Holloway Carbon Project - Breust 3

Holloway Carbon Project - Breust 3 is a soil carbon sequestration project located approximately 20km west of the township of Temora in the Riverina region of New South Wales. Registered in September 2021 and covering nearly 303 hectares, the project operates within the highly productive wheat-sheep belt of southeastern Australia. The area is defined by its mixed farming land use, where cereal cropping (wheat, canola, barley) and sheep grazing are the dominant agricultural activities.

The project operates under the 2021 Soil Carbon methodology (Estimation of Soil Organic Carbon Sequestration using Measurement and Models). This method credits landholders for increasing soil carbon stocks through changes in land management. Specifically, this project aims to build soil carbon by addressing nutrient deficiencies with fertilizer, converting from intensive tillage to reduced or no-tillage practices, and retaining crop stubble. These activities are designed to minimize soil disturbance and increase biomass input, which facilitates the sequestration of atmospheric carbon into the soil profile.

Environmentally, the Temora region is characterized by a temperate climate with hot summers and cool winters, receiving winter-dominant rainfall averaging around 500-550mm annually. The local soils are typically Red Chromosols (red-brown earths) or Sodosols. While these soils are fertile and well-suited to cropping, they can be prone to hard-setting and surface crusting if not carefully managed, a challenge that the project's stubble retention and reduced tillage activities directly help to mitigate.

An interesting aspect of this project is its administrative history; it varied its methodology in July 2024 from the 2018 determination to the 2021 "Measurement and Models" determination. This shift allows the project to utilize predictive modeling alongside physical soil sampling to calculate carbon credits, likely reducing the heavy costs associated with frequent physical auditing. The "Breust" in the project name connects it to other local carbon projects (such as the Makin Carbon Project - Breust 2), suggesting a coordinated effort by the landholding family to integrate carbon farming across different sections of their property.