The peak livestock body for SA has slammed the lack of education on carbon farming labelling it as a "dog's breakfast".
It comes as farmers have voiced concerns about starting carbon projects on their properties, despite Australia's plan to reach the net zero target by 2050, announced in October last year.
"It's very murky," Livestock SA president Joe Keynes said. "It's a bit of a dog's breakfast at the moment but if the government could work with us to clarify it - that would be fantastic."
Mr Keynes says people are confused about what carbon farming means.
"We hear a lot about it but there is no clear pathway about how a lot of us, as producers, would be involved in carbon farming," he said.
"The rangelands seem to be targeted as a key area of interest for carbon farming and a secondary area might be the higher rainfall areas.
You can't increase or maintain carbon in areas below 350 millimetres of rainfall, it's very problematic.
- Adrian McCabe
"Producers need to consider if, by being involved in sequestering more carbon, it might actually have on farm production benefits."
Mr Keynes said the government needed to assist producers to work on farm demonstrating initiatives that produce carbon.
Barunga Grains continuous cereal and legume cropper James Venning, Bute, has considered carbon farming but, like many SA farmers, would like to see a plot trial demonstrating what was done as well as the crop and financial results with credits.
Mr Venning already carries out soil amelioration practices and wants to learn how carbon farming would work with his existing operations.
"The problem with sequestration is that fertiliser prices are incredibly high - you spend all that money on the fertiliser and there is a lot of debate on how accurate sequestration can be," he said.
"I need more confidence in it with more research that was not done in a lab and was done on the farm like plot trials.
"I don't believe the science/economics are at a level where it pays to take the risk.
"Playing a game that isn't fully understood and the level of testing/scrutiny/risk of incorrect measuring could mean receiving a bill, not a cheque."
Mr Venning said for him the lengthy 25-year contracts were not an issue but there would be resistance in uptake until the next generation took on the farm.
"I think 150 hectares would be a good start, but it's too daunting at the moment," he said.
"A wheat/barley straw has a very high carbon versus nitrogen ratio where a lentil stubble is the complete opposite."
On the other side of the fence, three hours away is beef cattle producer Derek Walter, Willow Creek, who runs 340ha, says his 150ha carbon project journey has been interesting.
"We have been transitioning through a whole heap of new information and new management issues," he said.
"I didn't know you could section your property for a carbon project but because we have full management control over our beef enterprise - in regards to inputs - we could.
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"It's a theoretical boundary that has been put up for the project and they do all that with satellite mapping - it did take a little while to set up but it wasn't too bad."
Mr Walter said he fell into carbon farming as financial and economic changes he made aligned with the same changes required to build carbon in soil.
"We were reducing chemical fertilisers and the amount of pesticides and herbicides out of our system," he said.
"I had been watching the whole carbon space and in terms of carbon credits - my opinion up until a couple of years ago was that it's really not worth the effort.
"There is no guarantee you can actually make any money off it therefore any changes to management or inputs comes at a burden that you may never get any financial benefit from."
In 2020 Mr Walter bought a SoilKee Renovator machine, which improves pasture and also allows carbon cycling and sequestration, qualifying him to an emissions reduction fund.
"The government in the middle of 2020 offered the ability to offset all upfront costs until the time you actually create a carbon credit so it changed my scenario," he said.
"Effectively if the carbon credit scheme does take off and we are able to build carbon in the soil and accrue credits then I will be paying off the lump sum I would have had at the beginning."
Grain Producers SA chair Adrian McCabe said grain was a different area to livestock or tree planting in the carbon space.
"We basically live in areas where we are below 600mm of rainfall so the possibility of storing carbon is very minimal or non existent," he said.
"You can't increase or maintain carbon in areas below 350 millimetres of rainfall, it's very problematic.
"We need to work on the emissions production side but that doesn't mean we are growing or storing carbon - we are producers of grain, energy and food for the world."
Mr McCabe said croppers could do a little bit in the soil carbon space but generally SA soils were not suited to high carbon levels so their focus had changed to emissions.
SA Dairyfarmer's Association policy officer John Elferink said there was an increasing mindfulness of carbon-based projects but they were always balanced against the commercial concerns of the farm.
"We as SADA have committed to net zero carbon by 2030 and as such we are currently investigating a couple of projects," he said.
Mr Elferink said a small amount of seaweed added to cow food had a very large reduction in methane from cow burps.
Primary Industries minister David Basham said the state government saw great potential for carbon farming to diversify and increase farmers' incomes while also taking practical action to improve the environment.
"We are working closely with the agricultural industry to look at ways we can further improve the uptake of carbon farming by landholders so they can capture a share of the federal subsidies available," he said.
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