Spray cow manure on fields to encourage plant grown I don't believe that's quite right. The article suggests that manure and fertiliser themselves release gree

Spray cow manure on fields to encourage plant grown I don't believe that's quite right. The article suggests that manure and fertiliser themselves release greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, potentially negating any increase in sequestration due to plant growth: Wick wanted to know if he could deliberately replicate this process on his ranch — but without manure, which, as it decomposes, can release potent greenhouse gases like methane and nitrous oxide. The former traps about 30 times as much heat as carbon dioxide, the latter 300 times as much. As a carbon-farming tool, manure might be self-defeating. Instead they propose that compost be used, while avoiding methods of farming that release carbon from the soil. Jeff Creque, a onetime organic farmer, had a suggestion: Why not use compost? Compost can contain manure, but whereas manure alone can release nitrogen as nitrous oxide, the nitrogen in compost becomes locked up in complex molecules. At least in theory, that limits the escape of a powerful greenhouse gas. Silver had thought that the compost would simply break down, releasing its carbon back into the atmosphere or, worse, produce nitrous oxide. But those emissions never occurred; moreover, judging by its chemical signature, most of the carbon moving into the soil came from the air, not the compost. The compost appeared to help the plants draw more carbon from the atmosphere than they otherwise would have.