Over the past year we have become interested in Carbon Scoring. This is a program that pays row crop producers when they have a smaller carbon footprint.
The “Inflation Reduction Act” has made available large sums of money through the form of tax credits to renewable fuel companies that can be passed forward to farmers who sell low carbon scored crops to them.
This should not be confused with carbon offsets that we have heard about in the past, but rather carbon scored production. This year my farm enrolled with Continuum Ag to carbon score the corn produced on my operation. The process was very easy and took only a couple hours of time to complete.
Here is how it worked. The operation must supply records to show the fertilization practices, tillage practices and the chemical usage on each field of corn. From this information, inputs will be entered into the greet model that calculates the carbon score for the grain produced from these acres.
When this grain is sold, a certificate will accompany the grain that states the carbon score of the grain so that the farmer will be able to be paid for that as well. This is a new program and not all of the details have been worked out, however if they do work out as expected, my operation may see as much a $2 / bushel premium for each bushel of grain sold. Again, it is getting late in the game, and I am a farmer too. I am frustrated with the lack of solid information being released by both the renewable fuels industry and the carbon scoring companies at this time. I signed up with the intention that if it works for my operation, I will have first-hand knowledge of the process and can help other producers in the future navigate this program.
With the green movement in the current administration and likely continuation of this in future administrations, aspects of agriculture are likely to change in one way or another. Today it is renewable fuels, tomorrow it will likely be in livestock and human food production. This is a movement that I don’t currently see an end to.
If your operation is interested in getting Carbon Scored you can talk to the office here and we will help you make contacts to achieve this on your operation. Today I am not sure whether we will see returns in 2025 or not but for the small cost of participating in this program I cannot see a downside in getting additional information.