David Yarrow at USBI 2016

Those of us who were able to attend USBI 2016 last month were very impressed with the workshop by David Yarrow (See http://www.dyarrow.org/). David's 2-hour workshop was an epic journey "down the wormhole" of biochar. Wish you could have been there. However, the next best thing might be this article from the August 2016 issue of Acres Magazine:

Down the Wormhole: Customizing Biological Methods for Large-Scale Farming. By David Yarrow

UBET Presentations from USBI 2016

Here is a pdf file of the presentation that Don Morrison gave at USBI 2016 on the Drew Veg Biochar project that will use simple kilns to make biochar in the forest:

Download File

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Here is a pdf file of the presentation that Kelpie Wilson gave at USBI 2016 on the UBET Conservation Innovation Grant project:

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Here is the pdf file for our Poster, Pot trial to determine application rates of urea with biochar or boiler ash in an acidic pasture soil. By Don Morrison, Kelpie Wilson, Claire Phillips, Kristin Trippe, Viola Manning.

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Bokashi Biochar at Willow Witt

Soils are on the alkaline side at Willow Witt Ranch, so we cultured the biochar we made with bokashi - a lactic acid bacteria fermentation. This reduced the pH of the biochar from about 8 to about 6.  Next stop for this bokashi-biochar after 3 weeks of fermentation will be the floor of the goat barn where it will soak up goat excretions, reducing odors and preventing the loss of valuable nitrogen. Barn sweepings then end up in the big compost pile for eventual application to the veggie garden.

Thank you to Southern Oregon Bokashi for donating bokashi bran for this project!

Barrels of biochar fermenting with bokashi

The recipe 

You can see white fuzz on the top of this fermented biochar - it is a beneficial soil bacteria called actinomycetes

Capital Press Covers UBET!

Here's the link to the story on UBET and our NRCS Conservation Innovation Grant:

UBET members unload one of the biochar kilns made by UCC Welding Department in the display area at the US Biochar Conference in Corvallis, Aug 22-24

http://www.capitalpress.com/Research/20160831/biochar-project-seeks-to-demonstrate-its-application-to-agriculture?utm_source=Capital+Press+Newsletters&utm_campaign=bb4f5bf17f-Daily_Ag_Update&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_4b7e61b049-bb4f5bf17f-69638941

Capital Press covers the Biochar Conference

Great article on the USBI Biochar Conference in the Capital Press:

CORVALLIS, Ore. — Biochar, as multiple speakers said during a four-day conference at Oregon State University Aug. 22-25, has shown potential to improve soil pH, retain moisture, sequester carbon, filter water and clean up polluted mining and industrial sites.

Its application to agriculture is promising, especially in areas afflicted by drought and swaths of dead trees in public forests, said one of the speakers, Raymond Baltar, biochar senior project manager with Sonoma Ecology Center, a non-profit based in Eldridge, Calif.

“This should be a no-brainer, but it’s not,” Baltar said.

READ MORE HERE:
http://www.capitalpress.com/Nation_World/Nation/20160824/speakers-say-unlocking-biochars-potential-will-aid-agriculture

USBI Biochar Conference in Corvallis

Don Morrison, Scott McKain and Kelpie Wilson of UBET attended the 2016 USBI Biochar conference in Corvallis Oregon - The Synergy of Science and Industry: Biochar’s Connection to Ecology, Soil, Food, and Energy, August 22nd - 25th.

It was an overwhelming amount of information, with great people and wonderful networking between industry, academics, farmers and gardeners. We had a UBET table inside the conference and a display space outside for our kilns.

Scott McKain of UBET and Peter Hirst of Integrated Land Stewardship in the UBET display area.

Forage harvest at Duchess Horse Sanctuary

UBET began a field trial last year of biochar at different application rates in 10'x10' plots of pasture at the Duchess Horse Sanctuary near Oakland, Oregon. Thanks again to our late, beloved leader, Jim Long for starting this project back in 2014. We wish Jim could have seen the results from this years growth. We had made another application of biochar in fall of 2015, and the differences were observable this year. Thanks to OSU-ARS researchers Kristin Trippe and Claire Phillips and their students for organizing the harvest and for analyzing the results. We will post their report soon, but here are some pictures from the harvest on June 15. One very noticeable difference: the plots with the most biochar had more fescue and other perennials. The plots with less or no biochar had a lot more weedy stuff.

The plots at Duchess Horse Sanctuary

Mike Burke of UBET and Kristin Trippe of OSU-ARS harvest a square meter from a plot

A group effort to harvest the sample squares

Barbara Long bags the harvest