Biochar application on commercial field crops using farm-scale equipment

Canadian Biosystems Engineering

article

Leanne Ejack¹  Joann K. Whalen¹  Julie Major²  Barry R. Husk³ 

[1] Department of Natural Resource Sciences, McGill University;Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, McGill University;BlueLeaf Inc.

关键词: Applicator machine;    biochar economics;    farm equipment;    farm-scale;    fine particulate;    lime spreader.;   

DOI  :  10.7451/CBE.2021.63.6.1

学科分类：农业科学（综合）

来源: Canadian Society of Agricultural Engineering

【 摘 要 】

Commercial growers who wish to apply biochar to theirfield crops will need to use conventional agriculturalmachinery to amend large field areas. Biochar produced byfast pyrolysis of hardwood was applied at a target rate of 5.6t ha-1 to a single swath (10 m x 100 m) in an agriculturalfield in Quebec, Canada, using a commercial lime spreader.Windborne losses of up to 30% biochar occurred duringhandling, transportation, and application. We recommendcovering and moistening the biochar before spreading,avoiding surface application on windy days, or mixing itwith other materials (e.g., compost, manure) to reducebiochar loss. The biochar-amended swath and an adjacentequally sized swath that received no biochar were harrowed.The entire field was seeded with soybean in the first season,followed by an oat-forage mixture in the second season, andforage in the third season. Soybean and oat yields increasedby up to 20% with biochar. In the third season, forage in thebiochar-amended swath had greater nutrient concentrationand higher projected milk production when used as feed fordairy cattle, based on near-infrared spectroscopy analysis.The variable cost of applying biochar was an estimatedCA$2,285 ha-1, indicating the need for a complete costbenefit analysis of farm-scale biochar applications.

【 授权许可】

CC BY