Circular carbon economy in wine growing

About Coatsworth Farm

• John and Kim White own Coatsworth Farm, a 32 ha property on the Bellarine Peninsula, Victoria. They grow wine grapes and raise sheep.
• Their vineyard is 8.3 ha and produces around 30 tonnes of grapes per year. They grow Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Syrah, Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc under their label Circulus Wine.
• They also run Nudies, a fleece shedding sheep breed. The flock of 120 sheep graze in the vineyard pre-fruiting and post-harvest.
• As well as wine grapes and sheep, the White’s have planted 6 ha of different types of native trees to provide farm shelter belts and improve biodiversity.
• The farm has an average annual rainfall of 450 mm.
• The soil at the farm is a mix of clay or sandy loam over a clay subsoil. The soil types are sensitive to overgrazing, so stocking rates are kept low.
• Fragile areas are identified and managed using revegetation, protection of waterways, perennial pasture renovation, and mixed cover crops are planted within the vine rows.

Farming and carbon emissions

In Australia, there’s a big focus on how farms manage greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and store carbon. Efficient production to manage and reduce emissions is becoming increasingly important.

Agriculture Victoria’s On-Farm Emissions Action Plan Pilot is working with Victorian farmers to know, understand, and act on their farm GHG emissions.

Coatsworth Farm got involved with the Pilot to understand their emissions profile.

‘Although we are already undertaking a range of reduction and sequestration activities, we wanted guidance on improving our processes and working towards a carbon-neutral emissions level across all our operations’, said John.

Coatsworth Farm is a member of Sustainable Winegrowing Australia and is committed to ongoing ways to improve sustainability and reduce their emissions.

The White family is expanding their vineyard to include a winery. They use regenerative and circular economy principles and low-input methods in their wine grape production system.

‘As stewards of our land, we believe that it is in both our own and the planet’s interest to do whatever we can to slow the impact of climate change and to incorporate ethical practices into our farming systems’, said John.

Grape growing for wine produces fewer emissions compared to other types of farming like dairy, beef, and sheep farming, where animals produce enteric methane. Enteric methane is a gas produced during the digestion process within ruminant animals.

John and Kim White are part of a group of winegrowers who want to be environmentally sustainable. They believe this is important to compete in global markets.

Know your number

‘Know Your Number’ is a way to measure the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from a farm using a special tool like the Greenhouse Accounting Framework (GAF) calculator.

This number is the total amount of carbon dioxide equivalents (CO₂-e) produced by the farm each year. It includes three types of emissions, called Scopes:

• Scope 1: Emissions from livestock (like enteric methane from sheep and cows), nitrous oxide from nitrogen fertilizer application, urine and dung and carbon dioxide from fossil fuel use.
• Scope 2: Emissions resulting from the electricity the farm uses.
• Scope 3: Emissions created in manufacturing products the farm buys (embedded).

Farms can also capture and store carbon in trees and soils, a process known as carbon sequestration. This captured carbon can be used to balance against their emissions, which is called ‘insetting’.

For the White's farm, most of their emissions (84%) come from the enteric methane produced by their sheep. The rest (15%) comes from their vineyard, including electricity, fuel, and fertilizers.

They have planted trees on 15% of their land (4.9 ha), which captured and stored 33.6 tonnes of CO₂-e in one year (2023/24), helping to balance out their total annual emissions.

‘The Pilot has helped me prioritise our reduction projects by focusing on a decision matrix that enables me to understand our emissions for each part of the farm business’, said John. ‘Technologies available to reduce these, the payback period and what levels of CO₂ turnaround could be achieved.’

Acting to reduce emissions

The White’s were pleased to see the farm’s baseline carbon emissions were already 4.2t CO₂-e negative, thanks to a 11.4 kW solar array and remote panels, variable speed pump driven irrigation system and shelterbelt plantings.

The White family is aiming to reduce their farm’s emissions by focusing on using electric equipment and expanding their use of solar power and batteries.

A Pilot Action Plan Grant is helping them with three projects to reduce total farm emissions and emissions intensity.

These are:

• Water Efficiency - installing pressure-compensating driplines in the vineyard to use water more efficiently and replacing old pumps with new, energy-efficient (variable speed) units.
• Soil Health – mulching and applying organic compost and using temporary fencing to manage grazing pressure to help build organic carbon in the soil.
• Soil Analysis – soil testing to support carbon accounting and finding ways to capture more carbon in the soil.

John said, ‘The target is to get to 3.3% soil organic carbon across our property’.

For their Nudie sheep flock, the Whites are using a subscription-based platform to track sheep genetics and improve breeding. This will help make their lamb production more efficient and reduce emissions.

Together, these strategies will help the Whites lower the emissions from their farm.

The future

John plans to expand his business by adding an on-site winery for their wine label Circulus Wines. The winery will increase the farm’s overall emissions from additional electricity, fuel, and refrigeration. Bottling, packaging, and transporting wine will also create emissions.

‘We believe that reducing emissions is an ongoing commitment. Planting shelterbelts, carbon sequestration falls as trees reach maturity’, said John. ‘As we plan to produce wine on our farm, this is more energy-intensive, so the initiatives we can implement today to move deeper carbon negative will offset the energy consumed in the winemaking process’.

As the existing trees on the farm mature, they will absorb less carbon each year. This means that the long-term potential for carbon sequestration from these trees will decrease. To address this, ongoing mulching of organic material can help capture more carbon in the soil, providing an opportunity to offset future emissions.

John has set aside an additional 4.9 ha on the farm to plant more trees. Thanks to a grant from the Port Phillip Bay Trust, and with the help of his local Landcare group, Wadawurrung Traditional Owners, and Trust For Nature, he is planting native trees and shrubs around one of Coatsworth Farm’s dams and its catchment area. These plantings will help sequester more carbon and enhance the farm’s overall sustainability.

John said, ‘the farm is working toward a carbon-neutral, regenerative, low input circular economy within our vineyard and winery and would like to achieve carbon-neutral accreditation.’

‘I have a strong focus on sustainability and believe the consumers’ focus on sustainability and provenance of the product will become increasingly important,’ John said.

This case study is part of a series outlining practical actions Victorian farmers are implementing on farm as part of the Agriculture Victoria, On-Farm Emissions Action Plan Pilot program .

Acknowledgements

Author - James Nuttall, Agriculture Victoria, 2024

For further information on the project email actionplanpilot@agriculture.vic.gov.au

The On-Farm Emissions Action Plan Pilot is part of the Victorian Government’s Agriculture Sector Emissions Reduction Pledge to provide practical information, tools and services to support farmers to understand and reduce emissions. The Pilot will work with up to 250 farm businesses across the state to estimate their on-farm emissions profile and identify potential actions to manage and reduce emissions while maintaining productivity and profitability.