����Barley Trial 2021

Biologically Complete Compost on Ploughed and Tilled system

By Ib Borup Pedersen

Abstract

• I planned my study to be used as a baseline reference for future implementation of the SFW system in agriculture—using a simple, cheap, and easily manageable way to integrate biology in the fields, with a higher yield as an outcome. I have high hopes that the SFW approach can be the game changer that will obsolete the current chemical approach to farming.
• The biology development in the soil did not meet the SFW School’s recommended range in all groups of biology. However, a clear connection between biology development in the soil, and parameters such as yield, protein harvested and Brix levels in plant sap was seen and can be connected to the F/B ratio in the soil.
• Results:
• Yield + 9.7% or 473 kg higher yield/ha.
• Protein + 5% harvested/ha.
• 8.9% higher Brix values.
• 509% or 0.14 higher F/B ratio (Fungal to Bacteria ratio).
• A positive financial outcome is possible if the application system is set up rationally.
• When the operation is set up in a simple and effective way, even the smaller increases in yield we saw, will bring a positive financial outcome to the farmers using this system.
• The farmers must understand that biology depends on lots of factors that all vary. Anything from a 0 effect to a much higher effect than we saw can be the result of a similar application.

​

Plot / area description and past cropping.

• The arrow points to the the slightly greener square, roughly 20*24 meter that is the 2021 SFW Barley field trials.
• Prior crops in 2017 were Barley + clover, lucerne and grass under sown. In 2018 the crop was grass for silage. In 2019-20 the crops were rapeseed, a cover of weeds, grasses and a bit of clover from the clover grass field that got ploughed in prior to seeding rapeseed in 2019.
• Each parcel is 3x20m. The parcels are laid out in an alternating fashion, untreated, then with the addition of biology. There are 8 parcels in total in the trial. The seeding has been done across the normal travel direction in the field, to annul differences with driveways from the slurry tanker in the past.
• The field has been Organic for 5 years, but as the Danish Organic regulation allow the use of conventional slurry, there has been applied conventional pig slurry every year, last year the field got 45 tons of pig slurry per ha., 3%N. The field has been ploughed, tilled and seeded as follows in the treatments noted.
• The soil is sandy loam. It has 2-3% organic matter, and is on a slight north facing slope.

The plan is to show that Compost extract is able to transform biology in the soil and increase yield in real farming situations.�Focusing on a number of factors to measure the achievements

1. Germination count
2. Analyse biology through the season
3. Yield in kg/ha
4. Brix analyses
5. F/B ratio and level of biology in plots compared
6. Grain analysis after harvest
7. Compaction measurements
8. Water infiltration tests were discarded, after all droplets we applied disappeared in under 1 sec. A different approach needs to be used on tilled sandy loam, perhaps a 10cm pipe knocked down in the soil, and later filling 1 dl water in the tube, and the time for the water to disappear would be a method to use. And only at harvest, when both control and bio plots have settled after tilling, that would show the difference.
9. I did not make a comparison between pest and disease pressure. I expected very few problems, as the crop did not get fertilized, and indeed there was only a very slight mildew attack, only slight fungal disease, and no apparent difference among the plots. It might also correlate with the late development of biology. Had the biology taken off from April, there would have been more to see. I did not apply any compost tea, as the aim is to prove to farmers that they can get their money back from only simple extract treatments. I am very focused on only using extract, as I hope to make a simple rollout of the system. Teas are NOT simple. Too many things could go wrong, especially as farmers have no prior training in making compost teas, which would add to the confusion if I used teas in the trial.

​

All our compost is made with ingredients from the farm, Hay, waste silage, Straw, Feed waste, Woodchip, forest floor - old leaves, a few milled grains, in stacks made on fields, and machine turned. We also use deep litter from cows, and municipal garden waste. I like to keep my hand turned stacks manure free.

​

For this trial a mix from different compost stacks were used.

Making Extract�

I used different methods to make the extract. First, I tried putting the filter bag in the tea brewer. It turned out that this system did not filter the biology well enough, or we managed to pollute the extract. It led to blockages in the sprayer. Next, I tried a cement mixer, followed by screening the extract by hosing it through a sieve and putting it directly into the sprayer tank through the filter bag. This worked well, and it has a much higher capacity. We can extract and fill the 600L tank in 20 minutes. It is important to add the water, through the filter, stirring the screened extract, or too many organisms get caught in the filter.

​

The compost used is purely based on plants, NO manure. All compost has been through a thermophilic phase and turned a minimum of the required two times at the required heat.

Ingredients in the compost are typically hay, silage, straw, woodchip, forest floor, milled grains, and old compost.

Seeding trials. The trials are seeded in 3x20m plots, across the normal travel on the field, to take out variations due to traffic and compaction.

Germination, biology vs. control�2% higher germination was seen using compost extract dribbled in the seed groove in average of 4 plots. The standard deviation was unfortunately too big, making the result only an indication.

• Method used:
• 100 plants were counted in one line in each of the 4 control plots, the distance measured, and a similar distance counted in the 4 adjacent biology plots, the same seed tube seeding both lines, to avoid differences in individual settings between outlets on the seeder.

Extract Control

The trial plots on 12th June 2021.�

40 cm gap between plots�

4

Extract Control

3

Extract Control

2

Extract Control

1

Extract Control

Trial plots on 2nd July 2021.�

4

Extract Control

3

Extract Control

2

Extract Control

1

Extract Control

Trial plots on 25th July 2021.��

4

Extract Control

3

Extract Control

2

Extract Control

1

Extract Control

Results:�Yield, Brix analyses and F/B ratio are higher in �+ Bio plots.

• 9.7% or 473 kg higher yield / ha
• 8.9% higher Brix values. Taken 02 July
• 509% or 0.14 higher F/B ratio
• Average F/B ratio at Harvest: 0.17 in treated plots, 0.03 in Control plots

Brix values

F/B ratio

F/B ratio development in the growing season.�The ideal F/B ratio for Barley is close to 1. ��An F/B ratio of 0.18 in the seed developing stage is low, but still enough to enable the plant to produce the 9.7% yield increase. ��Imagine if I was able to get the same trajectory of the curve 2 months earlier!��F/B ratio is closely connected to yield.

Fungi ug/g soil development in season.�The development of fungi started late. On May 24th, biology got applied in heavy rain, 20 mm rain in a few hours, �My theory is that the rain would have taken the extract to the root zone, and that is a reason for its success. Although the first applications had all been done on moist ground, the biology would still have got stuck at the surface of the ground. The mobile organisms would be ok, but not fungi. Application in heavy rain is ideal for getting biology to the roots.�I had hoped for a better start with the biology applied at seeding. �Perhaps the lack of living roots, or a hostile environment in the start have meant, that more organisms got lost, before the roots were able to feed them. We had a dry spell in April/May, which would explain the lack of development of biology.

Fungi hypha width. A clear difference�Fungi run the world’s biggest mining operation, making all kind of nutrients available from rock, sand, silt and clay. Fungi are specialists, to manage all tasks a wide set of ”workers” are needed. We need to provide all these types of workers to the plants. In our extract, diversity is key.

• Hypha width is connected to species of fungi, the more developed fungi typically have both septa and wider hypha, many have a darker color, and perhaps oxalate crystals and some have clamp connections. Typically these wider fungi hyphae are beneficial to plants.
• The graph shows that Extract has been able to bring more species of fungi to the field, rising the average diameter.
• The decrease in hypha average width over time, does not mean that the wide fungi disappear, but rather that the length of thinner fungi hyphae grows faster and gets a bigger part of the length. This can change depending on the time of year, temp, crop or predators etc.
• Different fungi have different tasks. The key to higher yields is diversity. We manage the field by making sure that there is a wide variety of fungi present.
• The plants are the real bosses in this game, deciding which fungi it wants to grow by tailoring its exudates specifically to fit the ”workers”, bacteria and fungi, they need.

​

Protozoa - Fluctuations in the season.�

• 6 times as many protozoa at end of the growth season in treated plots.
• The +60000 protozoa have helped greatly to make the necessary nutrients cycling for the crop to grow the 9,7% higher yield.
• In dry periods protozoa numbers drop. They go dormant or die.
• The effect of adding extract on to ”dirt”, that is, soil that has only bacteria present, is an immediate rise in protozoa numbers. And nutrition cycling starts to happen.
• When there are lots of bacteria to feed on, and the ground is moist, protozoa numbers grow fast, raising nutrition cycling.
• Little nutrient cycling was made by protozoa in the control plots, as there are almost no protozoa left in the soil, and only flagellates, no amoebae.
• No amoebae were seen in control plots, about 1/5^th of protozoa in treated plots were amoebae, the rest were smaller flagellates.

Bacteria fluctuation in the season�Bacteria biomass rises sharply after tilling and seeding operations and feed on organic matter and plant exudates. They get regulated by predators like: protozoa, nematodes, and worms. �

Compaction measurements.��I was not able to measure a significant change in compaction.�Standard deviation was greater than the difference in measurements.�Discussion:�Presumably the late and relative low development of biology, and the compaction layer just under the ploughing depth are the main factors in why the compaction did not change. �The 2 cm deeper compaction free soil is at best a slight indicator, that the situation is slightly better in the treated plots.

Less than 150 psi pressure, and all roots can grow, from 150-300 psi, only taproots, and other strong roots can push thru the soil

​

Actinobacteria in the soil at Harvest�Extract plots 0.07ug/g�Control plots 0.17ug/g�0-4 ug/g soil is not of concern in a barley crop�

• Actinobacteria is a facultative anaerobe organism, thriving in compacted soil, with limited oxygen available. In levels above 4ug/g actinobacteria per gram soil they inhibit mycorrhizal fungi development
• Low actinobacteria and high fungal levels in the soil reduces weed pressure.
• In a field of barley actinobacteria are not needed, levels up to 4ug/g soil is of no concern.
• The compaction tests showed a slight indication that the soil is moving towards being more porous and less compacted in the treated plots. The slightly lower level of actinobacteria, suggest the same, as actinobacteria do not thrive in aerobic conditions.

Grain analyses

• Discussion:
• Although treated plots had 0.6% less protein in dry matter=4.5% less protein/kg, they had in total more protein harvested, as it had 9.7% higher yield. so a total of near 5% more protein was harvested in treated plots
• The grains had a lot of chaff on them, especially the treated group. I am not aware if that has an influence on the protein %, as chaff has low N content.
• Kg/hl is a measurement that indicates how many kg there is in 100 L of grains. I noticed that the treated grains had much more chaff on them, which is the reason for the lower kg /hl, indicating later maturity, a sign of extended growth period in the treated plots.
• The reason we harvested early, was because of changeable weather and I did not want any heads of barley to fall off, as it would affect the study. Therefore, we harvested 1-2 days before it was ripe. In the photo it can be seen that the heads of barley are not quite ripe.

​

Future considerations for implementing the SFW approach.

​

A lot of soil tests have been done on many fields here in Denmark. Unfortunately, the biology is very similar. Soil could in general be classed as dirt, soil with little biology apart from bacteria. Most but not all of the fields are low in organic matter. On the positive side, this means that a similar treatment can be recommended for each type of crop.

There is still a lot to learn, optimising the dosage of compost used for each application, application methods, what works best, and what method is most cost effective. There is also a need for a fast, easy, good and reliable way to make compost extract. Farmers would like a method that is not too far from what they are used to in the conventional system. They would also like to buy a pallet of good bio complete compost, with a label saying how many kg of compost made into extract should be applied per hectare. This extract could be applied using their sprayer, irrigation system, or used as a seed coating. A starter “pack” that shows an improvement in the farmers fields would be a good way to get them interested in investing their time and money in the SFW approach.

The farmer would have to be told that we are working with biology. Many factors are involved, drought, compaction, cropping, slurry applied, pesticides used in the past and organic matter content. A lot of other factors can boost or minimise the effect of using extracts. A simple and low cost system of applying biology, with high chances of a good return, is where to start. Seed coating is an approach that every farmer can adopt, without changing or altering machinery. Adding extract using their irrigation system, or adding extract in the seed groove, and spraying extract are all things that farmers can change their machines to handle relatively easily. These costs are reasonably low per hectare.

There will be years, where the gain in yields will be small, or no different to normal, and there will be years, where the biology will really take off, and give higher yields, using the same approach. Perennial crops have the advantage that we do not need to start establishing the biology from scratch every year, but they need to be taken care of, to handle compaction from machines and animals grazing in wet conditions. Lots to learn, and big benefits to harvest, when handled well.

It is important to get the biology out there and working. Farmers are used to optimising systems. They are good at getting things to work. When farmers see the gain the SFW system can bring, they will develop ways to use the SFW approach on their farms, with the assistance of their SFW consultants.

There will also be a need to teach farmers how the biology works, or the farmers can take the SFW school’s Farmer & Grower program. This will teach the farmer how to make good compost, microscopy, how the biology works, and application methods. Finally, more studies of this type should be conducted in accordance with the outline from the SFW school. This will show farmers and advisors what to expect from different treatments in a variety of crops and situations.

​

Summary

This study has shown, that a positive economic outcome is possible using the SFW approach. As an added treatment to the normal farming practices of tilling prior to seeding. This system will require bio complete extract to be added every year, as tilling will break most of the biology that was developed in the prior crop. In Denmark field trials have been done with no-till farming, both on conventional and organic farms . None of these work without the use of Roundup, which not only kills the intended crop and weeds, but also most of the good biology in the soil, hence I have focused on a ploughed and tilled system, that has good weed prevention, and is the most used system in Denmark. It is a proven and reliable system in both conventional and organic farming.

Even though the biology did not get to more than 15% of the recommended level of fungi/bacteria, and only just have met the recommendations regards protozoa there has been a significant increase in yield. This leaves high expectations, to what the plants can produce with a higher level of biology established in the soil.

The 473 kg extra harvested per hectare, in the treated plots, with the current grain price bring in an income that is greater than the application costs of extract.

​