Exhaust emissions fertiliser

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duane
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Joined: Fri Apr 20, 2007 1:44 pm
Location: Central Coast, NSW
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Re: Exhaust emissions fertiliser

Post by duane » Sun Dec 12, 2010 7:48 pm

Hi Jodi

Great news on the nsf funding application !!

Was that the application in the Open Call for C40C last round. Was it for your place or Mollerin?? And....

Did you make application as the Avon NSA Inc Chapter??

Ian James
Posts: 253
Joined: Sun Jul 01, 2007 12:31 am
Location: Avon West Australia

Re: Exhaust emissions fertiliser

Post by Ian James » Mon Dec 13, 2010 12:44 am

Hi Duane, yes it is great news that we have been successful in getting funding.

The project will be situated on my farm in Cunderdin.

The grant is for controlling wind erosion. It is sourced through our local NRM "Natural Resource Management" organization.
We have been granted. $25 000 and we are required to put forward $25 000 in kind.

The plan is to use NSF principles to construct a showcase trial site to demonstrate a typical NSF strategy that can be used to combat a range of degradation issues on a large whole paddock sized project.

The main feature of the project is a large number of planted trees and shrubs planted in simple but strategically important formations to intercept and control subsoil water translocations high on a hillside.

Secondary but equally important is the establishment of an area of perennial/annual pasture shrubs and grasses and legumes on the hillside below the trees benifitting from high fertility/ low salinity, stable level, water lens moisture permeating down the hillside through the reforested area and into the perennial/ annual pastures and legumes.

Thirdly in the lowest and largest, tertiary tier of the hillside/vally is the high production annual grass and legume rotation cropping area which is to be cropped using zero fertilizer/chemical and full organic retention systems of farming to enable maximum biological health and fertility and maximum sustanability and preservation of topsoil humus.

These are strategies suggested to me by Peter in conversations with me and in passages in his books which I have selected for their inclusion in this trial/demonstration for their practicality and compatability with the type of farming typically carried out in this area and for their suitability for achieving the primary goals of stabilizing a degraded landscape and improving long term health and fertility of the area and finally preserving and compounding the improvements for future profitability and increased productivity of the entire demonstration site.

Finally and most valuably of all is the allocation of funds to have Dr Martin Stapper visit, analyze, construct and deliver a three day wholistic sustainable farming management course using the principals, methods and theories showcased on the site to enable participating farmers to understand, make sense of and implement similar NSF sustainable methods and strategies on their own properties throughout the Western Australian Centeral Wheatbelt.

We will be encouraging participating farmers to return home and form local sub groups with their neighbors to work together and pool resouces and apply for available funding to create further demonstrations and trials on their own properties on a similar scale to begin a reformation of agriculture based on reparation of degradation and restoration of sustainability throughout the landscape site by site, paddock by paddock in a spreading viral growth pattern of demonstration, education and participation.

Jodi James
Posts: 23
Joined: Sun Aug 19, 2007 1:36 pm
Location: Avon West Australia

Re: Exhaust emissions fertiliser

Post by Jodi James » Thu Mar 10, 2011 2:06 pm

Hi all,

Well after the worst drought on record, I am happy to say that we will be putting another crop in, thanks to our Emissions system! Ian and I have had so much feedback from our story, by the way, Won the award for the best farm machinery article story for rural press, Australia and New Zealand. Wow....showed a lot of interest I might add.

what we have noticed in our soils is this massive root system underground between the rows of crop, which is masses of organic matter....so yes with the help of seed dressings, lowering chemical rates and and using emissions our soil has become more friable.

So what I am trying to say is, our land is much better off not using fertiliser!

It's an exciting journey, and Ian and I are utilizing a compost extraction unit this year to feed our biology and utilizOing worm leachate and humates.

With many farmers looking and visiting us wanting to know about out low cost farming methods, we are happy to say that there are a lot of farmers thinking outside the square. we need to be price makers not price takers....It's all about how much you want to expose your livelihood to risk. Our farming business is evolving into a low cost enterprise, which I can see paying off in years to come.

we may not be chasing massive yields but we are looking at dollars per hectare after costs....and with low imputs we are finding we don't need to push our land to cover costs to make a reasonable living.
Our grain is a much better quality too....It's all very exciting stuff....

let's hope for a good 2011 so farmers can have a bit less stress on the home front!
Open mindedness opens wisdom

Ian James
Posts: 253
Joined: Sun Jul 01, 2007 12:31 am
Location: Avon West Australia

Re: Exhaust emissions fertiliser

Post by Ian James » Mon Apr 18, 2011 3:15 am

Tractorgas Fertiliser Factory.
What is it and why does it work?
By Ian James, Farmer, Cunderdin.

The Tractorgas fertiliser factory is a simple piece of machinery which when utilised with a working diesel engine in agricultural situations is able to capture, cool and condense diesel engine exhaust emissions into a nutrient rich, moist carbonic acid vapour and through the use of commonly used agricultural seeding equipment can deliver this waste atmospheric pollutant deep into the soil where it has an incredible stimulating effect on soil biology, triggering a rapid and lasting beneficial effect on soil health and nutrition transferring directly to strong and pest free crop growth.

It is common knowledge that many fertilisers are a by-product of petroleum and gas refineries. During the process of oil and gas refinery certain elements are produced as waste and must be captured and removed from the chemical reactions. These elements can be refined further to produce products which are in demand. Modern agriculture has developed a strong demand for these products for use as fertilisers to increase crop yields.
During the process of creating these agricultural fertilisers raw fuel products are subjected to conditions of extreme pressure and heat and subsequent cooling during which molecules are broken down into their component elements which through chemical processes can be separated, collected and reconstituted as fertiliser.

The conditions within the combustion chamber of any diesel engine very closely replicate those within fuel refineries and fertiliser factories. Fuel and air compress and explode creating extreme pressure and heat, nitrogen, oxygen and carbon atoms are freed of their molecular bonds and as pressure is released and cooling begins are attracted to one another to rapidly reform into new molecular structures as in fertiliser factories.

Scientists do not dispute that exhaust emissions are rich in nutrients but it is well accepted among agricultural scientists that the amount of fertiliser produced in the common heavy duty diesel engine when applied per hectare during seeding is only a fraction of the amount generally accepted as being necessary to achieve profitable crop yields.

There is also a growing realisation among agronomists worldwide that the currently accepted practise of applying the heavy rates of high concentration chemical fertilisers required to produce currently profitable yield targets are releasing stored soil carbon, dismantling soil structures and decimating soil biology at an alarming and unsustainable rate. There is also a grass roots realisation among farmers worldwide that by reducing fertilisers dramatically and concentrating on promoting biological soil health by inoculating with beneficial soil biology target yields can be maintained while increasing organic soil carbon and remnant nutrient availability so much so that only a fraction of the amount of fertiliser traditionally applied is required to produce target yields.

Currently accepted best practice farming methods of no till, high rate, high concentration chemical fertiliser and chemical herbicide application (Conventional Methods) are having another unintended and little understood detrimental effect on soil health and plant nutrition. Most farmers are familiar of the effect of nitrogen drawdown caused by high organic matter bacterial decomposition within the soil. What is less understood by farmers and agronomists alike is that fungus can and should also play a significant role in decomposition of organic matter and that unlike bacteria, fungal decomposition does not result in the loss of any soil nitrogen at all, in fact almost all the nitrogen mineralised by fungi during the decomposition process is stored within the fungal organic structure and can be made available in crop to the grass host crop. Instead of promoting the vital soil root fungus conventional fertiliser applications strongly promote bacterial population growth within the soil, outperforming slower growing fungus and out competing for resources at the expense of fungus and suppressing the establishment of healthy fungal populations.

In a healthy soil it is accepted that 50% of decomposition should result from bacterial activity and 50% from fungal activity. This reduces nitrogen draw down and allows for slow release of stored fungal nitrogen to the host crop right through the growing season.

By utilising the Tractorgas Fertiliser Factory in conjunction with a program of biological inoculation it is possible to apply low rates of fertiliser at nano particle size at extremely low concentration but at massive coverage not possible with granular or liquid application methods and at minimal cost. By combining this method of nutrient application, coating soil particles and seed with a nutrient rich moisture vapour with a mycorrhizal fungi seed treatment we can avoid overstimulating the bacterial population and we can assist in the establishment of a strong and active soil fungi.

Mycorrhiza, (root fungi) have a symbiotic relationship with their grass plant hosts. Since the fungi live in the soil they have no capacity for photosynthesis which is the process that plants use to capture energy from light which is stored within the plant as sugar or carbohydrates, therefore fungus is energy poor. Mycorrhiza do have an amazing ability through enzymes they produce which have the capacity to unlock nutrients such as phosphate from molecular bonds formed through soil chemistry with other elements such as iron. As such we have the energy poor but nutrient rich fungus forming a mateship with the energy/sugar rich but nutrient poor grass host. The knowledge of this process is something that has unfortunately been neglected in the education of farmers during the green revolution created by fertilisers and their sales persons of the last century.

This is only the basic of the symbiotic benefits gained by both organisms from this relationship. Plants in their efforts to attract and promote healthy soil root fungi deliberately leak sugars and other stimulants from their roots. These sugars or carbohydrates are carbon rich and can rapidly increase the organic carbon content of the soils they grow in. This carbon acts as a major soil improver, reducing non wetting, increasing amelioration and nutrient retention. Apart from the benefits to both, plant,soil and fungi from this relationship is the sequestration of massive quantities or carbon from the atmosphere. It has been shown that soil carbon can be increased rapidly and that the soil is the largest potential carbon sink of the global environment.

For more information call Ian on 0429303131

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