Tri-State Neighbor: South Dakota Farm Newspaper

WEST DES MOINES, Iowa - Farm and ranch operators interested in learning more about opportunities in the market for carbon credits from their land should plan to attend one of 22 workshops scheduled across South Dakota the first week of November.

“The emerging carbon credits market is a new revenue opportunity for farm and ranch operators,” said Lowell Mesman, an aggregation specialist with AgraGate Climate Credits Corporation. “We will walk workshop participants through the sign-up process so they can enroll their credits and begin to generate an additional return from their investment in conservation practices.”

Eligible practices include no-till and strip-till cropping, new grass plantings, sustainably managed rangeland and methane destruction from livestock manure lagoons.

“We'd like producers to come prepared with the necessary documents in hand,” Mesman said. “For cropland, the required paperwork includes maps of acres to be enrolled and FSA 578 forms for no-till and grass plantings. Rangeland owners should bring land maps, turn-in/turn-out dates, EQIP, CSP, ranch records and a management plan if they have one.”

AgraGate, a subsidiary of the Iowa Farm Bureau, is the leading aggregator of carbon credits from agriculture. On behalf of farmers, ranchers and private forest owners, the company has marketed more than 3 million carbon credits from 26 states on the Chicago Climate Exchange.

All workshops are in South Dakota. The workshop dates, times and locations are:

Nov. 3:

€ Buffalo: 9 a.m., Rec Center;

€ Edgemont: 9 a.m., Rebecca's & Oddfellows Lodge;

€ Belle Fourche: 2 p.m., American West;

€ Selby: 2 p.m., CamWall Electric Building;

€ Watertown: 2 p.m., Pizza Ranch;

€ Martin: 3 p.m., LaCreek Electric;

€ Clark: 7 p.m., Playhouse;

€ Brookings: 7 p.m., Extension Building Board Room;

Nov. 4:

€ Bison: 9 a.m., Farm Bureau office;

€ Gregory: 9 a.m., Community Civic Center;

€ Centerville: 1 p.m., Old Street Café;

€ Huron: 1 p.m., Farm Bureau Office;

€ Faith: 2 p.m., Frontier Room;

€ Winner: 2 p.m., Holiday Inn Express;

€ Miller: 6 p.m., Ranch Café;

€ Renner: 7 p.m., Fire Station;

Nov. 5:

€ Union Center: 9 a.m., Community Center;

€ Presho: 11 a.m., Hutches Café;

€ Wall: 2 p.m., Community Center;

€ Yankton: 2 p.m., Yesterdays;

€ Ft. Pierre: 5 p.m., Pizza Ranch;

€ Corsica: 7:30 p.m., Corsica Travel Plaza.

For more information about the workshops, visit the AgraGate Web site at www.agragate.com, or call (866) 633-6758 toll-free.