This collaboration marks the first time Agrecalc has highlighted a commercial business as a partner in developing a feature for the farm carbon calculator, enhancing the platform’s capabilities to support sustainable agricultural practices.
Agrecalc and Black Bull Biochar have worked together to review the latest biochar science. The new module has been built using a model published by the authors of the IPCC’s original biochar model.
The updated tool allows farmers, consultants, and businesses to calculate the potential carbon footprint of various management scenarios, comparing options with or without biochar to better understand its effects on carbon sequestration and emissions reduction.
“As an independent farm carbon calculator, Agrecalc ensures that this partnership aligns with our commitment to provide unbiased, data-driven insights for our users”, says Scott Davies, CEO at Agrecalc.
“The collaboration is designed to enhance the tool’s functionality and enables us to offer our users deeper insights into the benefits of biochar, make data-driven decisions, and test scenarios that could lower their carbon footprints and improve soil health.”
Dr Rachael Ramsey, Head of Science and Research at Agrecalc, says: “Working with Black Bull Biochar on this project allows us to deepen our scenario-testing capabilities and help farmers make informed, science-based decisions about their carbon management strategies. In developing the platform further, our goal is to support our users with flexible and robust modules that address the evolving needs of the agricultural sector.”
Dr Hamish Creber, Co-founder & CTO at Black Bull Biochar, says: “At Black Bull Biochar, we are proud to bring our expertise in biochar production and on-farm application to this collaboration with Agrecalc. By contributing our knowledge to the development of this module, we aim to ensure that farmers have access to accurate, practical insights into how biochar can be utilised in their operations. Integrating the impacts of biochar into farm management software like Agrecalc will catalyse its adoption as a sustainable farm input across the UK”.
Shefali Bagaria, Innovation Manager at Black Bull Biochar, adds: “We believe this partnership will help demonstrate the real-world benefits of biochar for both carbon reduction and soil health, offering users a valuable tool to support their sustainability goals”.
“The collaboration is designed to enhance the tool’s functionality and enables us to offer our users deeper insights into the benefits of biochar, make data-driven decisions, and test scenarios that could lower their carbon footprints and improve soil health."
The new module aligns with Agrecalc’s mission to support sustainable agricultural practices by providing actionable data on carbon footprint reduction strategies. By integrating biochar, an emerging tool in soil health and carbon sequestration, users can explore the potential of biochar to lock carbon into the soil, potentially reducing greenhouse gas emissions from their operations.
The farmers will be able to explore the prospective benefits and trade-offs of adopting biochar in their operations. Whether used to increase the silage yields, mitigate carbon emissions or improve soil health, biochar is gaining recognition as a valuable tool in the regenerative agriculture toolbox.
Agrecalc hopes that this collaboration will open doors for further tool enhancements, through inclusion of products that may lower farm carbon footprints. This can include the likes of low-carbon feeds and fertilisers, as long as those products align with the strict scientific standards Agrecalc aims to deliver to our users.
Black Bull Biochar (BBB) specialises in the production of biochar, a nutrient-rich, carbon dense soil additive derived from biomass. Produced through a process called pyrolysis, biochar is created by heating biomass in a low-oxygen environment. This securely locks the carbon within the biomass, preventing it from returning to the atmosphere for thousands of years.
The pyrolysis process also generates renewable heat and energy, which can be used in industrial applications. Designed to enhance agricultural productivity, their biochar improves soil health, boosts crop resilience, and supports livestock welfare.
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Following a major upgrade to the platform, Agrecalc Cloud, and an ongoing migration of its users from version 1, Agrecalc has launched the new and improved Soil Carbon Module.
Funding has been granted for five separate consortia of research organisations, that will carry out cutting-edge research into the interlinking themes of soil health, agricultural systems and land use change.
Agrecalc is involved in two of the five topics.
You may have heard about the new development in Scotland called Whole Farm Plan. It involves various activities and plans that have to be put in place in the next three years, in order to be able to claim Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) payments. In this blog we’re going to focus on what that means for carbon audits.