Craig Fagan believes his Piopio sheep farm is producing enough carbon to sell it on the Chicago Futures Exchange.

Unlike his Australian counterparts, who have been trading on the exchange for some time, Craig has to wait for eCogent to measure the carbon levels in the soil on all 100 of its clients' farms before he can make any cash out of carbon. He'll probably have to wait until September.

"It seems to be the big buzzword at the moment," says Craig Fagan, 36, who farms using eCogent's StockPoint system, says.

"It's a really easy way for any simple farmer in this country to be at least carbon neutral and possibly carbon positive," he says.

Craig Fagan is the third generation of Fagans to farm on the 550ha Mairoa Rd property, 26km west of Te Kuiti. His uncle is champion shearer David Fagan.

How soon could he achieve enough carbon in his soil to trade on the exchange? He says now.

"To be honest I think we already could. We just need to know the quantity of carbon in our soil," he says.

He and wife Sarah jointly farm the property, finishing about 30.000 sheep annually. They have used the measuring tool developed by Palmerston North-based Landcare Research scientist Graham Shepherd which estimates carbon levels based on the depth grass roots grow and their proclivity. But the estimates are not precise enough for trading.

"From the testing they have done we should be carbon positive. There's a detectable difference in calcium and microbiological soil life."

That has benefited the farm, since before joining StockPoint four years ago the soil was lacking in calcium. The balance was tipped when the Fagans abandoned chemical fertiliser and swapped it for lime.

"There are guys in Australia trading on the exchange now and we are playing catch up ... I don't think we are so far behind. We just need to quantify exactly how much carbon is in our soil," Craig Fagan says. He thinks there could be more cash to be made growing carbon than sheep farming alone.

"There's potential to make more money out of growing carbon credits, than out of livestock trading," he says.

Measuring profitability per kg of dry matter fed has helped the Fagans make the farm more profitable, allowing Craig Fagan to give up the full time shearing job he had on top of running the farm. The change has given him more time with Sarah and their three children.

“I was out, fulltime, shearing to put bread and butter on the table.”

The last label he wants is “Greenie”. “I definitely did not start out that way,” he says. “We had to change for purely economic reasons. Being more profitable has been the result. I definitely don’t want to be labelled a tree hugger.”

Dairy farmers David and Kathi Harris don’t care what label you slap on them so long as they’re making money.

The couple, who are next season swapping from supplying Fonterra in favour of Open Country Cheese at Waharoa, believe they are more than a year away from being able to trade on the Chicago Futures Exchange.

“I am 100% sure we are going to be able to trade it, but I don’t know when.

“I would like to think it would be in the next 18 months,” says Mr. Harris, who took over the century-old family farm at Pokuru, near Te Awamutu, from his parents Chris and Jane Harris.

Dave Harris attended Peter Floyd’s Farming for Change conference in Christchurch in February where Australian farmers shared their experiences of carbon trading.

The market is huge and there is a fair bit of money to be made”, he says.

The couple switched to DairyPoint having won a scholarship through the ANZ bank in 2003.

Milk Production soared by nearly 20,000kg of milksolids to 96,000kg shortly after they signed up. They also discovered carbon flourished on the farm as they swapped chemical fertilisers for lime. Thicker grass roots formed through high levels of carbon in the top 7.5cm. Now it’s as deep as 30cm.

“We have gone from using chemical fertilisers to lime fertilisers. What we are trying to do is grow carbon. We are increasing that. The chemical fertiliser reduces the carbon while the lime fertiliser increases it," Dave Harris 37, says.

"The deeper we can get these roots to grow the more carbon we can sequester, I am not sure how much it's going to be... we have not got that far yet."