Corn and Small Grain Associations Provide Kentucky Growers Additional Income Opportunity

(October 2, 2006 – Eastwood, KY) The Kentucky Corn Growers Association (KyCGA) and Kentucky Small Grain Growers Association (KySGGA) announced today their partnership with the Chicago Climate Exchange to offer members additional revenue opportunities for the sequestered carbon in their grassland and continuous conservation tillage farmland.

The KyCGA and KySGGA is jointly working to aggregate farm-based carbon credits from agricultural offset projects—soil carbon credit pools—for sale on the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX), a voluntary greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions trading program targeting emissions and offsets in North America.

As a CCX aggregator, KyCGA and KySGGA manages and administers these carbon credit pools by registering the individual farm projects, interfacing with the CCX, managing the sales of the credits in the pools and distributing sales proceeds to the participants.

“There is a new market in agriculture,” said Todd Barlow, KyCGA/KySGGA Executive Director, “and we are bringing it to Kentucky farmers and land managers. Kentucky acres have been eligible for carbon soil offsets for the last few years, and we are extremely excited to provide this additional income opportunity for our growers.”

According to Barlow, land managers—defined as those having management control over the land—will be able to earn income on acres under continuous no-till, ridge-till or strip-till as well as acres seeded to pasture on or after January 1, 1999 for years 2006 through 2010, so long as applications are submitted before spring planting in 2007. Land managers that want to earn income for 2005 must submit an application before then end of October of this year.

“Based on CCX market history and projections, a land manager enrolling one thousand continuous no-till acres could earn up to $10,000 for the 2006-2010 term commitment,” noted Barlow. “Farmers should keep in mind, however, that the soil offset market is volatile and final income could be higher or lower than this figure.”

According to Nathan Clark, Chicago Climate Exchange economist, Exchange Soil Offsets (XSOs) are currently trading for about $4.00 per metric ton of CO₂ per year. Land in continuous conservation tillage practices earns at a rate of 0.5 metric tons CO₂ per acre per year and pastureland planted after January 1, 1999 earns at a rate of 0.75 metric tons CO₂ per acre per year. The KyCGA/KySGGA retains 10 percent for administrative fees.

Clark added that only a select number of Kentucky counties are currently eligible for program participation, but the CCX plans to see that the entire Commonwealth is approved by the end of the year.

Any land manager interested in program participation should visit the KyCGA or KySGGA web sites (www.kycorn.org or www.kysmallgrains.org) or call Todd Barlow at 800-326-0906. Enrollees must submit an application along with FSA maps of enrolled land and a 2005 FSA crop certification summary (CCC-578).

The Kentucky Corn Growers Association and Kentucky Small Grain Growers Association are trade organizations dedicated to improving the profitability of grain farmers in the Commonwealth.

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