Improving wheat production with deep banded Oil Mallee Charcoal ...

Improving wheat production with deep
banded Oil Mallee Charcoal in Western
Australia
Paul Blackwell 1 , Syd Shea 2 , Paul Storer 3 , Zakaria Solaiman 4 ,
Mike Kerkmans 5 , and Ian Stanley 6
1 Department of Agriculture and Food, Geraldton WA
2 Oil Mallee Company of Australia
3 Western Mineral Fertilisers
4 University of Western Australia
5 Oil Mallee Association of WA
6 "Bungadale", Kalannie , WA

WESTERN AUSTRALIA
location
• Mostly winter rain
from May to October
GERALDTON
Pindar
Kalannie
PERTH
WHEAT BELT
• Many sandy soils
with organic matter
50% of Australia’s
wheat

20 years
R&D into
charcoal
and soil
fungi in
Japan and
Indonesia
Makoto Ogawa Syd Shea
helped develop
Oil Mallee
concept with
John Bartle of
CALM
Director of Oil
Mallee company
ALLEY planting
MALLEE in WA
potential
~10 Mt/yr biomass
BLOCK planting

from Ogawa, M. 1994.Symbiosis of
People and Nature in the Tropics.
Farming Japan Vol.. 28 – 5, p10 21.
CHARCOAL improves the MICRO-HABIAT of beneficial soil microbes

Some new fertiliser
suppliers are using
beneficial soil microbes
and mineral fertilisers.
Is charcoal a better
source of
microporosity than
zeolite?

Research questions
• Will charcoal improve crop yields from
poor soil in a dry Mediterranean
environment?
– (50% increase in Sumatra; Yamato et al.,
220% increase in Brazil; Lehmann & Rondon)
• How much soluble fertiliser
• Will mineral fertiliser and inoculated soil
microbes enable more yield with charcoal?

Soil biological nutrition model with
charcoal
charcoal
particle
plant
root
Symbiotic
fungi (AM)
mineral
particle

THE OIL MALLEE INDUSTRY
processing Mallee
for eucalyptus oil
OIL DISTILLATION
HARVESTING

Pyrolysis with an open pan ‘Moki’ method
at Kalannie by Shea, Stanley and Okimori
March 2005; air temp. = 40 o C+!
Yasuyuki Okimori

wood charcoal (Jarrah)
mallee charcoal (‘05 trials)
Mallee biomass after oil
extraction

Oil Mallee charcoal properties
CEC meq/100g
volatiles%dry
ash%dry
fixed C%wet
fixed C%dry
s.area m2/g
0 20 40 60 80 100
%
pH(CaCl 2
) 8.4 EC 25 uS/m N 1.2% P 0.12% K 0.7% Ca 2.8% Zn 38 ppm

deep banding charcoal at
Pindar April 2005; Ausplow
Deep Blade System.
thanks to John Ryan

DEEP BANDED MALLEE CHARCOAL
1 t/ha at broad-acre rate
for row spacing of 600 mm
visible effect at
6 t/ha rate
6 t/ha in 100 mm wide band

TRIAL SITES
PINDAR; sandy clay loam
40ppm av. P
KALANNIE; yellow sand
44ppm av. P

Pindar Kalannie 2 Kalannie 1
2500
2000
55 kg/ha soluble fertiliser - May sown
grain yield, kg/ha
1500
1000
110 kg/ha soluble fertiliser - June sown
500
0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
rate of deep banded charcoal, t/ha
poor yield increase with recommended rates of soluble fertiliser

half rate
full rate
2500
2000
+340 kg/ha
grain yield, kg/ha
1500
1000
Pindar
500
0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
rate of deep banded charcoal, t/ha
18% yield increase with half rates of soluble fertiliser at 6 t/ha char

mineral plus microbes
2500
grain yield, kg/ha
2000
1500
1000
+640 kg/ha
500
0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
rate of deep banded charcoal, t/ha
46% yield increase with at least 1.5 t/ha char added to the mineral fertiliser

values of yield increases
Trial site#
and fertiliser
yield
benefit
banded
charcoal
broad acre
equivalent
kg/ha
charcoal
value ($/ha) for
wheat at
carbon
value
kg/ha
carbon $150/t $250/t $/kg C #
kg/ha t/ha
1. 100 kg/ha
mineral+ 1 640 1.5 250 56 96 160 2.84
1. 30 kg/ha
soluble 2 344 6.0 1000 225 52 86 0.38
2. 110 kg/ha
soluble 3 76 6.0 1000 225 11 19 0.08
3. 110 kg/ha
soluble* 83 3.0 620* 140 12 21 0.15
#
wheat at $250/t
~$3/kg = $3000/t of carbon!

Mineral+ half rate of soluble full rate of soluble
2.6
2.4
2.2
Pindar
grain yield, t/ha
2.0
1.8
1.6
1.4
1.2
1.0
10 15 20 25 30 35 40
grains per head
grains/ head explained 42% of yield variation = drought stress effect
(the crop needed an ‘irrigation’ to survive 2005)

55 kg/ha Sol. 30 kg/ha Sol. Min+
50
root colonisation; flowering, %
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
Pindar
at flowering
5
0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
deep banded charcoal, t/ha
char increased AMF colonisation (especially the inoculated microbes)

HS LS M+
35
30
0
6
3
6
Grains per head
25
20
0
3
6
0
3
Pindar
at flowering
15
10
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50
root colonisation September %
AMF colonisation associated with grains/head
- may have helped reduce drought stress – fungal hyphae extend root system

S55 S30 M+ S110
30
biomass at tillering, g/m 2
25
20
15
10
SYMBIOTIC ?
PARASITIC ?
5
0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
banded charcoal, t/ha
char increased early growth for lower soluble P conditions
But decreased early growth for higher soluble P conditions

Interpretations
• Valuable yield increases from char addiction
– broadacre agriculture, low native AMF
• Very efficient Carbon sequestration with low
rates of low C char
– Few soil effects, long term benefits?
• Char seems to have increased drought
tolerance by encouraging symbiotic fungi.
• Higher levels of soluble P may suppress
symbiosis – more value in low fertility situations.

Questions
• Can these results be repeated?
– pot trials UWA, small plot trials. NLP submission
• How low is the char requirement of the mineral
fertiliser?
– 2007 small plot trials
• How long can the char effect last?
– resowing Pindar and Kalannie trials
– NLP submission
– ARWA support a research potential seminar in June
– KEY information for potential Char economics

INTEGRATED WOOD PROCESSING (IWP) plant at NARROGIN
5MW plant = $6.2M over 20 years; est. Bell and Bennett (2002)

Ogawa and Okimori (2004)

Ogawa and Okimori (2004)

A BENEFICIAL SYSTEM?
THANKYOU
Sylvain Pottier
Yasuyuki Okimori and Makoto Ogawa of
Kansai Environmental Engineering Centre,
Kansai Electric Co. Ltd and General
Environmental Technos Co., Ltd. and the
Oil Mallee Company for financial support
Ausplow Ltd for the use of their plot
airseeder. Andrew Donken
Victor Dodd and Doug Cail
Dave Gartner, Ben Parkin and Chris Gazey
United Farmers Cooperative and Hans
Schoof for soil testing and interpretation.
Stephen Davies, Bill Bowden, John Bartle,
and Tony Vyn for field advice and
assistance.