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Biochar and natural farming

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    #152
    timfromtang
    Registered Users Posts: 561 ✭✭✭timfromtang


    blue5000 wrote: »
    But it's only 15-20 % efficient on a DM basis.




    Indeed, it is low efficiency, however if you are using your own woody waste as feedstock why would you care unduly? you'd be making in the region of 200kg of biochar of the correct quality for adding to animal feed each burn. Its hard to see biochar becoming available commercially at less than €1/kg, currently available from some producers for €1.5/kg.
    Getting rid of a pile of woody waste on farm and producing 200-400 euro worth of biochar in a days work seems like a good deal to me.


    As an addendum traditional charcoal production has about a 14% yield on a dry matter basis.
    My own Exeter charcoal retort about 20-25% efficient.



    tim

    www.youtube.com/c/timfromtang

    Fuinseog abú



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    #153
    Brown Podzol
    Registered Users Posts: 1,847 ✭✭✭Brown Podzol


    Interesting that biochar is a by product of Stockholm tar/ pine tar production.


    https://maritime.org/conf/conf-kaye-tar.htm


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    #154
    Say my name
    Registered Users Posts: 11,304 ✭✭✭✭Say my name


    It seems these guys have got their Biochar EU approved as an animal feedstuff.

    €270 + vat for a cubic metre.

    https://www.carbofex.fi/biochar


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    #155
    Say my name
    Registered Users Posts: 11,304 ✭✭✭✭Say my name


    Brown Podzol wrote: »
    Interesting that biochar is a by product of Stockholm tar/ pine tar production.


    https://maritime.org/conf/conf-kaye-tar.htm

    This little nugget is doing the rounds in the last few days.

    Vikings conquer the world thanks to Stockholm tar. So to speak.

    https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/nov/04/viking-longboat-industrial-tar-pits-dominance-seas


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    #156
    alps
    Registered Users Posts: 4,976 ✭✭✭alps


    Conference Day....let's see if these Organic Boys can teach us a thing or 2 about soils....


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    #157
    Say my name
    Registered Users Posts: 11,304 ✭✭✭✭Say my name


    alps wrote: »
    Conference Day....let's see if these Organic Boys can teach us a thing or 2 about soils....

    Keep us poor people who had tractor break downs last week and have only got their tractor back and are installing feed barriers today and bringing heifers in for the winter informed.


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    #158
    Bullocks
    Registered Users Posts: 5,890 ✭✭✭Bullocks


    Say my name wrote: »
    Keep us poor people who had tractor break downs last week and have only got their tractor back and are installing feed barriers today and bringing heifers in for the winter informed.

    Jaysus if you don't want to go just say it , we don't need all the excuses haha


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    #159
    Say my name
    Registered Users Posts: 11,304 ✭✭✭✭Say my name


    Bullocks wrote: »
    Jaysus if you don't want to go just say it , we don't need all the excuses haha

    I had good ones though. :)

    I'd be there in a shot though really. Hopefully it's filmed for later release.
    That dinner menu looks fairly posh too. :(


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    #160
    alps
    Registered Users Posts: 4,976 ✭✭✭alps


    Say my name wrote: »
    I had good ones though. :)

    I'd be there in a shot though really. Hopefully it's filmed for later release.
    That dinner menu looks fairly posh too. :(

    Food was fab....

    Conference is absolutely brilliant. The standard of presentation is amazing..

    Will give run down some other time as a few problems with beer build up at the moment and need to get the backlog cleared


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    #161
    Water John
    Registered Users Posts: 21,261 ✭✭✭✭Water John


    Well Alps, if you have mixed the grape and the barley you'll regret it. I presume both are organic, that might help with no hangover.


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    #162
    alps
    Registered Users Posts: 4,976 ✭✭✭alps


    Water John wrote: »
    Well Alps, if you have mixed the grape and the barley you'll regret it. I presume both are organic, that might help with no hangover.

    Well met another boardsie and decided to change it up again.....like a multi species sward


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    #163
    alps
    Registered Users Posts: 4,976 ✭✭✭alps


    Today's conference has just ended��


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    #164
    Say my name
    Registered Users Posts: 11,304 ✭✭✭✭Say my name


    Well boardsie's who were at the conference.

    Have ye now a broader outlook on what ye should be doing?

    Plus Please, please, pleeease tell us how it went and any things ye learned or what ye made of it.
    Please.

    (Taken from Twitter).
    Dave Beecher (@davebeechersoil) Tweeted:
    Thanks @Natorgskill for a fantastic two days, creating a new direction and model for Irish Agriculture #biologicalfarming https://t.co/7pslEC8yD9 https://twitter.com/davebeechersoil/status/1062383528971776000?s=17


    Did I say Please??


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    #165
    Say my name
    Registered Users Posts: 11,304 ✭✭✭✭Say my name


    It seems New Zealand farmers are more "greener" than they're given credit for.
    The only caveat is that they're not native beetle species.
    But still... broadly positive I'd say???

    Dung beetle release program as part of a Fonterra Open Gates 2018 program.

    http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/AK1811/S00176/dung-beetles-to-be-rolled-out-region-wide.htm


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    #166
    Say my name
    Registered Users Posts: 11,304 ✭✭✭✭Say my name


    Watch the film.

    https://livingsoilfilm.com/

    Edit: Anyone any experience of Austrian (winter) peas in this country?
    Grazing, growing over winter, hay/silage, drilling into grass, etc.


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    #167
    Say my name
    Registered Users Posts: 11,304 ✭✭✭✭Say my name


    You know how us puny humans like to put figures to the unfigureable?

    Well a group of 'experts' got together and published a book quantifying figures from how that technology would be taken up and sheer mass of how it could reduce carbon emissions in the atmosphere.
    The result was a book called ;

    Drawdown.
    The most comprehensive plan ever proposed to reverse Global Warming.
    Edited by Paul Harken.

    https://www.drawdown.org/solutions-summary-by-rank

    They made a list of solutions to reduce carbon dioxide or reduce emissions.
    Then ranked them according to co2 reduction with a cost side bar.

    Now it's beyond me why Silvopasture, Regenerative agriculture, Managed grazing and Conservation agriculture are not all lumped together. But then I'm a simple farmer.

    Link is above.


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    #168
    alps
    Registered Users Posts: 4,976 ✭✭✭alps


    Gonna throw some fashion of a report on the Biological Farming Conference during the week. It's going to come in bets and starts, as I get a chance, so apologies in advance.

    This was my first introduction to Biological Farming or indeed Organic production, and coming from the higher side of intensive dairying would have thought that my approach would have been shunned somewhat by the attendees. Nothing could have been further from the truth.

    This was a real mix audience. A massive cross section of production systems, age group more late 30's to 50's (more mid range than our standard) surprised with the weighting of dairy farmers, but for some reason i would have thought more women would have been present.

    The presentations were purely Biological, with very little emphasis on organic per say ...there was no condemnation or destain whatsoever towards conventional or high input, either from the presentations or the questions and made for a really comfortable, engaging few days for everyone.

    The quality of presentations was amazing, and the technical detail that the speakers could switch on when questioned, was from a scientific or chemical background, quiet incredible.

    So too was the conversation after dinner on Monday night. What a mix of farmers, from so many different systems ,organic dairy farmers growing 11 tonnes, to beef lads pulling on inputs and costs, to tillage lads renewing organic matter with rotations and cover crops.

    Too much to take in in 2 days, but there was a huge amount here for everyone, and with contacts made, will utilise in what way we can to improve our lot in our system.

    More later

    Ps....no mention of biochar however


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    #169
    Say my name
    Registered Users Posts: 11,304 ✭✭✭✭Say my name


    Wexford students win big testing EM (Effective Micro-organisms) with urea on grass.

    https://www.agriland.ie/farming-news/wexford-students-take-scifest-award-for-agriculture-project/


    Interesting website and company that sells and promotes EM.

    https://www.multikraft.com/en/products-applications/agriculture-farming/[url][/url]


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    #170
    Say my name
    Registered Users Posts: 11,304 ✭✭✭✭Say my name


    You'd have to wonder why with all this new research showing the benefits of bacteria and good bacteria on soil and plants and no doubt ourselves, why anyone would spray an antibiotic (roundup) on plants and soil?


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    #171
    yosemitesam1
    Registered Users Posts: 2,959 ✭✭✭yosemitesam1


    Say my name wrote: »
    You'd have to wonder why with all this new research showing the benefits of bacteria and good bacteria on soil and plants and no doubt ourselves, why anyone would spray an antibiotic (roundup) on plants and soil?
    How is roundup an antibiotic?


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    #172
    Say my name
    Registered Users Posts: 11,304 ✭✭✭✭Say my name


    yosemitesam1 wrote: »
    How is roundup an antibiotic?

    It inhibits an enzymatic pathway in many bacteria and parasites in the soil and as bacteria need to multiply or die every four days. Antibiotic.
    Monsanto registered it as an antibiotic in the early days.

    It'll only leave/favour bacteria that are the strongest and most resistant to antibiotics in the soil.
    https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/lifestyle/2018/10/herbicides-like-roundup-are-driving-antibiotic-resistance-nz-study.html


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    #173
    yosemitesam1
    Registered Users Posts: 2,959 ✭✭✭yosemitesam1


    Say my name wrote: »
    It inhibits an enzymatic pathway in many bacteria and parasites in the soil and as bacteria need to multiply or die every four days. Antibiotic.
    Monsanto registered it as an antibiotic in the early days.

    It'll only leave/favour bacteria that are the strongest and most resistant to antibiotics in the soil.
    https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/lifestyle/2018/10/herbicides-like-roundup-are-driving-antibiotic-resistance-nz-study.html
    Sounds like the tinfoil hat brigade. Wormer's, actual antibiotics, species composition and fertilizer are having much bigger influences on soil microbes/fauna than glyphosate


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    #174
    patsy_mccabe
    Registered Users Posts: 10,738 ✭✭✭✭patsy_mccabe


    My composter / mineral pump at work. No labour or energy costs involved.

    'When I was a boy we were serfs, slave minded. Anyone who came along and lifted us out of that belittling, I looked on them as Gods.' - Dan Breen



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    #175
    alps
    Registered Users Posts: 4,976 ✭✭✭alps


    https://www.agriland.ie/farming-news/what-is-biological-farming/


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    #176
    ganmo
    Registered Users Posts: 7,748 ✭✭✭ganmo


    Say my name wrote: »
    It inhibits an enzymatic pathway in many bacteria and parasites in the soil and as bacteria need to multiply or die every four days. Antibiotic.
    Monsanto registered it as an antibiotic in the early days.

    It'll only leave/favour bacteria that are the strongest and most resistant to antibiotics in the soil.
    https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/lifestyle/2018/10/herbicides-like-roundup-are-driving-antibiotic-resistance-nz-study.html

    how roundup works is it attacks the cell wall and breaks it down so it might hit gram positive bacteria


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    #177
    alps
    Registered Users Posts: 4,976 ✭✭✭alps


    patsy_mccabe wrote: »
    My composter / mineral pump at work. No labour or energy costs involved.

    How do you get it so even?


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    #178
    Say my name
    Registered Users Posts: 11,304 ✭✭✭✭Say my name


    yosemitesam1 wrote: »
    Sounds like the tinfoil hat brigade. Wormer's, actual antibiotics, species composition and fertilizer are having much bigger influences on soil microbes/fauna than glyphosate

    I couldn't tell you which are better or worse. Not would I claim to have the last word on it.
    But....
    Link here and in here to the report.
    https://phys.org/news/2018-10-links-common-herbicides-antibiotic-resistance.html

    It's a continuing merry go round from hell for some farmers and ultimately the end users.

    Inputs 2 Farmers 0.

    It would be one hell of an interesting report though if someone did a study into closed herd farmers who are getting big problems with wormer resistance and see if they would be the same farmers who can't manage without glyphosate. Spraying it on silage before harvest and min till reseeds etc.


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    #179
    patsy_mccabe
    Registered Users Posts: 10,738 ✭✭✭✭patsy_mccabe


    alps wrote: »
    How do you get it so even?

    The randomness of nature.

    'When I was a boy we were serfs, slave minded. Anyone who came along and lifted us out of that belittling, I looked on them as Gods.' - Dan Breen



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    #180
    Water John
    Registered Users Posts: 21,261 ✭✭✭✭Water John


    Minister Bruton announcing plans to reduce CO2 tomorrow. Maybe its a unfair stat but 13t CO2/person Ireland, 8t CO2/person UK.
    Hope it has some positive ideas not just tax.


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    #181
    Say my name
    Registered Users Posts: 11,304 ✭✭✭✭Say my name


    Water John wrote: »
    Minister Bruton announcing plans to reduce CO2 tomorrow. Maybe its a unfair stat but 13t CO2/person Ireland, 8t CO2/person UK.
    Hope it has some positive ideas not just tax.

    Over in the motors forum they're a bit worked up over potential plans of mixing biodiesel with diesel to the rate of 10%.
    Seemingly a lot of diesel cars could be kaput if so.

    Over in the children and toddlers forum they're delighted with potential plans to increase our birthrate to bring us in line with the UK.


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