ANN ADAMS

Ted Chamberlin Ranch— Exploring the Emerging Carbon Farming Market

BY ANN ADAMS

The 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 production the first year with a rainfall of 25 inches. The second year produced a 25% increase of forage production with 11 inches of rainfall. (The average rainfall is 15” and the past seven years have been the driest in recorded history). The Chamberlin Ranch is one of 15 test sites spread throughout California to further test the theory of compost application. There are two recent reports written for California’s Fourth Climate Change Assessment reporting on finding a “detectable and significant net increase in soil carbon storage” from this practice. (1)

The current NRCS compost test site is only a few acres in size. In collaboration with many of the same agencies, the Chamberlins have embarked on a bigger project and were awarded a $200,000 grant by the California Healthy Soils Initiative to spread compost on 60 acres this fall. These larger sites will have differing terrain and soil types to see how they respond. The soil organic matter is about 2% and applying a quarter inch of compost requires about 34 cubic yards per acre.

Adding compost potentially captures 1.49 Mg/acre/year of carbon. The goal is in ten years to “treat” 428 acres/year for a carbon sequestration of 638 Mg/year. The models suggest this one time application should last up to 30 years. Due to topographical limitations, the Chamberlins can spread compost on 4,300 of their 8,000 acre ranch. After 30 years this would sequester 30,000 Mg of carbon which 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.

Two generations of Chamberlins are now involved on the Chamberlin Ranch.

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). Planned Grazing

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

also have greener and more perennial grasses throughout the summer.

“If we can graze down the ripgut during the growing season, it allows the wild oats to grow through for summer forage. In non-grazed areas it’s all ripgut. With planned grazing we have wild oats that are five to six feet tall,” says Russell. The increased forage and diversity results have been monitored and shared through the NRCS as well as California Rancher to Rancher Project. “The Rancher to Rancher trial site has helped us understand grazing impacts which is encouraging and is showing significant forage increases by using increased stock density,” says Russell.

As noted in the Chamberlins’ Carbon Farming Plan: “In addition, total estimated In 2014, the first Rancher to Rancher Project trial baseline monitoring was done to document the results of continuous grazing on an area that received almost 8 inches of rain. In 2015 after planned grazing and a similar rainfall there was a substantial increase in forage.

This is the amount of residual that was trampled by cattle to prepare the compost treatment area in 2016.

additional water storage capacity associated with soil carbon increases on Chamberlin Ranch resulting from implementation of the Ranch Carbon Plan are estimated to be 859-acre feet of water (280 million gallons). This is a significant quantity of additional water storage capacity yet represents an increase of less than 1.3 inches per acre for the 8,000-acre Ranch. This analysis is assumed to be conservative yet reveals the potential significance of even small increases in soil carbon storage for overall ranch dynamics.”

Russell Chamberlin has dedicated the last seven years to using Holistic Management as a tool to improve the sustainability of the landscape. “I constantly think about how I can keep all that rainfall that does fall on our ground and improve the soil through carbon farming,” says Russell.

Ranching as a Whole

There are now two generation of Chamberlins involved in the ranch. “My grandfather, Ted Chamberlin, started the 8,000 acre ranch in 1929,” says Russell. “My father, Willy Chamberlin, managed the ranch for 20 years, followed by my uncle, Fred Chamberlin. Now we have most of the family members active in the management.”

Russell, his sister, Ann Chamberlin, and cousin Cinna Schilling attended a Holistic Management Whole Farm/Ranch Business

In a second Rancher to Rancher Project trial, the area on the left was grazed at high stock density (middle) leaving a great deal of residual. With a good rain year in 2017 (over 25 inches of rain), the forage increase was impressive.

Planning (WFRBP) Course at the TomKat Ranch in Pescadero, California. “We took the WFRBP because Ann and Cinna were focused on the finances of the ranch and thought it would be a great introduction and it would help us come together to look at the ranch as a whole,” says Russell. “My cousin Mary Heyden, uncle Fred Chamberlin and aunt Sarah Chamberlin are also involved with the daily running of the ranch. Holistic Management has helped with our decision-making. The “Cousins” (Gen 3) spent a weekend at the Paicines Ranch to discuss our values, goals and dreams. This then led us to create a Mission Statement which guides our strategy and management decisions.”

According to Russell the ranch “runs a cow-calf operation as well as stocker and replacement heifers. We can run 350–500 head total. The amount varies depending on how much rain we get in a given year. We tend to use the historical stocking rate of 15–20 acres/cow, and have changed our business model to improve profitability of the ranch.” “We used to farm 600 acres of oat hay and 70 acres of summer Sudan grass. We were putting it up and doing windrows for the cattle to graze. Farming expenses were getting too expensive so in 2014 we decided to lease out the dryland hay farming and the irrigated ground to vegetable farmers. Those decisions allowed us to have cash income and be able to focus on improving the rangeland grazing. Those decisions also have resulted in a huge decrease of expenses” says Russell. The Chamberlin family has seen improved range conditions through holistic

November 2017 ¼ of an inch of compost was applied. planned grazing, improved finances from holistic financial planning, and improved team dynamics and management through holistic decision Collaboration is key when you are developing pilot and research projects. This photo was taken in February 2017. In the front left of picture is an area where compost was not spread. To the back right is where compost was spread. There was a 16% increase in forage in that area. This fenceline contrast photo shows the difference in forage quantity and quality between a non-grazed area (15 plus years) on the left and the planned grazing area on the right.

making. As they engage with their collaborators in these trials and pilot projects they are also engaging more ranchers, environmental groups, academics, scientists, NGOs and the media in spreading the word that good land management improves the carbon cycle in the land for the benefit of all.

(1) “Increasing Soil Organic Carbon to

Mitigate Greenhouse Gases and Increase

Climate Resiliency for California” prepared by L.E Flint, A.L. Flint, M.A.

Stern, A. Myer, W. Silver, C.F. Casey, F.

Franco, K. Byrd, B. Sleeter, P. Alvarez,

J. Creque, T. Estrada, D. Cameron, 6.

“Carbon Sequestration and Greenhouse

Gas Mitigation Potential of Composting and Soil Amendments on California’s

Rangelands, 1” prepared by Whendee L.

Silver, Sintana E. Vergara, Allegra Mayer