A two-year project aims to verify biogenic carbon flow in wool production systems.

A NEW project to demonstrate a practical, and scalable way for Australian wool growers to measure, model and verify the carbon performance of wool production systems has been funded for two years.

Australian Wool Innovation said it will fund the project ‘Biogenic carbon flux measurement in sheep production systems’.

The project will be delivered by Agrimix Pty Ltd, with Integrity Ag, Achill Station and LI-COR.

AWI said as sustainability reporting requirements continue to increase across global textile and fashion markets, demand is growing for robust evidence behind low-carbon and environmental claims.

For wool, this includes understanding both livestock and production emissions, as well as measured and modelled carbon removals in pasture biomass and soil.  The two-year project will use a commercial wool enterprise as a demonstration site to test a measure-model-verify approach, AWI said.

AWI environmental sustainability manager Edward Fernie said the project would help support the wool industry’s response to increasing market, supply-chain and regulatory expectations around environmental reporting.

“Global brands and supply-chain partners are increasingly seeking robust data to support carbon and sustainability reporting,” Mr Fernie said.

“This project will help test a practical pathway for measuring and verifying biogenic carbon flows in wool production systems, while supporting wool growers with information that is useful, credible and relevant to market expectations.”

Mr Fernie said a key goal of the project will be to help improve the case for inclusion of biogenic carbon processes in current global carbon accounting standards.

“Global carbon accounting frameworks are beginning to provide clearer pathways for recognising land-based carbon removals (e.g., the GHG Protocol’s Land Sector & Removals Standard), but their practical application still depends on robust measurement, transparent modelling, and credible verification.

“By demonstrating how flux measurements, soil data, management information and process-based modelling can be combined at commercial farm scale, this project will help build confidence in how biogenic carbon flows and removals are quantified and reported,” he said.

Mr Fernie said the project is not seeking any updates or changes to global standards on its own.

“But it can contribute practical evidence that supports their future refinement and implementation, particularly in relation to recognising verified soil carbon removals within agricultural supply chains.”

The project will involve the installation of an eddy covariance flux tower to measure net ecosystem carbon exchange, showing how carbon moves in and out of the monitored grazing system across seasonal and management conditions.

These measurements will be combined with soil, climate, pasture, livestock and management data to calibrate Agrimix Flux, a digital twin modelling system powered by the DayCent-CABBI ecosystem model.

AWI said Integrity Ag will contribute life cycle assessment, whole-farm carbon footprinting, insetting protocol development and verification pathway documentation to produce a measured and modelled, verification-ready whole-farm carbon footprint for a commercial wool enterprise.

The footprint will include livestock and production emissions, together with biogenic carbon flows and removals in pasture biomass and soil. A key aim is to demonstrate whether robust results can be generated without requiring a flux tower on every farm.

By using high-quality flux tower data to calibrate and validate the model at the demonstration site, the project will test a more practical and cost-effective pathway that could be applied across similar wool-producing properties in future, AWI said.

Agrimix research program manager Chloe Kempe said the project was designed to connect on-farm measurement with the type of reporting increasingly required by wool supply chains.

“This work is about demonstrating a credible and scalable approach to quantifying the net carbon footprint of wool production,” Ms Kempe said.

“By combining flux tower measurement, soil and management data, Agrimix Flux modelling and Integrity Ag’s life cycle assessment expertise, the project aims to produce a whole-farm carbon footprint that accounts for both emissions and biogenic removals.

“The long-term opportunity is to give wool growers, advisors and supply-chain partners a more practical way to substantiate the environmental performance of wool.”

Mr Fernie said the project aims to give wool growers a practical way to see the relationship between management, carbon outcomes and production efficiency, to support further improvements on farm.

“This plays a part in Woolmark+, which is designed to help woolgrowers and supply chain partners accelerate the wool industry’s transition towards a ‘nature positive’ future.”

The project is scheduled to conclude in early 2028.