Guy Webb (cofounder and agronomist), Guy Hudson (cofounder & Loam CEO), Steve Nicholson (Garema carbon farmer), Mick Wettenhall (cofounder and Trangie farmer). Photo credit: Rachel Lenehan
A celebration breakfast was held at Garema Hall south of Forbes on Tuesday 5 May to celebrate the issuance of the world’s first Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCU’s or soil carbon credits) to the Nicholson family.
The ACCU’s were grown in his soil using a specialised extensively researched fungal inoculum called CarbonBuilder, an Australian technology developed right here in Central NSW by Loam Bio, cofounded by local agronomist Guy Webb.
Loam Bio to date have raised $155 million to develop the technology for Australian, US and Brazilian growers. Steve Nicholson and his family signed up for the Australian Government soil carbon project in 2024 with the help of Loam Bio through their ‘SecondCrop’ soil carbon program.
This marks one of the largest broadacre cropping projects that has met the strict requirements of Australia’s Clean Energy Regulator, demonstrating that carbon farming has moved from concept to a commercial and scalable reality.
“We knew we couldn’t keep farming the same way,” owner Steve Nicholson said. “If we didn’t adapt, the future of the farm wasn’t sustainable.”
“From year one we saw a measurable increase in soil carbon. It was a seamless integration and offered something the industry doesn’t often get – a new income stream. In effect we are now growing a second crop from the same paddock,” said Steve.
The Nicholson Carbon Project, part of a 4,000ha grazing and cropping operation, has successfully generated an issuance of 4,867 tradeable ACCU across 881 hectares. Becoming the first broadacre cropping operation in NSW to successfully
generate Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCU) using an innovative carbon-sequestering fungal seed treatment, a breakthrough that unlocks a game-changing win for farmers to get paid for capturing carbon, while building healthier, more productive soils for their existing cropping operations.
Steve Nicholson and his family have been farming at Garema for 27 years, Steve said that he judged the technology on three simple metrics. “Does it work, is it simple, does it make money? The answer is yes to all three.”
After extensive research they rolled out a suite of farm management changes, including modified crop rotations across wheat, barley and canola, pasture and pulse rotations, reduced tillage, and improved residue management. In 2024 the Nicholsons added Loam Bio’s CarbonBuilder™ to their program, a world-first fungal seed treatment that integrates into existing farm operations to boost productivity.
In Steve’s case, an initial investment of $40,000 for treatment and seed related equipment has seen him turn that into $200,000 worth of ACCU’s.
The fungal based technology also increases soil structure allowing greater rainfall infiltration and storage, and also stores nitrogen in the soil profile more effectively, allowing a grower to improve his soil health whilst literally growing two crops in the one paddock, a grain crop above the ground and a soil carbon crop below the ground.
For information on the projector to explore similar benefits through soil carbon projects, visit www.loambio.com.