Tuesday, 24 September 2013
Understanding the Magic of Compost Teas and Compost Extracts
When I was first introduced to compost teas and compost extracts I was totally confused as to how they could possibly work. The concept didn't seem to make sense quantitatively but using these liquids provided amazing plant growth results. Questions to people who were supposed to know didn't help. My concern was how is it possible for a liquid solution to provide the plants with the nutrients needed for their growth and production when it is derived from such a small amount of compost. It was not until I came across the work of Dr. Elaine Ingham that I found the answers that made sense.
Dr. Inghams's work primarily involves studies of the living biology in the soil. Her studies also involve the living biology than can be extracted from the compost into a liquid. The studies are backed by microscope analyses of the living organisms in the liquid extracts. It is these living organisms that matter most but because we can't readily see them we don't understand much about them. We understand the interaction of living forms that we can see. We understand how plants and animals form a balanced ecology and how important it is to maintain that balance. We don't easily realize that a complex ecology exists in the soil and water that is as complex and fragile as the one we can see.
Dr. Ingham's work revealed that most soils have adequate nutrients but lack the necessary diverse micro organisms to extract the nutrients for plant use because farming practices such as excessive tillage, compaction, use of inorganic fertilizers and chemical pesticides have damaged or destroyed the biology of the soil. The key word in the previous sentence isdiverse. In order for the organisms in the total biological population of the soil to extract the nutrients from the soil and convert them into a form that the plants can use there must be diversity among the microbial life. Just as in our own above ground environment we see different plants and animals do different things. That is how our environmental resources are optimized. For example, animals eat the plants and convert the plant cells into protein and humans eat the animals to get the benefit of the protein. The same scenario exists in the microbial environment. One type of microbe will eat another and convert the cells to another form needed by another microbe or by a plant. If a necessary microbe type is missing the process is damaged.
So how does this answer the question of how a liquid solution can provide the plants with the nutrients needed for their growth and production when it is derived from such a small amount of compost? The answer is that the liquid is not supplying all of the nutrients. It is supplying the biological life that will extract the nutrients that are already there in the soil as well as the nutrients supplied in the liquid. The nutrients and the biological life is extracted from the compost and exist in the liquid. The nutrients provided in the liquid is small compared to the nutrients already available in the soil.
A quality organic fertilizer will add additional nutrients but must also add the necessary diverse biology to make those nutrients available to the plants. The biology is amazingly complex and fragile. The bacteria and fungi do their work and then protozoa, nematodes and micro arthropods take the process a step further. If this biology has been destroyed by use of chemicals or by adverse farming practices the nutrients will remain in an unusable state. A properly prepared liquid extract of that quality fertilizer can restore that biology and produce amazing results in the plants growing in that soil.
The author farms soybeans, cotton, wheat, corn and rice. He is the owner of Fishcat Farm, producer of catfish and Fishnure(TM) composted fish manure organic fertilizer.
Sunday, 22 September 2013
Cattle Branding UAV Device Needed
The other day, I was talking to an acquaintance whose father had a cattle ranch many decades ago. She explained that during "branding" time, you learned just how smart those so-called dumb cattle really are. You see, she told me that after you branded a few, the other cattle would start to avoid the branding area as they heard the sounds, and watched the treatment of other members of the herd.
By the time they got down to the last 2-3 they were practically Einstein's, they knew exactly what was going on, and they wanted absolutely no part of it. In fact, one ranch hand had stated, that it would be better to just shoot the last three considering how much trouble they gave them, stating how dangerous it was to try to complete the job.
Well, why not try a different approach and stay safe from an out of control animal that wants to save its hide from being branded? Okay so, I've got an idea here, a new concept that I'd like to run by you. Why not, simply change up the way you do business.
Why not get miniature, very quiet UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) to go to those persnickety last few cattle and follow them around and then brand them when they were not expecting it? Or on another note, why not just "chip" the cattle and forget the branding methods of days gone by, that's way old technology anyway. It might make PETA happy, but more importantly it makes everyone's job a little easier.
Even better why not use an MAV (micro air vehicle), small version of a UAV to go chip the animals as they sleep at night. You could have the entire herd half-chipped in a single night, follow up the next day. You'd know which cattle were not chipped because they wouldn't register on your herd counting device, thus, they get chipped next, simple strategy, and a better way to keep track of cattle, or sheople - whoops, pretend I didn't add that last part for the NSA.
In the US we are so very concerned with food safety, meat products and FDA standards for beef. If we had more data, on each cow from cradle to grave, we'd certainly have better guarantees in human food chains, thus protecting the value of our exports, the health of our citizenry, and improving the niceness in the way that we treat our animals, and I bet PETA would definitely agree on that last point. Please consider all this and think on it.
Lance Winslow has launched a new provocative series of eBooks on Future Concepts. Lance Winslow is a retired Founder of a Nationwide Franchise Chain, and now runs the Online Think Tank; http://www.worldthinktank.net
The History Of Farming Implements
Farming and agricultural equipment have radically evolved since man began to harvest crops. The process of cultivating the land stems back over many millennia and is still as important now as it has ever been. With each huge advance in technology, the techniques used to create more efficient farming implements has increased. The landscape may still be much the same as it was in the early days, but the methods of working that land are now unimaginably different.
From scythes to horse driven ploughs, right up to the sleek combines of today, which replaced unreliable threshing machines; the climate of farming is now run by motors. After all, the most important aspect of farming is time - and to get the most land worked in as little time as possible is the key to success.
Arguably, the climax of the industrial revolution in the mid 19th Century saw the largest growth in evolution of agricultural implements. It was a time of mass conversion from old methods to new and people yearned for an easier way of doing things. With the advent of the engine, factories could mass produce inventions and there followed many races to patent the best machine possible.
Before the industrial revolution, the farming community used much the same equipment that had been seen on the land for many hundreds of years prior. The advent of mass industry changed all that, as did the idea of faster worldwide commerce and trading. The world became a smaller place and money fuelled the production of new, exciting products.
Implements such as the corn picker, grain lift and cotton harvester greatly inspired similar types of machinery. These made farming quicker by carrying out multiple jobs at once. This, in turn, increased profits for the farmers and became incredibly popular devices. The cutting of hay and creation of bales was always labour intensive and took many hours to complete. The invention of new cutting machines led to many improvements and the process was soon made significantly easier. The baler became wide spread during the mid 19th century and soon farming was becoming more and more mechanised.
The last great revolution came in the early 20th century, with the birth of the car and the world wars pushing technological boundaries ever further. Agriculture needed to be made faster and on a larger scale than ever before. With the introduction of plough-led tractors the time of the ox and horse on the fields became increasingly rare. Farming implements have gone through much change over the last three hundred years, as industry took over the world. Who knows when the next great revolution will push it even further away from the early predecessors?
Friday, 20 September 2013
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