Ministers tour Milgadara model farm site
Rhonda and Bill Daly, of YLAD Living Soils, briefed the Shadow Minister for Climate Action, Environment and Heritage, Greg Hunt, and the Federal Member for Hume, Alby Schultz, on humus technology when the ministers visited YLAD’S Milgadara model farm late last year.
Rhonda says the Milgadara model farm successfully shows how a productive agricultural farm can be sustainable and work in conjunction with the environment.
“Our aim was to explain and show the ministers how humus technology is the future,” said Rhonda Daly.
“Humus technology decreases waste, creates healthier soils which in turn decrease the use of synthetic chemicals and fertilizers, as well as decreasing water usage,” she said.
“I am pleased with the outcome from our meeting as both ministers now appreciate the importance of soil management for future generations.
“They also now have a better understanding on how carbon sequestration through Humus Technology® can change the face of the Environment and agriculture.”
Rhonda said both ministers were also impressed with the YLAD compost site’s innovative practice of converting waste into humus compost using an advanced composting system and tea extraction. “YLAD Living Soils have revolutionised the agricultural sector by using Humus Technology® to improve soil health and fertility, increasing microbial diversity and soil carbon, as well as decreasing chemical use.” Rhonda said
Bill and Rhonda Daly recognise the escalating issues of global warming, rising greenhouse gas emissions, peak oil, peak phosphorus, water availability, declining land available for food production and food security and welcome the opportunity to showcase the role a healthy living soil plays in alleviating these environmental issues.
They say that the newly introduced Carbon Farming Initiative will benefit farmers who increase soil organic carbon by using proven methodologies. “This is a new opportunity for farmers as organic carbon, particularly humus, is central to successful soil health, underpinning the future of agriculture in Australia and illustrating to governments that agricultural soils have an enormous role to play in reducing green house gas emissions and the production of healthy food worldwide,” said Rhonda.
Liquid injection no-till
system
“THERE are a growing number of innovative farmers throughout Australia integrating microbial liquid injection into their cropping regime,” said Rhonda Daly, of YLAD Living Soils.
She said the biological aspects of a broadacre soil in relation to fertility and crop production have traditionally received little attention, even though they are obviously a vital component of soil health and the economics of cereal crop production.
Rhonda says the three main drawbacks of conventional fertilisation are nutrient tie-up, nutrient leaching and nutrient evaporation, costing the farmer thousands of dollars in fertilisers that are not being utilized by the plant, as well as contributing to greenhouse gas emissions.
Compost tea extraction
Compost Tea Extraction is a process performed by the Aeromaster TE 500 Extraction Unit, extracting the valuable microbial and non-microbial contents from high quality humus compost and placing it into a water suspension, containing diverse microbes, enzymes, and organic matter.
Bio TX 500 is an extracted compost tea that is applied as liquid injection at sowing.
This practice injects living organisms around the seed, having a profound effect on fertility factors such as nutrient cycling, phosphorus and zinc availability, nitrogen fixation, tilth, hormonal and enzymatic influences and disease prevention.
Rhonda said a three year trial was run by Dr Maarten Stapper from 2007 to 2009 at Knowldale,young, NSW using Bio TX 500 as a microbial liquid inject with the goal of developing a fertilising strategy to deliver growers a greater dollar return per hectare via the adoption of biological principles; increasing yield, quality, crop water efficiency and soil fertility.
“Applied at the rate of 100 litres p/ ha and costing $24/ha this is a cost effective option to either use alone, or combined with granular down-thetube fertilisers,” said she said.
“In wheat sown in 2007 the gross margin return was $720/ha for BIOTX 500 compared to $747/ha for the control using 100kg MAP.
“In 2008 the BIOTX 500 treatment (lupins) returned the highest gross margin of $501/ha compared to $478/ha on the control using 80kg/ha MAP.
“In 2009 the trial was sown with Lincoln wheat and the BIOTX 500 treatment showed less moisture stress and good yield potential. Leaf tissue tests revealed similar nutrient levels compared to the control of 80kg MAP despite no application of granular fertiliser for the previous three years.”
Rhonda says Bio TX 500 delivers only small amounts of nutrients (0.3 kg N, 0.25 kg P) however the real benefit comes from the diverse suite of microbiology, humic and fulvic substances, enzymes and plant hormones.
“Humic and fulvic substances contained in the BIOTX 500 enhance plant growth directly through physiological and nutritional effects.
“Some of these substances function as natural plant hormones (auxins and gibberellins) and are capable of improving seed germination, root initiation, uptake of plant nutrients and can serve as sources of N, P and S.”
Bill Daly of YLAD said the Aeromaster TE 500 extraction unit gave him the ability to extract compost tea in large quantities for use on his 800 hectare broadacre operation, extracting with ease, 2,000 litres in 30 minutes. This, he says, can be stored for up to two to three weeks prior to activation and use.
“The three year trial showed that farmers can reduce nitrogen and phosphorus inputs and fix free atmospheric nitrogen and solubolise ‘locked-up’ phosphorus when using microbial liquid injection,” said Rhonda.
“The adoption of a liquid injection no-till system gives great hope to farmers to retreat from the roundabout of ever-increasing costs of high analysis products, and return to a healthier more natural farming system, utilising our greatest asset, a living breathing soil.”