From fleece to footprint: Reducing emissions in ultrafine wool production

“We buy in Merino wethers from another farm in Tasmania, and the diversity of the landscape and feed type here are critical to the kind of wool production system we run,” Trent said.

“The farm combines irrigated paddocks – where we cut our own hay to feed the sheep – with a lot of native pasture and bush.

“Diversity is key to everything in agriculture I believe, and the trees and plants are a critical part of that. 

“There’s a great opportunity to introduce more vegetation back into the landscape and rehabilitate areas that probably shouldn’t have been cleared. 

“Planting shelter belts and providing more shade will provide protection for the sheep from wind and rain, reduce erosion and increase biodiversity. That will help to capture moisture and other fertility in the landscape. 

“We’re looking to create vertical diversity as well with the tree planting, so not just planting large trees that will grow up and dominate the landscape to the exclusion of all else.

“We are also doing a farm dam enhancement project with Landcare Tasmania and will be using their knowledge to guide species selection and what will work best in this landscape.”

Calculating an emissions baseline

NAB Agribusiness Manager, Annie Allwright, said Trent's reforestation project made it an ideal candidate for the NAB Agribusiness Emissions Reduction Incentive Program.

“It was obvious that Trent is environmentally focused, and he had already been doing some reforestation, so we discussed green finance and how the NAB Agribusiness Emissions Reduction Incentive Program works,” Annie said.

“In applying for the Program, Trent calculated the farm’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions baseline or carbon footprint, using free online calculators.

“He also provided details on what his plan was, and how it would reduce his GHG emissions.

“It’s important for farmers to know it’s not a daunting process to apply for a loan through the Program.

“There are a lot of free tools available online to help farmers calculate their GHG emissions baseline, and the projects that are eligible for funding are potentially activities they are already doing on-farm. It’s also an incentive to bring plans forward.

“Once Trent application was submitted, it was approved in 48 hours.”

Customer appeal 

Trent’s GHG emissions baseline result showed the emissions of the farm are 120 tonnes per annum, but this is balanced by significant sequestration in existing forested areas on the property.

“Being new to this space, I used a couple of the online emissions baselining tools to make sure they were all producing similar results,” Trent said.

“The result has blown me away. It’s a great starting point and presents a whole range of new marketing and financial opportunities for the farm – and it’s good for the environment too.

“Emissions baselining has always been on my radar and of interest to me, but I’d never got around to it, so it was good to be nudged into doing it.

“We’ll now look for further verification opportunities so we can use it as a marketing tool and create collateral that gives customers confidence to share and leverage our environmental credentials and story.

"We work with our wool broker at Wool Solutions to market our wool clip, and it’s ultimately going into high-end fashion houses in Italy. We've had really positive engagement with a couple of our customers, and they are keen to solidify relationships.

“We have scope to increase our stocking rate in an environmentally sensitive manner once we invest in more infrastructure across the farm including fencing and water.

“Diversity is important across all aspects, so I’m keen to add other activities or species that are complementary to the wool production system – like chickens for example, to help add more nitrogen to our soils.

“Demonstrating our sustainability credentials can really benefit farmers like us, so that we can be rewarded in higher value markets.

“We have a lot of things going for us in Tasmania. Scale, lowest cost of production, and highest output is not what we’re focused on.

“Rather, Tasmania’s whole brand ethos is about doing things differently and targeting higher value markets, so that really fits in with our ultrafine micron wool system as well.

“We’re not looking to produce tonnes and tonnes of a commodity and maximise stocking rates. Higher value, lower volumes, is our point of difference.”

For more information visit: NAB Green Finance for Agribusiness | Sustainability - NAB

* Eligibility to participate in the NAB Agribusiness – Emissions Reduction Incentive Program (which is supported by the Australian Government’s Clean Energy Finance Corporation) is separate to NAB's standard finance offering and subject to NAB standard eligibility, lending, security and credit approval criteria. Under this program, approved customers will receive a 1.15% per annum discount on the floating interest rate agreed. NAB may cease to accept new applications at any time. Terms and conditions apply. A NAB Agribusiness Emission Reductions Incentive term loan may only be provided as a new NAB Corporate Markets Loan."