Editor: In light of the announcement that MaiaGrazing’s customer, Wilmot Cattle Co., sold $500,000 of carbon credits to Microsoft, our CEO, Peter Richardson penned a rousing article on what this means for our grazing community. Read on to find out.
Wilmot Cattle Co. Sells Carbon Credits to Microsoft for $500,000
By Peter Richardson, CEO, MaiaGrazing
On behalf of the MaiaGrazing team, I would like to say congratulations to leading innovator and long-time MaiaGrazing customer, Stuart Austin and the team at Wilmot Cattle Co., for securing a significant sale of carbon credits to Microsoft. The carbon credits were purchased for half a million dollars. It contributes to the technology giant’s pledge to be carbon negative by 2030.
You can read all about it in this press release.
We’re proud to be part of the solution that helped Wilmot Cattle Co. achieve this momentous result. Through better grazing management, they succeeded in improving their profitability and building resilience to drought. In doing so, they improved their soil, and thus were able to monetise this improvement through the sale of soil carbon credits.
As MaiaGrazing’s CEO, I know that every member of our team is committed to help Australian producers achieve better grazing outcomes. Today’s news is just one of the many proof points to show what is possible.
How MaiaGrazing supports the building of soil carbon:
- Managing the pasture recovery period drives root mass. This in turn helps to build soil carbon.
- Managing stocking rate to carrying capacity. This core MaiaGrazing feature is an essential component for improving soil. As a result, you maintain optimal ground cover as you avoid overstocking.
- Providing an auditable record of grazing data. This includes: animal inventory, stock movements, planning, pasture recovery periods, mob density, stocking rate. As a result, the verification process is simplified.
Explore MaiaGrazing, and find out how you can practice grazing management like Wilmot Cattle Co.:
I want to make progress on grazing management
What this news means for RegenAg
For the Regenerative Agriculture community at large, this is a tremendously exciting development. It is a validation that ‘principle-based’ grazing management practices can improve landscape. At MaiaGrazing, this is our passion.
It re-enforces the believe that we all share; good regenerative management = good bottom-line management.
Being rewarded for improving your most important asset – your land – is now becoming possible.
How Wilmot Cattle Co. uses MaiaGrazing
MaiaGrazing has been part of the Wilmot Cattle Co. regenerative agriculture journey from the very beginning. As we continued to grow our technology and team, so did Wilmot Cattle Co.
This result for Wilmot Cattle Co. was based on extensive historical soil testing and thousands of data points from years of grazing history in MaiaGrazing. Additionally, the use of our software to plan and record grazing activity provided the foundation livestock data for the soil carbon assessment. Here are a few ways Wilmot Cattle Co. uses MaiaGrazing:
Our solution is used to manage grass, people and livestock on a daily and weekly basis
- Planning for who grazes what. Allocating animals to feed and feed budgeting to avoid under/over-stocking.
- Forecasting stocking rate scenarios on whole or part of property basis. As a result, Wilmot Cattle Co. can validate large $ value decisions as seasons turn.
- Linking all farm staff in the process via data, daily activities and plans, and making conversations about stocking rate adjustments progressively easier.
How to get started
Impact Ag
Find out more about monetising natural capital on farms by visiting Impact Ag.
RCS
Working closely with MaiaGrazing, RCS provides training and advisory services to help farmers grow productive, profitable businesses within regenerative landscapes. Find out more about RCS here.
Conclusion: Is this right for you?
It is unlikely that carbon will ever become the dominant source of revenue for a grazing business. Nevertheless, here is evidence that improvements in soil carbon can contribute directly to the bottom line.
Through the work that we do in MaiaGrazing and the various organisations we partner with and support, we aim to help producers succeed.
Let’s celebrate our natural capital, and embrace these new and emerging revenue streams that complement the core production business. As a result, we will collectively be able to secure a better world for future generations.
No matter where you are in your grazing journey, keep striving to grow and improve, as we do. Good luck, and I hope MaiaGrazing can be your grazing management partner – just as we are with Wilmot Cattle Co.
Peter
