Stacking Interventions Enhances Carbon Removals and Profitability of Livestock Production Systems

While previous studies have primarily examined the impacts of singular interventions on GHG emissions reduction and carbon dioxide removals (CDR), few studies explore complementarities and antagonisms when multiple interventions are simultaneously operationalized. Here, the aim is to examine how stacking of two pathways for mitigation-CDR, via soil organic carbon (SOC) accrual and GHG emissions avoidance via antimethanogenic feed additives-impacts net GHG emissions associated with sheep production. A nonlinear programing approach is invoked to elicit optimal combinations of grazing management and antimethanogenic feed additives to maximize farm profit and/or minimize net GHG emissions. It is shown that stacking multiple interventions realizes that greater abatement and profit do any singular intervention. Adoption of 3-NOP feed supplement with 15- and 30-paddock high stocking rate systems is the most prospective stacked intervention for concurrent profit maximization and emissions minimization. It is contended that (1) increasing payments for farming of carbon and ecosystems services relative to that of wool and meat will stimulate participation in carbon markets, (2) economics of participation in carbon markets tend to be more favorable for larger farms than smaller farms due to economies of scale and (3) adoption of optimal grazing management and antimethanogenic feed additives can realize more profit from sheep production and carbon farming than enterprises that only derive income from sheep production.