ANDREW Barbour reckons his organic farm on the hills near Pitlochry has not only hit the sought-after net-zero figure, it is actually a net sequester of carbon.

“Our beef and lamb is in fact carbon negative,” he said.

Along with his wife, Seonag, he has been at the forefront of innovative farming in Scotland by going back to the past to safeguard the future. Their change of direction began around 20 years ago when they wanted to plant more trees but not lose any farmland.

“We realised a wood pasture would give the animals shelter and the benefit of early grass as the canopy gives it shelter,” said Andrew. “You can have grass growth advanced by two or three weeks and that in early May and the end of April is very significant.”

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He pointed out that wood pasture was used for hundreds of years before farming became industrialised.

“It is still very highly thought of as the tree is directly putting carbon into ground, the roots improve drainage and the leaf litter improves biological activity in soils. From the animal point of view it is very good for welfare because it gives shelter in hot weather as well as bad weather.”

Andrew said that while cutting methane is important, the “eat better” part of the “eat less, eat better meat” slogan appears to be getting lost.

“We would like to think we are one example of eating better,” he said.

A carbon audit has found that around 180 tonnes of CO2 are sequestered annually by the 30 hectares of wood pasture on the farm, while the soils are absorbing around 150 tonnes of CO2 each year. The Barbours intend to increase their wood pasture to further CO2 absorption.

Part of the Bonskeid Estate, Mains of Fincastle is at 1000 to 1500ft, with 70% of the land designated for its high nature value, and runs 50 suckler cows and 350 sheep.

The farm is managed on an extensive, low input system which is nowadays described as an agro-ecological approach.

Clover is used as the main source of nitrogen, rather than harmful artificial nitrogen fertilisers, and there is no unnecessary ploughing as a direct seed drill is used to maintain a living ground cover, with a variety of plants present in the sward.

They also use rotational grazing to allow rest periods in the flower rich grasslands.

“Some would think our fields are full of weeds but having that diverse flora gives a much more balanced diet for the animals,” said Andrew. “Modern conventional grass fields have very low species diversity and the grasses have been bred to respond to high levels of chemical nitrogen fertiliser. I would say that is probably our biggest problem in farming because it pollutes habitats, including water.

“Everyone talks about methane but methane is a short-lived gas and what matters is whether your levels are rising or falling, whereas nitrous oxide is like carbon dioxide and just constantly builds in the atmosphere.”