Biological Brews

ajd132

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Suffolk
Seeing biological bacillus brews, from stuff in a can made in China being pushed by some of the ‘regenerative’ agronomy companies/bio stimulant sellers.
Some high profile no till farmers appear to be doing it and recording testimonials.
With these products being complete in regulated I thought it would be worth a discussion.
Do they do anything?!
If soils are already in good condition wont the microbes already be there?
Can adding these foreign microbes cause ‘biological’ warfare?
Where is the proof?

it seems to me this is little different to what we all wanted to get away from, buying answers in cans. Atleast we know that fungicides have negatives and positives. We have no idea what affect these products have on our soils.
One last thing, if we want to add microbes to our soil are we need better brewing them from our own soil/compost rather than buying random stuff?
 

PuG

Member
I've been searching for a EU source of it - probably due to a lack of knowledge! but I don't think its so much buying a miracle product in a can, more augmenting what should be found in a healthy soil ecosystem's. As I understand it, its a tool to help recover exhausted worn out soils due to poor farming practices by re-introducing bacteria which should be there to begin with.


Seems popular in India similarly.
 

Clive

Staff Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lichfield
very little hard evidence that i’ve found yet

i did see a yield response to the interagro ammio acid product i trialed but it didn’t return MOIC
 

ajd132

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Suffolk
very little hard evidence that i’ve found yet

i did see a yield response to the interagro ammio acid product i trialed but it didn’t return MOIC
I’ve seen some data on one product which was very good and independent which I am using, it’s cheap too.
It’s more these brews I want to get more understanding on.
 

Hindsight

Member
Location
Lincolnshire
Seeing biological bacillus brews, from stuff in a can made in China being pushed by some of the ‘regenerative’ agronomy companies/bio stimulant sellers.
Some high profile no till farmers appear to be doing it and recording testimonials.
With these products being complete in regulated I thought it would be worth a discussion.
Do they do anything?!
If soils are already in good condition wont the microbes already be there?
Can adding these foreign microbes cause ‘biological’ warfare?
Where is the proof?

it seems to me this is little different to what we all wanted to get away from, buying answers in cans. Atleast we know that fungicides have negatives and positives. We have no idea what affect these products have on our soils.
One last thing, if we want to add microbes to our soil are we need better brewing them from our own soil/compost rather than buying random stuff?

Ah, from China - jees Covid in a can now - you have been warned.
 

Kiwi Pete

Member
Livestock Farmer
On a more serious note, I am always intrigued how a haf litre or so of some of these items can affect a soil bulk of several thousand cubes?
How many kg of Ebola would it take to affect a healthy 80kg human?

Biological systems don't work in linear fashion as chemical systems do; in this context soil is/should be considered as a living organism.
 

ajd132

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Suffolk
How many kg of Ebola would it take to affect a healthy 80kg human?

Biological systems don't work in linear fashion as chemical systems do; in this context soil is/should be considered as a living organism.
I just want to get to the bottom of claims made by certain companies/salesman which don’t seem to have much substance to back them up.
 
Seeing biological bacillus brews, from stuff in a can made in China being pushed by some of the ‘regenerative’ agronomy companies/bio stimulant sellers.
Some high profile no till farmers appear to be doing it and recording testimonials.
With these products being complete in regulated I thought it would be worth a discussion.
Do they do anything?!
If soils are already in good condition wont the microbes already be there?
Can adding these foreign microbes cause ‘biological’ warfare?
Where is the proof?

it seems to me this is little different to what we all wanted to get away from, buying answers in cans. Atleast we know that fungicides have negatives and positives. We have no idea what affect these products have on our soils.
One last thing, if we want to add microbes to our soil are we need better brewing them from our own soil/compost rather than buying random stuff?

Its unlikely the introduced microbes will last long at all. Maybe a few seconds before getting swamped by the native population.

The way to build microbes is to build a habitat for them however even then they may not have the impact people think they will.

Always worth reading a bit of Doug Edmeades on the matter. He is good at demanding some science to claims
 

Kiwi Pete

Member
Livestock Farmer
I just want to get to the bottom of claims made by certain companies/salesman which don’t seem to have much substance to back them up.
That is largely why they don't.

If you add something that is already present, it isn't going to have much effect... eg if I drilled 8kg of seed in a field containing 20 tonnes/ha of grass that's gone to seed, I'm not going to see much of it.
If I put 8kg/ha of seed into a stale seedbed, I'll see every plant that grows.

Good soil is microbially diverse as it is, and a lot of that is down to how it's treated and what it has grown there.
If you have a 2 crop rotation you may see more effect from applying a microbial than if you grow 9 crops.

Fully in favour of making your own though, at least you know you aren't just buying a 300 quid can of molasses and with some yeast in it 😂
 

ajd132

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Suffolk
That is largely why they don't.

If you add something that is already present, it isn't going to have much effect... eg if I drilled 8kg of seed in a field containing 20 tonnes/ha of grass that's gone to seed, I'm not going to see much of it.
If I put 8kg/ha of seed into a stale seedbed, I'll see every plant that grows.

Good soil is microbially diverse as it is, and a lot of that is down to how it's treated and what it has grown there.
If you have a 2 crop rotation you may see more effect from applying a microbial than if you grow 9 crops.

Fully in favour of making your own though, at least you know you aren't just buying a 300 quid can of molasses and with some yeast in it 😂
That’s the thing surely, if you are no tilling, have a good rotation, grow covers etc and do all the right things all you need if you want to increase the biooogy is feed it some cheap molasses whenever you go through with the sprayer?
 
That’s the thing surely, if you are no tilling, have a good rotation, grow covers etc and do all the right things all you need if you want to increase the biooogy is feed it some cheap molasses whenever you go through with the sprayer?

The problem with that approach is you don't have anything "new" to post on twitter.
 

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

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