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Biochar and natural farming

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    #32
    Say my name
    Registered Users Posts: 11,047 ✭✭✭✭Say my name


    Martin Wynne and Pamela Farrelly long time users of biochar in central Victoria, Australia.
    They took on 14 hectares of a former sheep farm.

    http://www.thecourier.com.au/story/5479633/the-simplest-way-to-improve-your-soil-without-chemicals-or-cash/


    And if anyone was watching the racing in Ascot lately.

    Ascot Racecourse (@Ascot) Tweeted:
    Ascot is the first racecourse in the UK to incorporate @CarbonGold's enriched biochar into our turf.

    The grass on our racecourse is better rooted, meaning its healthier, stronger and greener.

    We're reducing our carbon footprint significantly 🌱 https://t.co/OSwbREuDlN https://twitter.com/Ascot/status/1025688294263279617?s=17


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    #33
    Say my name
    Registered Users Posts: 11,047 ✭✭✭✭Say my name


    Biochar being used in Vietnam.

    If one was of a cynical nature you'd say the use of Biochar in the western world is being dumbed down or not talked about because of the influence of the NPK agri and chemical big business in governments/ agricultural colleges.

    UN Environment (@UNEnvironment) Tweeted:
    Biochar use by subsistence farmers in Vietnam is helping them cut down on chemicals, enrich the soil & mitigate the impact of severe land degradation naturally. See how @theGEF is helping farmers create a healthier environment: https://t.co/YCZ1P9AR4e
    #Conservation #Restoration https://t.co/G6OExDEvYs https://twitter.com/UNEnvironment/status/1025278974803492865?s=17


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    #34
    MF290
    Registered Users Posts: 715 ✭✭✭MF290


    Can you make your own biochar by putting a match to the stubbles?


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    #35
    Say my name
    Registered Users Posts: 11,047 ✭✭✭✭Say my name


    MF290 wrote: »
    Can you make your own biochar by putting a match to the stubbles?

    It probably would based on principle and it's what used to happen in the past.

    But the whole theory of biochar is that it's an inert sponge ready and waiting to soak up and store any nutrients.
    Whatever nutrients that would be in the stubble would still be in the charred remains but it would soak up any other nutrients in the soil too.

    If it were to taken seriously in the tillage side. It would be a better proposition to have an on farm burner capable of using the straw from the field and turning that into char and possibly using any excess heat to heat the dwelling house or dry the grain.
    Beston in China have developed a continuous straw burning biochar maker so maybe something along the lines of that?

    The prize winning punch line for any anti farming, farming is the destroyer of the world types is that that carbon/char has now being (I could say permanently? ) taken out of the atmosphere into a form that is resistant to rotting degradation. Straw by some studies is not as resitant as timber types but none the less it could be still hundreds of years to degrade back to carbon dioxide. So if it's repeated every year that's hundreds of years worth being taken out before it starts to return/if it returns to the atmosphere.

    How it gets used and its mixed with after before applying back to the soil is the follow on.


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    #36
    Say my name
    Registered Users Posts: 11,047 ✭✭✭✭Say my name


    One for the lovers of our specimen trees in Ireland.

    https://www.carbongold.com/the-bexley-charter-oak-nine-months-on/


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    #37
    Say my name
    Registered Users Posts: 11,047 ✭✭✭✭Say my name


    Germany is way ahead (years) on this.

    I just found this website. They cover a lot from manure treatment to drinking water treatment.
    From land improvements, improved cell counts in milk from the improved drinking water to no more agitation needed of slurry.

    http://www.gara.de/

    Use chrome for translation.


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    #38
    Say my name
    Registered Users Posts: 11,047 ✭✭✭✭Say my name


    Now China leads the way (in agriculture).

    You've got to hand it to them. Rest of the world talks about the theories.

    China Does it.
    Are ye getting the scale of this??

    https://twitter.com/AgriChar_RG/status/1041657154279800832?s=20


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    #39
    Say my name
    Registered Users Posts: 11,047 ✭✭✭✭Say my name


    Paper comparing poultry litter and poultry litter biochar with npk fertilizers spread on perennial grassland over 3 years.
    Nutrient density of each and crop yield figures are presented as well as urease (soil life) figures.

    http://www.academia.edu/37418569/Effect_of_coapplication_of_poultry_litter_biochar_and_mineral_fertilisers_on_soil_quality_and_crop_yield


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    #40
    148multi
    Registered Users Posts: 1,412 ✭✭✭148multi


    Are there any home heating stoves out there that produce biochar.


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    #41
    Say my name
    Registered Users Posts: 11,047 ✭✭✭✭Say my name


    148multi wrote: »
    Are there any home heating stoves out there that produce biochar.

    Apologies I just only spotted your post now. :o
    Definitely one for the floor to answer.


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    #42
    Say my name
    Registered Users Posts: 11,047 ✭✭✭✭Say my name


    The Chinese carbon capture farming revolution continues at pace..

    https://medium.com/@albertbates/somewhere-a-tiger-yawns-8110dfe0830a


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    #43
    Say my name
    Registered Users Posts: 11,047 ✭✭✭✭Say my name


    Tasmanian farmer and Biochar maker Frank Strie went on a tour to witness developments in the Kaindorf EcoRegion in Austria as part of the Biochar initiative study tour in June.

    Interview here after the 19 minute mark on ABC's Tasmanian Country hour.
    http://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/tas-country-hour/tas-country-hour/10283658


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    #44
    Say my name
    Registered Users Posts: 11,047 ✭✭✭✭Say my name


    God knows I keep harping on about Biochar here and the mods have been very generous to allow so.
    But it's only because it's the only technology out there that can actively take carbon from the atmosphere and take it out of the whole natural cycle. The benefits being from a planet's point of view is pretty obvious. A humans point of view living on the planet is obvious too. A farmers point of view is the most promising (If you're a farmer).
    The farmer takes that carbon from the atmosphere (well a plant does) he/she pyrolyses that plant and makes it into a stable carbon resistant to rotting/degradation. The rest of society pays that farmer for taking carbon out of the atmosphere permanently/a long term.
    And then that farmer can use that carbon as a fertilizer to boost their soils fertility cutting back on buying other fertilizer and burning more carbon from fossil fuels.

    Is this a pipe dream?
    Does the Irish government care about climate change or is it a way of just collecting cash for men/women in suits to talk about climate change?

    A few posts above I showed how China is leading the way on a national scale. They take it seriously. But then they're leaders in agriculture on the world stage and clearly see the benefits for the farmer on the ground as well as meeting their climate change targets.

    Anyway apologies (well not really) for the essay.

    YouTube clip from a United Nations climate change meeting in Peru two years ago. I wonder were the Irish government there?
    Biochar gets a good mention and explanation at the 23 minute mark.
    It also mentions wavy jet streams affecting our weather and the causes which funnily enough or maybe not we've had since this meeting.

    https://youtu.be/QQkNxuQ0DoI


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    #45
    tabby aspreme
    Registered Users Posts: 3,850 ✭✭✭tabby aspreme


    At what rate per acre is biochar applied ?


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    #46
    Say my name
    Registered Users Posts: 11,047 ✭✭✭✭Say my name


    tabby aspreme wrote: »
    At what rate per acre is biochar applied ?

    This is where it's sketchy.

    A lot depends on the raw material type before it's "cooked in the oven".

    I've read trials done where they recommended 20t per acre down to incorporating with a conventional fertilizer into a granular form like your bag fertilizer and sowing it down the chute with the seed of a crop and just miniscule amounts used.

    Then you've other trials where they incorporate with animal feed and usually the rate is 1% of that animals daily diet.
    The animals come along and spread the Biochar in their droppings on the fields or farmer spreads the slurry/dung from the tanks themselves. The big plus in that is a supposedly improvement in animal health , reduction in methane and reduction in nitrogeous oxide emissions by that animal.

    There's no hard and fast answer to the question really.
    In potted plants a 5% biochar inclusion in the soil seems best.


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    #47
    Say my name
    Registered Users Posts: 11,047 ✭✭✭✭Say my name


    More on the Chinese developments.

    Fertile soil, Clean water, Carbon fertiliser.

    https://youtu.be/weoAHroLyjQ


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    #48
    TooOldBoots
    Closed Accounts Posts: 604 ✭✭✭TooOldBoots


    Go peddle your snake oil elsewhere


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    #49
    Say my name
    Registered Users Posts: 11,047 ✭✭✭✭Say my name


    TooOldBoots wrote: »
    Go peddle your snake oil elsewhere

    Seriously?

    Ok then Mr Boots.

    Any better alternatives to climate mitigation, soil improvement and water quality?


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    #50
    TooOldBoots
    Closed Accounts Posts: 604 ✭✭✭TooOldBoots


    I don't think you are impartial as you obviously have an agenda in promoting this.


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    #51
    DaDerv
    Registered Users Posts: 253 ✭✭DaDerv


    I admire your dedication to the cause, but to be perfectly honest these posts are just annoying at this stage. Nobody is engaging. Let it die.


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    #52
    Say my name
    Registered Users Posts: 11,047 ✭✭✭✭Say my name


    TooOldBoots wrote: »
    I don't think you are impartial as you obviously have an agenda in promoting this.

    No agenda.
    I just see the future away from multinational industrial ag companies and back into the hands of farmers themselves.
    It's the only credible solution to alleviating climate change and taking carbon permanently out of the atmosphere and putting it to good use in making soils permanently fertile (terra preta).

    But the opposition will be immense to any change in the status quo.

    Plus there's absolutely nobody else talking about it.
    Just excited about the whole thing is all.

    How could a normal full blooded farmer not be??


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    #53
    Say my name
    Registered Users Posts: 11,047 ✭✭✭✭Say my name


    DaDerv wrote: »
    I admire your dedication to the cause, but to be perfectly honest these posts are just annoying at this stage. Nobody is engaging. Let it die.

    Well I've got a few contacts by pm.

    But I can let it die if ye want.
    I'm not really bothered. I just thought people might be as interested as I am.

    I'll finish it up then.


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    #54
    tabby aspreme
    Registered Users Posts: 3,850 ✭✭✭tabby aspreme


    Don't let it die yet. How much timber would you need to burn to get 1 tonne of biochar, unless you could use the heat generated from the burn, would the whole exercise not be very wasteful.


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    #55
    Say my name
    Registered Users Posts: 11,047 ✭✭✭✭Say my name


    tabby aspreme wrote: »
    Don't let it die yet. How much timber would you need to burn to get 1 tonne of biochar, unless you could use the heat generated from the burn, would the whole exercise not be very wasteful.

    I'm being truthful in this.
    But there's posters contacting me by private message that have and are producing biochar that would be more qualified to answer that question.
    Hopefully they'll respond here on the open forum?


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    #56
    148multi
    Registered Users Posts: 1,412 ✭✭✭148multi


    TooOldBoots wrote: »
    Go peddle your snake oil elsewhere

    Why if it is snake oil, are the department of agriculture and university of limerick using considerable resources researching biochar. To quote one senior lecturer and researcher at UL(the use of biochar in tropical soils is now regarded as an effective alternative to conventional fertilisers). Which are a finate resource.


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    #57
    tabby aspreme
    Registered Users Posts: 3,850 ✭✭✭tabby aspreme


    Say my name wrote: »
    I'm being truthful in this.
    But there's posters contacting me by private message that have and are producing biochar that would be more qualified to answer that question.
    Hopefully they'll respond here on the open forum?

    I'm not knocking the idea of biochar, I have a lot of branches and light stems to burn, and would like to make good use of them


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    #58
    148multi
    Registered Users Posts: 1,412 ✭✭✭148multi


    tabby aspreme wrote: »
    Don't let it die yet. How much timber would you need to burn to get 1 tonne of biochar, unless you could use the heat generated from the burn, would the whole exercise not be very wasteful.

    Well there approximately 200kg of carbon in a tonne of wood, depending on type of wood and moisture content, now if you could use turf, there is 3.7 tonnes of carbon in a tonne of dry turf. Apparently BNM are researching how to use peat to produce biochar. The way biochar is produced has a major impact on how it effects the soil.


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    #59
    ganmo
    Registered Users Posts: 7,748 ✭✭✭ganmo


    DaDerv wrote: »
    I admire your dedication to the cause, but to be perfectly honest these posts are just annoying at this stage. Nobody is engaging. Let it die.

    you know you don't have to read every post


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    #60
    yosemitesam1
    Registered Users Posts: 2,927 ✭✭✭yosemitesam1


    148multi wrote: »
    Well there approximately 200kg of carbon in a tonne of wood, depending on type of wood and moisture content, now if you could use turf, there is 3.7 tonnes of carbon in a tonne of dry turf. Apparently BNM are researching how to use peat to produce biochar. The way biochar is produced has a major impact on how it effects the soil.

    How could something that weighs a tonne have 3.7t in it? Are you talking co2 when burned?


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    #61
    yosemitesam1
    Registered Users Posts: 2,927 ✭✭✭yosemitesam1


    148multi wrote: »
    Why if it is snake oil, are the department of agriculture and university of limerick using considerable resources researching biochar. To quote one senior lecturer and researcher at UL(the use of biochar in tropical soils is now regarded as an effective alternative to conventional fertilisers). Which are a finate resource.

    Looking for an easy way out


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