agencies, the Chamberlins have of their 8,000 acre ranch. After 30 years this embarked on a bigger project and were awarded would sequester 30,000 Mg of carbon which a $200,000 grant by the California Healthy Soils is the equivalent of emissions from 30,000 cars annually. With an $8/metric ton price on the carbon market, that equates to $240,000, plus all the attendant increases in productivity and resilience on the range. The need to scale compost application is one of the variables being explored in these pilot projects.
Planned Grazing
As the Chamberlins have shifted to planned grazing they are seeing more Coast Live Oak seedlings as well as perennial grass plants that stay green even in August (the dormant season).
The second item from the Carbon Farm plan is the practice of planned grazing. “We have a lot of annual grasses and forbs (i.e., ripgut, foxtail, wild oats, and filaree) as well as some perennial grasses like purple needle grass,” says Russell. “During our dormant dry season, we leave 400–800 pounds of residual matter and want to trample it down to cover the soil. During the growing season we aim to rotate through each pasture twice while eating the top third of the plants. I noticed with this way we have more biodiversity. We have at least a thousand oak tree saplings which historically have not been able to get established. We CONTINUED ON PAGE 4
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