Joanna Guza:
Carbon neutral. And now some people are talking about carbon negative. Well, what does this mean? Well, we brought in expert Chuck Rice. He's a professor at Kansas State University, and his teaching and research focuses in on soil microbiology. Chuck, could you first start off by sharing what does it mean to be carbon neutral?

Chuck Rice:
The idea is have that farm or ranch as a collective group to be, uh, essentially emit less carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide and methane from that farm, and actually, uh, sequester that carbon and nitrogen, uh, in the soil.

Joanna Guza:
So when we say carbon negative, what does that mean?

Chuck Rice:
It means that farm is being greenhouse or carbon negative. It means that it's not emitting greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, but actually providing a sink for those greenhouse gases to improve the atmosphere and the climate.

Joanna Guza:
And what are some of the farming practices that people are doing to become carbon neutral?

Chuck Rice:
So the current practice that could be expanded one, uh, from a soil carbon standpoint is no-till or minimum tell less disturbance of the soil. Basically, when you disturb the soil, you encourage that carbon, uh, and nitrogen laws to the atmosphere. The reason that's important is that I consider carbon as the currency in the soil. So it provides food for the microbes, it makes the soil healthier. And so when you have those three aspects, then that soil, that, uh, field, uh, is more resilient. It holds nutrients. So it provides nutrient efficiency. It can absorb higher rainfall rates. And so more of that is in the soil instead of running off downstream. And also when you have that water in the soil, then it makes it more drought resilient.

Joanna Guza:
I mean, you make it sound really easy, Chuck, but why can't every farm be implementing these types of practices?

Chuck Rice:
Right. So it, it's a change of practice With tillage, we've tended to make the system more simple. You cover up mistakes with steel. I say now you're looking at managing a crop rotation, less tillage nutrients, and you're working with nature and biology. And so it takes a different skill set. It's learning how to complement nature, the biology rather than fight against it. So it really is a change in mindset and learning the, those skill sets to adapt, uh, on the go.

Joanna Guza:
And this could be something that our processors are, are looking for farmers to be doing different things to becoming carbon neutral. What would you say to a farm that's looking at doing that? What would be some advice for them to start looking at how to become carbon neutral?

Chuck Rice:
So again, it's all these practices, but I would say start slow. Don't say, I am gonna implement all these things at once because it is a learning set, right? So you want to, uh, get the low hanging fruit. So implementing less tillage no-till will be a starting point. But then understand that your system is changing, so then you're gonna have to change your fertility program. Um, maybe your crop rotation. Uh, it's kind of like even in the cover crop world, what I and and farmers tell me is, don't go with complex mixture. Start slow, get, use a cover crop that's easy to establish, uh, like rye or tri kayli. And then you can look at adding more complexity. Mm-hmm.

Joanna Guza:
And what's the timeline that they would start to see some progress?

Chuck Rice:
Well, in our work on farmer's fields, we have a soul health networking Kansas. And so it takes really about five years to see those things. So it's not gonna be a quick fix to see changes in the soil. It, yeah, it takes about five years to get those changes occur.

Joanna Guza:
What do you think the future of carbon and the uses are?

Chuck Rice:
Well, from the farm, getting more carbon in the soil, sequestering, it makes that soil better, makes it more productive for the producer, uh, should lower economic risk and climate risk. Because if you're holding on those nutrients water, then when you have droughts or floods, uh, you're gonna moderate those extreme events.

Joanna Guza:
And what is Chuck watching for the future? What trends are you keeping an eye on that you encourage other farmers to be watching out in terms of becoming carbon neutral?

Chuck Rice:
I think there's some exciting innovations in nitrogen management. We didn't cover that, but, uh, nitrous oxide, uh, is a key greenhouse gas. But some new products, new technologies, uh, to manage nitrogen would reduce your loss of nitrogen fertilizer, uh, and benefits the environment. The other thing, I, as we collect more data and decision support tools that you're hopefully, that we can make, uh, strategies for the farmers to implement on their farms, it's not gonna be, here's one group of things you should do. It's gonna be have to be adaptive based on your level of risk based on the soils and the climate. So it has to be a, a different set of strategies for each individual farm.

Joanna Guza:
Well, Chuck, I know you've worked with a lot of farmers. What kind of personality traits do those farmers have that are successful?

Chuck Rice:
They're curious. They question what they do. They think there's a, a better way to do things. Those are good questions. Um, they're saying, okay, why am I doing this? Is there a better way to do it? And then they, they're reading up on the, on the information either from, uh, universities, land grant, university extension, or looking at other farmers, uh, and learning for them and see how they can adapt some of those strategies on their own farm.

Joanna Guza:
Right. It's really important for them to be open minded. 'cause right now a lot of the things we just talked about was change. Yeah. And they have to be open to that change, right?

Chuck Rice:
Yes. Yeah. Uh, yeah, definitely open-minded. Don't get stuck in a rut, you know, and test some things out. Don't put it on the whole farm, but try some things out on a portion of their farm.

Joanna Guza:
Great insight and advice. We've been talking with Chuck Rice. He's a professor at Kansas State University focusing in on soil microbiology. I wanna make sure I thank you for listening. Until next time, I'm Joanna Guza for Farm Food Facts.