We apologise but this paper is overdue. 

This paper will be submitted to AEE together with the companion paper: "The carbon balance of temperate grasslands Part II: The impact of pasture renewal via direct drilling." (ROI 855)

Either paper is stand-alone and can be read in isolation, but because the papers partly rely on the same dataset we felt it prudent to submit them together. A second file contains supplemental material that provides additional background of how the carbon balance was constructed.

