www.agriculture.com Open in urlscan Pro
151.101.130.137  Public Scan

Form analysis
4 forms found in the DOM

GET /search

<form class="general-search__form" role="search" action="/search" method="get">
  <div class="general-search__input-group input-group">
    <label for="general-search__search-input" class="type--cat-bold">Search</label>
    <input type="text" name="q" id="general-search__search-input" class="general-search__input" placeholder="What are you looking for?" required="required" value="" autocomplete="off">
    <button class="general-search__button type--squirrel button--contained-standard-square">
      <span class="is-vishidden">Search</span>
      <svg class="icon icon-search ">
        <use xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="#icon-search"></use>
      </svg>
    </button>
    <button class="general-search__close" aria-label="Close search bar">
      <svg class="icon icon-close ">
        <use xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="#icon-close"></use>
      </svg>
    </button>
  </div>
</form>

GET /search

<form class="fullscreen-nav__search__form" role="search" action="/search" method="get">
  <div class="general-search__input-group input-group">
    <label for="fullscreen-nav__search__search-input" class="type--cat-bold">Search</label>
    <input type="text" name="q" id="fullscreen-nav__search__search-input" class="general-search__input" placeholder="What are you looking for?" required="required" value="" autocomplete="off">
    <button class="general-search__button type--squirrel button--contained-standard-square">
      <span class="is-vishidden">Search</span>
      <svg class="icon icon-search ">
        <use xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="#icon-search"></use>
      </svg>
    </button>
  </div>
</form>

POST /slug-placeholder-8362839?print

<form id="print-button_1-0" class="comp print-button mntl-print-button" method="POST" action="/slug-placeholder-8362839?print" target="_blank" aria-label="Print this article." data-tracking-container="true">
  <button class="mntl-print-button__btn" aria-label="Print this article.">
    <svg class="icon icon-print mntl-print-button__icon">
      <use xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="#icon-print"></use>
    </svg>
  </button>
  <input type="hidden" value="true" name="print">
  <input type="hidden" value="8f5dd6b9fca2e53d0e76ec72496bd741" name="CSRFToken">
</form>

POST /ugc-feedback

<form action="/ugc-feedback" method="post" class="article-feedback__feedback-form js-feedback-form is-hidden">
  <textarea class="article-feedback__feedback-text js-feedback-text" placeholder="Tell us more..." required="required" maxlength="1500"></textarea>
  <button id="article-feedback__submit-button_1-0" class="comp article-feedback__submit-button mntl-button"> Submit </button><!-- end: comp article-feedback__submit-button mntl-button -->
  <input type="hidden" name="doc-id" value="8362839" class="js-doc-id">
</form>

Text Content

Skip to content
Successful Farming
 * Search Search
   Please fill out this field.
 * Magazine
    * Subscribe
    * Manage Your Subscription
    * Get Help

 * Newsletter
 * Subscribe

Search Search
Please fill out this field.
 * News
   News
    * Business News
    * Crop News
    * Livestock News
    * Machinery News
    * Profiles
    * Technology News
    * Weather News
    * View All

 * Markets
   Markets
    * Commodity Prices
    * Newswire
    * Market Analysis
    * View All

 * Machinery
   Machinery
    * All Around the Farm
    * Harvesting
    * Planting
    * Repair and Maintenance
    * Technology
    * Tools
    * Top Shops
    * Tractors
    * Used Farm Equipment
    * View All

 * Crops
   Crops
    * Carbon Markets
    * Conservation
    * Corn
    * Cover Crops
    * Crop Protection
    * Fertilizers
    * Hemp
    * Soil Health
    * Soybeans
    * Wheat
    * View All

 * Farm Management
   Farm Management
    * Beginning Farmers
    * Crop Insurance
    * Estate Planning
    * Farmland
    * Finances
    * Programs and Policies
    * View All

 * Livestock
   Livestock
    * Cattle
    * Dairy
    * Hogs
    * Poultry
    * View All

 * Family
   Family
    * Education
    * Farm Humor
    * Health and Safety
    * Mental Health
    * Recipes
    * Rural Lifestyle
    * Women in Ag
    * View All

 * About Us
 * Subscribe

 * Magazine
   Magazine
    * Subscribe
    * Manage Your Subscription
    * Get Help

 * Newsletter

Follow Us
 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 

 * News
   * Business News
   * Crop News
   * Livestock News
   * Machinery News
   * Profiles
   * Technology News
   * Weather News
 * Markets
   * Commodity Prices
   * Newswire
   * Market Analysis
 * Machinery
   * All Around the Farm
   * Harvesting
   * Planting
   * Repair and Maintenance
   * Technology
   * Tools
   * Top Shops
   * Tractors
   * Used Farm Equipment
   * View All
 * Crops
   * Carbon Markets
   * Conservation
   * Corn
   * Cover Crops
   * Crop Protection
   * Fertilizers
   * Hemp
   * Soil Health
   * Soybeans
   * Wheat
 * Farm Management
   * Beginning Farmers
   * Crop Insurance
   * Estate Planning
   * Farmland
   * Finances
   * Programs and Policies
 * Livestock
   * Cattle
   * Dairy
   * Hogs
   * Poultry
 * Family
   * Education
   * Farm Humor
   * Health and Safety
   * Mental Health
   * Recipes
   * Rural Lifestyle
   * Women in Ag

About Us
Subscribe


 * Crops
   
 * Carbon Markets
   


HOW GRASSLAND PROTECTION SPURS CARBON CREDITS

Preserving grasslands preserves a family's ranching legacy.

By
Raylene Nickel
Raylene Nickel
Resides In: Kief, North Dakota Raylene grew up on a dairy and beef farm at Kief,
North Dakota. After graduating college in 1977, she worked as a herdsman and
artificial insemination technician for a purebred cattle ranch in Canada. She
and her husband, John, later took over her family's farm and raised grass-fed
beef. After John's death, she continues to manage the farm and a small herd of
cattle. She began contributing articles to Successful Farming in 2004, after 20
years of serving as an agricultural journalist.
Successful Farming's Editorial Guidelines
Published on October 18, 2023
 * 
 * 
 * 



Photo:

Dallas May

Dallas May’s grandparents lost their land in the Depression, but their love of
farming and ranching prevailed. The May family stayed put, leasing rangeland and
crop-sharing farmland around Lamar, Colorado, for the next two generations.



The historic pain of land loss fueled the family’s passion to one day own again
the lands they stewarded. The chance was nearly 80 years in the making, and when
it came, it was a big opportunity.



With his siblings and parents, Dallas May and his wife, Brenda, had been leasing
16,000 acres of native grassland. There, the family — along with the Mays’
children — run a herd of 800 Limousin cows all tracing back to one heifer calf
that May’s grandfather gave him as a birthday gift when he turned 13.



“A family-owned oil company owned the land, and in 2012 they decided to sell
it,” May says. “There’s a lot of farmland in our area, and if we didn’t buy it,
the land was at risk of being plowed up and converted to cropland.”



The May family did indeed buy the large holding of native grass, and immediately
faced the economic need to make land payments while also finding ways to protect
the land long term from the risk of development or conversion to cropland.



They addressed both issues by tying a conservation easement to the sale of
carbon credits. The twin-pronged sheltering strategy came from May’s research of
easements. He discovered multiple organizations offering valuable insights into
ways working grasslands, their wildlife, and soil carbon can be protected. His
list included the Conservation Fund, the Nature Conservancy, Ducks Unlimited,
and Audubon.



The conservation easement the Mays finally chose is issued by the Colorado
Cattlemen’s Agricultural Land Trust. “The easement is for perpetuity and
stipulates that we will not plow the land up, and that we will preserve the
property’s creeks and wetlands,” May says. An “encumbrance” on the deed to the
land ensures the property cannot be sold off in parcels for development, though
it can be sold in its entirety as a working ranch.



“To get the easement, we didn’t have to change anything that we were already
doing,” he says.



The Mays’ managed grazing practices and other conservation work, such as tree
planting and development of diverse water sites, made them a good fit for the
easement. They had already been market- ing grass-fed beef through the Audubon
Society’s Conservation Ranching Program, and their ongoing conservation work
earned them the 2021 Colorado Leopold Conservation Award.



Income from the easement came from the state of Colorado in the form of a cash
payment as well as tax credits. “The income wasn’t enough to sustain our
livelihood, but it was enough to keep us viable,” says May. If the Mays are
unable to use all the tax credits, they can be sold to individuals or
organizations with tax liabilities.




TYING THE EASEMENT TO CARBON CREDITS

While researching easements, May contacted Billy Gascoigne, director of
Agriculture and Strategic Partnerships for Ducks Unlimited. Gascoigne, an expert
in environmental market opportunities, suggested tying the Mays’ conservation
easement to a carbon credit project through Ducks Unlimited (DU), which had
pioneered the concept years prior.



In recent years, DU has been a key player in advancing the development of a
carbon credit protocol called the Avoided Conversion of Grassland Protocol.
Further developed and now adopt- ed by the Climate Action Reserve, an
independent carbon credit registry, the protocol offers a standard for measuring
the amount of stored soil carbon that is potentially emitted into the atmosphere
when grassland is converted to cropland.



Ducks Unlimited’s interest in soil carbon and the carbon marketplace got its
start nearly a decade ago when grassland conversions to cropland were increasing
at elevated rates. “With a spike in commodity prices and new technologies coming
online, we saw an increasing rate of grassland conver- sions — most notably in
the Northern Great Plains,” says Gascoigne. “As an alternative, we wanted to
find additional ways to in- centivize grassland conservation to preserve
wildlife habitat.”



With an eye to tying economic incentives to soil carbon stored beneath the
grassland, DU began measuring the carbon and the amount potentially lost when
grassland is converted to cropland. “We found that at least 20% to 40% of the
stored soil carbon is lost when grassland is converted,” he says. “That carbon
is emitted as a greenhouse gas entering the atmosphere.”



The findings helped shape the Grassland Protocol used in measuring and
certifying the amount of soil carbon stored beneath grasslands. To help reward
landowners for preserving the soil carbon, DU entered the carbon marketplace as
a project developer for landowners looking to sell carbon credits from
grasslands protected by long-term agreements such as conservation easements.



After obtaining their easement, the Mays engaged DU as a carbon credit project
developer. The partnership required a long-term agreement.



“It’s a 150-year contract,” May says. “The first 50 years is the crediting
period, when we continue to receive payments for the continuing storage of
carbon in the soil. The next hundred years is a period of permanence.”



The long length of the contract ensures the carbon registry and the buyers of
credits that the carbon stored beneath a grassland will not be lost for the
foreseeable future.



In his role as project developer for the Mays, Gascoigne annually evaluates
carbon storage on the property and ensures the resulting carbon credits are
verified by a third party. He ultimately works at selling the credits on the
family’s behalf.




ANOTHER STREAM OF INCOME

The Mays have received annual payments for carbon credits for five years. “The
sale of the carbon credits is not extremely lucrative, but it does represent
another stream of income for our family,” May says. “It’s about the equivalent
of selling 50 calves per year.”



One carbon credit — equal to one metric ton of carbon dioxide — presently sells
for about $15 a ton, says Gascoigne. But many variables affect the price,
including geography. “I can sell credits from a project in Colorado easier than
I can sell credits from a project in North Dakota,” he says.



Buyers run the gamut from cities looking to reach net-zero emissions to
intermediary brokers.



The California-based nonprofit Cool Effect is a broker, or retailer, that
purchases through DU carbon credits from the Mays’ ranch. “We want to shine the
light on high-quality carbon projects,” says Jodi Manning, director of
marketing. “We want to support farmers and ranchers doing the hard work of
protecting land.”



The value of “avoided” credits, she says, tends to be less than the value of
“removal” credits. Avoided credits are issued when land is held in its natural
state, which avoids the release of carbon. Removal credits, on the other hand,
are those resulting from regenerative practices such as planting cover crops,
which removes carbon from the atmosphere and sequesters it in the soil.



“Removal credits tend to command a higher price because they’re in short
supply,” she says. “But overall, the price of carbon credits has doubled in the
last two years because more corporations are stepping up to take up climate
action. Whether the credits are avoided or removal, businesses are looking for
high-quality carbon credits such as those from May Ranch.”



In May’s book, the agreements his family has entered into relating to easements
and sales of carbon credits represent partnerships that strengthen the future of
the ranch.



“We have found people who have the same ethics we have,” he says. “We’re able to
partner with them, and they go out and capture some value for us. They help us
remain a working family cattle ranch.”




LEARN MORE

For more information, email Dallas May at mayvalleyfarms@outlook.com.

Was this page helpful?
Thanks for your feedback!
Tell us why!
Other
Submit


Related Articles

Why should farmers care about carbon?



Capturing carbon credits from grassland



Converting marginal cropland to grass yields soil carbon and more



How farmers are combatting climate troubles



How to be proactive with a succession plan



Ranchers raising birds to boost biodiversity



Aided by grassland signup, Conservation Reserve reaches enrollment limit



How Neal Wanless turned a Powerball win into a thriving agribusiness



Amazing grasslands



Economic projections questioned during South Dakota carbon pipeline hearing



Landowners testify Summit ignored requests for route changes



Navigator wants carbon dioxide pipeline hearing in June 2024



Summit attorney laments: ‘This is just going on so long’



From cotton to grass: A farmer's sustainable transformation



Skeptics claim Junction City’s secretive maneuvering to entice meatpacker won’t
pass smell test



Level up on soil health with livestock


Successful Farming
Newsletter

Follow Us
 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 

 * News
   
 * Markets
   
 * Machinery
   
 * Crops
   
 * Farm Management
   
 * Livestock
   
 * Family
   

 * About Us
 * Subscribe
 * Editorial Process
 * Advertise
 * Privacy Policy
 * Careers
 * Terms of Service
 * Contact Us
 * Diversity & Inclusion
 * EU Privacy

Successful Farming is part of the Dotdash Meredith publishing family.
Please review our updated Terms of Service.
Newsletter Sign Up

Newsletter Sign Up


When you visit the site, Dotdash Meredith and its partners may store or retrieve
information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies. Cookies collect
information about your preferences and your devices and are used to make the
site work as you expect it to, to understand how you interact with the site, and
to show advertisements that are targeted to your interests. You can find out
more about our use, change your default settings, and withdraw your consent at
any time with effect for the future by visiting Cookies Settings, which can also
be found in the footer of the site.

Cookies Settings Reject All Accept All