Biofarm 2020

Water John

1,000 participants is mighty. That reaches a far wider audience than a traditional conf. It's an ill wind...

The presentation i've been waiting for!

SouthWesterly

Is there a link to this? Thx

endainoz

SouthWesterly wrote: »

Is there a link to this? Thx

https://nots.ie/courses/biofarm-2020-online/

Tickets 50 euro, well worth it imo, all presentations will be available on demand from next week for ticket holders.

They email you a live link and password for each day once you buy your ticket.

Panch18

does it take long for the email with the link and password to come through?

I missed yesterday but paid the 50 quid a couple of hours ago - still no email, but got my email receipt of payment

Does it take a while?

Panch18

Panch18 wrote: »

does it take long for the email with the link and password to come through?

I missed yesterday but paid the 50 quid a couple of hours ago - still no email, but got my email receipt of payment

Does it take a while?

I'd call one of these numbers

BioFarm Helpline 1 – 0871893739

BioFarm Helpline 2 – 0873966197

BioFarm Helpline 3 – 0858555277

endainoz

Panch18 wrote: »

does it take long for the email with the link and password to come through?

I missed yesterday but paid the 50 quid a couple of hours ago - still no email, but got my email receipt of payment

Does it take a while?

Hmm not sure but they did leave a number to call if you have any issues, I'll pm you the numbers.

endainoz

endainoz wrote: »

Hmm not sure but they did leave a number to call if you have any issues, I'll pm you the numbers.

Never mind, herdquitter beat me to it!

endainoz

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Have it on the shelf here beside me. Anyone not wanting to part with €50 for biofarm would want to be sitting down if they look to buy this book

Oops, it's "Regenerative Agriculture" I have.

Ah yeah same book alright! So much information on each enterprise.

alps

Perkins (the market gardener)

Nearly all veg production is based on animal manure....if not it's based on fossil fuels..

Animals drive fertility systems..

Veg production is the least sustainable farm system..

Birdnuts

alps wrote: »

Perkins (the market gardener)

Nearly all veg production is based on animal manure....if not it's based on fossil fuels..

Animals drive fertility systems..

Veg production is the least sustainable farm system..

For shure it needs to be part of an integrated system - which of course traditional farming methods appreciated before big- agribusiness took over

Say my name

Bruno's a very knowledgeable and passionate man on compost.

I enjoyed that.

I wonder who asked the biochar question

Say my name

[Deleted User] wrote: »

I wonder who asked the biochar question

No idea.

alps

What a passionate way to talk about shyte...

Panch18

Say my name wrote: »

Bruno's a very knowledgeable and passionate man on compost.

I enjoyed that.

I thought he was brilliant, kind of guy that could have had a full day to himself

Not as up to speed as yourself on biochar though!

Water John

So a good FYM has both nitrogen and carbon, you take it and potato pit it and some water as doing so. Does anything else need to be added?
10% soil +....biochar was mentioned.
All the speakers were excellent but esp liked Bruno Folloder, almost a philosopher.

I was surprised Follador hadn't heard of the Johnson-Su Bioreactor, perhaps he knows it under another name.

Say my name

Panch18 wrote: »

I thought he was brilliant, kind of guy that could have had a full day to himself

Not as up to speed as yourself on biochar though!

You're on the grid now I take it?

An expert knows that they know nothing.

Say my name

[Deleted User] wrote: »

I was surprised Follador hadn't heard of the Johnson-Su Bioreactor, perhaps he knows it under another name.

I'd say he just answered that he had no personal experience of it.

Say my name

Water John wrote: »

So a good FYM has both nitrogen and carbon, you take it and potato pit it and some water as doing so. Does anything else need to be added?
10% soil +....biochar was mentioned.
All the speakers were excellent but esp liked Bruno Folloder, almost a philosopher.

Stone dust was mentioned. And seaweed.
Anything that adds extra minerals.
And height important.

If more of the speakers use pictures to demonstrate, it really shows more.

Say my name

Say my name wrote: »

Stone dust was mentioned. And seaweed.
Anything that adds extra minerals.
And height important.

If more of the speakers use pictures to demonstrate, it really shows more.

Basalt was one anyway, the height was 1.5 meters, no higher due to too much pressure.

blue5000

Just a bit to add on the soil on the dung, I've found the best place to get it is from under mature trees, lots of fungi etc. there able to break down lignin.

Capercaillie

blue5000 wrote: »

Just a bit to add on the soil on the dung, I've found the best place to get it is from under mature trees, lots of fungi etc. there able to break down lignin.

benefits of agroforestry.

NcdJd

alps wrote: »

Perkins (the market gardener)

Nearly all veg production is based on animal manure....if not it's based on fossil fuels..

Animals drive fertility systems..

Veg production is the least sustainable farm system..

Mostly based on artificial fertiliser. Very little veg production based on animal manure from what I see. A man I know had about 4 acres of celery this year. Spread horse manure over it when ploughed but still spread fertiliser on it before plants were put in.

Commercial veg production is very harsh on soil systems but that's the nature of the beast. Pity the environmentalists wouldn't acknowledge this when preaching to everyone about the so called evils of animal farming.

Say my name

NcdJd wrote: »

Mostly based on artificial fertiliser. Very little veg production based on animal manure from what I see. A man I know had about 4 acres of celery this year. Spread horse manure over it when ploughed but still spread fertiliser on it before plants were put in.

Commercial veg production is very harsh on soil systems but that's the nature of the beast. Pity the environmentalists wouldn't acknowledge this when preaching to everyone about the so called evils of animal farming.

I just passed by a potato field on an upward slope from the road.
Absolutely zero water soakage of the soil and half the field washing onto the road with the soil continuing on off the road and into the river.

It made for a very sorry sight.

There needs to be research to stop this. The current situation of taking land for big bucks having bare soil, having the nitrogen and phosphorus wash into the waterways along with the soil and carbon is totally unsustainable.
It's only sustainable for the grower as long as they have access to virgin ground and artificial fertilizer.

We're the only country in the world that doesn't acknowledge the harm bare soil does. In fact we praise and welcome it.

youllbemine

Really enjoying this thread folks. Have the Richard Perkins book (pdf version) myself and am an avid follower of his YouTube channel. Another excellent one to follow is Charles Dowding - master of the No Dig method. FYM and cardboard is all that’s needed to grow savage amounts of vegetables.

What I’d like to see in Ireland in 20 years time is thousands of these small producers using similar methods to feed their locality and to hell with the supermarkets.

I live in Mid-Louth and this time of year the roads are destroyed with soil from potato ground. The fields are in tatters and can only imagine the damage being done in the removal of these crops using the machinery.

Keep up the posting on this thread!

Dinzee Conlee

Say my name wrote: »

I just passed by a potato field on an upward slope from the road.
Absolutely zero water soakage of the soil and half the field washing onto the road with the soil continuing on off the road and into the river.

It made for a very sorry sight.

There needs to be research to stop this. The current situation of taking land for big bucks having bare soil, having the nitrogen and phosphorus wash into the waterways along with the soil and carbon is totally unsustainable.
It's only sustainable for the grower as long as they have access to virgin ground and artificial fertilizer.

We're the only country in the world that doesn't acknowledge the harm bare soil does. In fact we praise and welcome it.

What do they do in other countries with ground after cereals/crops have been harvested?
I think I saw plenty bare stubble ground in England one time when I was over there in the Autumn - but that was a good few years ago now, so maybe its changed?

wrangler

Dinzee Conlee wrote: »

What do they do in other countries with ground after cereals/crops have been harvested?
I think I saw plenty bare stubble ground in England one time when I was over there in the Autumn - but that was a good few years ago now, so maybe its changed?

I wouldn't be surprised if they go back to the old ways when they get away from the EU rules and regulations

NcdJd

Say my name wrote: »

I just passed by a potato field on an upward slope from the road.
Absolutely zero water soakage of the soil and half the field washing onto the road with the soil continuing on off the road and into the river.

It made for a very sorry sight.

There needs to be research to stop this. The current situation of taking land for big bucks having bare soil, having the nitrogen and phosphorus wash into the waterways along with the soil and carbon is totally unsustainable.
It's only sustainable for the grower as long as they have access to virgin ground and artificial fertilizer.

We're the only country in the world that doesn't acknowledge the harm bare soil does. In fact we praise and welcome it.

Spuds are still being harvested. The ground has to be clean for the harvester to operate properly. Unless you want to do without spuds in your diet that's the only way they can be taken up. Ground being bare is unavoidable when using a harvester to left spuds and other root groups. There has to be a certain amount of it unfortunately say my name. If you were lifting root crops by hand which is what we done then you would still have cover, with the exception of spuds obviously.

But due to pricing it's not financially sustainable to do this now except if your a small 4 to 5 acre organic enterprise selling online or through a farmers market. I see some of these places say they can make big money per acre, but i still question how much is profit out of their big turnover. Most people get their veg in a supermarket now. Most of the veg supplied years ago was through market gardening around North County Dublin but this is all now history unfortunately. Outlets are not there anymore other than direct to supermarkets or via a couple of large vegetable distribution companies. They don't want to be dealing with hundreds of small vegatable farmers like they did years ago.

From what little I know about science and I'm just looking at the differences with the pair of eyes I have, increased plant production to replace animal production to me will have devastating consequences for biodiversity and the soil on our planet. There has to be a balance between animal and plant based production. The two should work hand in hand. What is the land use required for the same amount of protein of a herd of 20 cattle compared to the plant based equivalent ? I may be a bit of a thick but what I see just doesn't add up.


Anyway I dont want to derail this thread, sounds like ye are learning loads