Loam Bio says a New South Wales grain farm earned 4,867 carbon credits, but the company's own account mixes a seed treatment with years of farm changes

GAREMA, N.S.W., April 2026 — Loam Bio says the Nicholson family's grain farm in Garema, central New South Wales, was issued 4,867 Australian Carbon Credit Units across 881 hectares. Each unit represents one tonne of CO₂e stored. We didn't check the issuance on the Clean Energy Regulator's register. Here's what happened, what it cost, and what went wrong.

Cost and outcome (as of Apr. 30, 2026)

Outcome (company claim): 4,867 ACCUs across 881 hectares of a 4,000 ha grazing and cropping operation. (Loam Bio, Apr. 30, 2026)
Verification: Loam Bio says the project met the Clean Energy Regulator's requirements. (Loam Bio press release PDF, April 2026) We didn't check the issuance on the CER register.
Cost: Neither Loam Bio nor the farm discloses the cost of the treatment, the measurement or the credit price.

What Loam Bio says happened

Loam Bio says the Nicholson Carbon Project (#ERF184498), part of a 4,000-hectare grazing and cropping operation at Garema, generated an issuance of 4,867 tradeable ACCUs across 881 hectares. (Loam Bio, Apr. 30, 2026)

The company calls the family "the first broadacre cropping operation in NSW" to generate ACCUs using a carbon-sequestering fungal seed treatment, and says it's "one of the largest broadacre cropping projects" to meet the regulator's requirements. Both are company claims. (Loam Bio press release PDF, April 2026)

More than one change

According to Loam Bio, the Nicholsons began exploring more sustainable farming more than a decade ago. They modified crop rotations across wheat, barley and canola, added pasture and pulse rotations, reduced tillage and improved residue management. (Loam Bio, Apr. 30, 2026)

In 2024 they added Loam Bio's CarbonBuilder, a fungal seed treatment that the company says helps plants convert atmospheric CO₂ into stable soil carbon. Loam Bio runs SecondCrop soil carbon projects so growers can sell that carbon. (Loam Bio, Apr. 30, 2026) The company's account doesn't separate how much of the soil-carbon change came from the treatment versus the earlier practice changes, so we don't attribute the gain to either.

In their words

"From year one we saw a measurable increase in soil carbon, equating to 5.5 ACCU allocated per hectare," owner Steve Nicholson said in the company's release. "In effect we are now growing a second crop from the same paddock." (Loam Bio press release PDF, April 2026)

"We knew we couldn't keep farming the same way," Nicholson said. "If we didn't adapt, the future of the farm wasn't sustainable." He called the treatment "easily adoptable, easy to use" and "affordable," without giving a price. (Loam Bio press release PDF, April 2026)

Loam Bio CEO Guy Hudson said the result was "backed by more than a decade of research across 70 scientists and eight universities." He said: "Historically broadacre farmers have largely been locked out of the carbon market. This result shows there's a reliable way in." (Loam Bio press release PDF, April 2026)

The market around it

Australia's Clean Energy Regulator said 86 of the 150 ACCU Scheme projects registered in the September quarter of 2025 were soil carbon projects. (Clean Energy Regulator, Dec. 12, 2025) That's registration, not issuance.

What went wrong

Not checked on the register. We didn't confirm the 4,867 ACCUs on the CER's ACCU project register; the figure is Loam Bio's.
Mixed causes. The farm changed rotations, tillage and residue management before adding CarbonBuilder in 2024 (Loam Bio, Apr. 30, 2026), so the release doesn't show what the seed treatment did on its own.
One farm. This is one project on 881 hectares. Loam Bio gives no results from other farms.
What we don't know yet: the credit sale price, the cost of measurement, and whether later soil sampling will hold the gain.

Our follow-up question for Loam Bio

Can you share the CER issuance record, and how much of the gain do you attribute to CarbonBuilder versus prior practice change?

Sources

Loam Bio, “The Nicholson Project's carbon credit issuance,” posted Apr. 30, 2026 (last edited May 11, 2026). loambio.com
Loam Bio, “NSW farming family cracks Australia's carbon market with world-first fungal technology” (press release PDF), April 2026. loambio.com
Clean Energy Regulator, “Quarterly Carbon Market Report – September Quarter 2025: Australian environmental markets,” Dec. 12, 2025. cer.gov.au

Disclosure: [not in copy] Editor placeholder