Mike Barton on N-capping

The following link has a 40min presentation from Mike Barton that is recommended viewing if you are interested in how nutrient capping may affect future agriculture activities in NZ. http://beeflambnz.com/news-events/News/2013/july/farming-with-nutrient-limits/ An important biochar related take from this presentation is how … Continue reading

NZSSS Conference opportunity

The NZ Society of Soil Science has advised that they would be interested in receiving participation from the biochar community in their next annual conference. Details here: http://www.nzsssconference.co.nz/ “The conference welcomes participants with all soil-related interests.  If there are a sufficient number of … Continue reading

Biochar as feed supplement

Opinion: Where is agriculture’s place in a low-carbon economy? One important focus area for biochar in NZ is water quality butting up against intensive dairy. Maybe this could be addressed in the future with more research on riparian margin biochar … Continue reading

Biochar producers page

We have been getting inquiries for biochar – mainly from gardeners wanting to experiment. As interest grows, demand for larger quantities should follow for commercial application trials. If you are producing biochar in NZ and you are able to share some of your production with gardeners or researchers, then please get in touch.

As the market for biochar matures, we should develop some principles and guidelines for sustainable and safe biochar production, post-treatment and application. The easiest path for now may be to follow IBI, European or other international production / testing guidelines.

We are developing a list of NZ biochar producers who may be able to provide biochar or biochar based products from direct inquires. The producers page will provide contact details and product information.

WRC Technical Support Group RFP

An opportunity here for to get biochar understanding into an expert panel.  This Waikato river quality program should be well funded and should include support for biochar nutrient management research. My June posts are probably connected with this new initiative… … Continue reading