By adding biology to the soils you get:
--------
A meta study 'Global meta-analysis of the relationship between soil organic matter and crop yields' suggests that 1% increase in SOM increases potential yields by 10% for maize and 23% for wheat
Soil organic matter and crop yields--------
Endophytic fungi can handle large amounts of heat. Can be found in molasses even after all that cooking. AMF are destroyed by hot composting, it's better to try to stay below 50C.
--------
Seed treatment seems to work best for getting the microbial life into the soil. Mark Turpin demoed how easy it was. He made a pancake like mix with water, added the seed and stirred it in a bucket. Obviously larger amounts would go into a cement mixer and even larger amounts the extract can be applied via the auger while filling the seed hopper.
--------
@14:00 there is a graph suggesting low temperature biochar only lasts 400yrs. I have a problem with that. Are you telling me the Tera prata soils were made with a very high temperature or is this graph wrong?
Biochar presentation Is this graph wrong?--------
MSc student Philip Rekret and Maherali obtained Lobelia seeds from two distinct plant populations located about 1 kilometre apart, and planted them in the greenhouse at the University of Guelph in what is known as a ‘reciprocal transplant experiment’. What this means is that seeds from both locations were grown with AM fungi collected from either their ‘home’ or ‘away’ location, in soils containing either high or low levels of phosphorus. To serve as a control, some seeds from each location were also planted without any fungi.
The results were astonishing.
When phosphorus levels were high, Lobelia plants from both populations grew the same amount, regardless of whether any fungi were present. But, when phosphorus levels were low, the presence of fungi – from either location – increased growth by nearly two-fold. Most importantly however, growth was greatest when the plants were grown with AM fungi from their ‘home’ location.
AM fungi, Phosphorus and Lobelia plants--------
Clay – As the clay content of soil increases, it increases the potential organic carbon storage of the soil. The aim is to increase the clay content in the surface soil to at least 5 %—applications of 100–300 t/ha will be needed. Because the clay physically protects organic material from microbial breakdown, claying water repellent sands has the potential to increase organic carbon storage through increased biomass production and increased organic material content.
Clay content increases the potential organic carbon storage--------
The potential storage of SOC in soil depends on the soil type (figure 2). Clay particles and aggregates can reduce losses of OC by physically protecting organic matter from decomposition. Particles of organic matter can become adsorbed to clay surfaces, coated with clay particles or buried inside small pores or aggregates. All of these processes make it difficult for microorganisms to come in contact with organic matter. Therefore, the amount of OC stored in soil tends to increase with increasing clay content (figure 3). In contrast, in sand soil microorganisms are able to more easily access OC. This causes greater loss of OC by decomposition.
Suspect image showing really low potential for carbon storage. Biol_-_How_much_Carbon_(Fig_3).PNG
Potential storage of SOC in soil depends on the soil type--------
Around 10t /Ha of biochar seems to have the best effect on seed germination and seedling growth
Biochar for seed germination and seedling growth--------
Although fungi can break down many chemicals, fungicides reduce AM colonisation of crops. AM fungi are completely dependent on plants for sugars and thus cannot grow unless they can colonise plant roots. Between crops they survive in the soil as spores (figure 3), fine threads (hyphae) in soil and inside dead root fragments, which act as infective units when new plants grow. The infective units survive well in soil that is dry, even at fairly high Australian temperatures but also in cold Canadian soils. When the soil is rewetted, as at the break of season, the infective units germinate and search for new plant roots to colonise and obtain sugars.
Rotational crops and pastures which form AM symbioses will maintain soil infectivity (Seymour 2009).
AM fungi survive in the soil as spores hyphae and inside dead root fragments--------
Soil CarbonIt is possible to increase OC to at least 25%. In the 8point9.com study quoted from the SOC content in the fine fraction was highly variable, ranging from 9 to 260 g / kg
That's SOC of over 25% in the highest sample. It doesn't mean that is the highest you can get, just the highest sample they found from a German farm. They took 3104 samples and selected 189 to test further.
There appears to be no upper limit on SOC. What happens is the soil continues to get deeper. In 8 years Gabe Brown has 'made' more than 70cm of dark carbon rich soil.
There appears to be no upper limit on SOC There appears to be no upper limit on SOC (actual paper) Regeneration Blog--------
The presence of AMF in soil can result in reduced germination, decreased growth and development, and smaller roots. Many agricultural weeds belong to families that are predominantly non-hosts for AMF (Amaranthaceae, Brassicaceae, Caryophyllaceae, Chenopodiaceae, Cyperaceae, and Polygonaceae). Even in hosts biomass can be reduced when certain species are in the soil see fig4
AMF in soil can result in reduced germination--------
Allen Williams is a 6th generation family farmer and founding partner of Grass Fed Insights, LLC, Understanding Ag, LLC and the Soil Health Academy. 1 cow set grazing on 10ac does more damage to biodiversity than 1000 cows grazing that paddock only one day = 20sqm per cow per day or 200sqm for 10 cows and 2000sqm for 100 cows so extrapolating that you might get 100 cows on 36Ha with each area getting 2 grazings per year. By leasing geofencing collars (I saw a suggested annual price of $35 each), minimal internal fencing would be required. Sure $3500 a year is not ideal, think what it would cost to create all those fences for 2000sq/m paddocks or the effort in building and removing electric fencing.
1 cow set grazing on 10ac does damage--------
1000000lbs per acre stocking = 1118tonnes per Ha for a few hrs. Cows are about 600kg. So ballpark 750 cows per Ha or maybe 13sqm per cow. Alter everything, don't follow a pattern. Alter density, rotation order, grazing heights, rest periods, stocking species, grazing direction (long narrow is best for trampling)
Rotational Grazing--------