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Abstract
An economic analysis was conducted involving wheat and grain sorghum production
systems that affect carbon dioxide emissions and sequester soil carbon. Parameters examined
were expected net returns, changes in net carbon sequestered and the value of carbon credits
necessary to equate net returns from systems that sequester more carbon to those that sequester
less with and without adjustments for CO2 emissions from production inputs. Evaluations were
based on experiment station cropping practices, yield, and soil carbon data for continuously
cropped and rotated wheat and grain sorghum produced with conventional and no-tillage. No-till
had lower net returns because of lower yields and higher overall costs. Both crops produced
under no-till had higher annual soil C gains than under conventional tillage. However, no-till
systems had higher total atmospheric emissions of C from production inputs. The differences
were relatively small. The C values estimated in this study that would equate net returns of notillage
to conventional tillage range from $7.82 to $58 .69/ton/yr when C emissions from
production inputs were subtracted from soil carbon sequestered and $7.79 to $54.99/tonlyr when
atmospheric emissions were not considered.