Ranching is a tough business. And it’s even tougher in western Nebraska, where precipitation is a limiting factor on rangeland growth almost every year.

The rangeland owned by Kaitlin Flick Dinsmore and her family near Bushnell and Kimball is a lot different from her grazing land back in Missouri, where she lives. Flick Dinsmore is a cattle producer in Missouri and acknowledges that it is quite a contrast of landscapes, going from about 40 inches of annual precipitation in Missouri to 17 inches or fewer around Kimball.

Thanks to her enrollment in an Agoro carbon payment program, getting more diversity into the rangeland mix on her High Plains land in Nebraska is not something she has to work on alone.

“We want to focus on biodiversity and conservation on this land,” she says. “We raise cattle in Missouri, so the focus on that property is working toward implementing a rotational grazing system. I have a love for cattle and have been in it for years — since I was 16 years old and was feeding a bottle calf.”

Flick Dinsmore owns an agricultural consulting business, specializing in writing nutrient and manure management plans to help Midwest farms with niche markets, environmental incentives and implementing sustainable practices.

She saw fields that were overgrazed. She noticed soil erosion and became interested in root growth and the effects of overgrazing on the diversity of species growing in the field and the quantity of grass available to the grazing herd. Now, she’s taking that interest to her land in western Nebraska.

Related:Take advantage of expanded eligibility for carbon program

Trusted partner

That’s where Clay Craighton comes in. As an agronomist with Agoro Carbon Alliance, he has some ideas for Flick Dinsmore's land on the High Plains, helping her tweak management practices on that rangeland to meet her goals and gain payments.

His territory covers the greater Corn Belt, about 11 states across the upper Midwest, northwest Iowa and from the Sandhills of Nebraska on east to Ohio, Missouri and Wisconsin. “We don’t really sell anything. We are educational consultants,” Craighton says. “We help producers decide if they fit into the program, offering recommendations for crop land and rangeland grasses, for instance.

“Our job is communication with growers. We tell producers not to disqualify themselves from programs like Agoro Carbon. We have conversations, and don’t say it’s not going to work before having those conversations.”

LOOK OF THE LAND: Craighton helped Kaitlin Flick Dinsmore assess the rangeland condition and develop a strategy to reach her carbon goals on this western Nebraska land.

“Our interest is in making changes to capture more carbon in our soil,” Flick Dinsmore says. “We want to add more intensive management grazing, reduce tillage, add cover crops, add plant species and more legumes, increase the biodiversity of our ecosystems on this land and the diversity of our plant species. We want to improve habitat for wildlife, sequester more carbon and have more microbes in the soil.”

In Flick Dinsmore's case, Agoro Carbon was able to offer two options for discussion on her Nebraska land. Thanks to a calculator tool used by Agoro Carbon, she was able to look at the results that are farm-specific. There are benefits to each of the options, she says.

“Prepayments for cover crops, financial assistance to help with implementation are aspects of one or the other option. One of the options has a higher carbon ROI,” she adds. “We also look at upfront costs. As a producer, having two options is great, having optimal upfront help or extra infrastructure to assist with intensive grazing. Having a partner in the long term can help with these input costs.”

“Since we operate in voluntary markets, we can stack payments with USDA Farm Service Agency to get dual-carbon acres on the same acres,” Craighton adds.

“It’s nice to have that technical assistance,” Flick Dinsmore says. “Most of our property is in Missouri, and we’re not accustomed to the agronomics in western Nebraska. We can use recommendations on adding range species to the land and improving rangeland in a more arid climate.”

How to get started

Craighton says that producers get started with their conversations with Agoro in various ways, including a phone call, referrals from neighbors or through its website. “On the website, if you place some information like name, location, region, you can look at our carbon calculator and gain all sorts of knowledge around carbon markets and practices,” he explains.

For those working with Agoro, they have a full-fledged agronomic team behind them. “Every grower or rancher has a team account manager and an on-board agronomist,” he says. “We can determine field boundaries, gather historic data, get set up for soil sampling, all with support from the agronomist.”

“You have a touch point with the team to get further recommendations,” Flick Dinsmore says. “The grower success team is special because it is a helpful way to work with a team from a human perspective.”

The team also helps growers prepare for third-party audits to verify practices on the farm. “They cover preparation, data collection, sampling and homework for the grower,” Craighton says. “The success team does the paperwork help along the way. They help in planning, with an above-ground plan and a below-ground plan.”

Learn more about Agoro Carbon at agorocarbonalliance.com.