location Mostly winter rain from May to October Many sandy soils with organic matter <1% Usually grows > 50% of Australia s wheat WESTERN AUSTRALIA

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1 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

2 WESTERN AUSTRALIA location Mostly winter rain from May to October GERALDTON Pindar Kalannie PERTH WHEAT BELT Many sandy soils with organic matter <1% Usually grows > 50% of Australia s wheat

3 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

4 from Ogawa, M Symbiosis of People and Nature in the Tropics. Farming Japan Vol , p CHARCOAL improves the MICRO-HABIAT of beneficial soil microbes

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

6 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?

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

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

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

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

11 Oil Mallee charcoal properties CEC meq/100g volatiles%dry ash%dry fixed C%wet fixed C%dry s.area m2/g % ph(cacl 2 ) 8.4 EC 25 us/m N 1.2% P 0.12% K 0.7% Ca 2.8% Zn 38 ppm

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

13 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

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

15 Pindar Kalannie 2 Kalannie kg/ha soluble fertiliser - May sown grain yield, kg/ha kg/ha soluble fertiliser - June sown rate of deep banded charcoal, t/ha poor yield increase with recommended rates of soluble fertiliser

16 half rate full rate kg/ha grain yield, kg/ha Pindar rate of deep banded charcoal, t/ha 18% yield increase with half rates of soluble fertiliser at 6 t/ha char

17 mineral plus microbes 2500 grain yield, kg/ha kg/ha rate of deep banded charcoal, t/ha 46% yield increase with at least 1.5 t/ha char added to the mineral fertiliser

18 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 kg/ha mineral kg/ha soluble kg/ha soluble kg/ha soluble* * # wheat at $250/t ~$3/kg = $3000/t of carbon!

19 Mineral+ half rate of soluble full rate of soluble Pindar grain yield, t/ha grains per head grains/ head explained 42% of yield variation = drought stress effect (the crop needed an irrigation to survive 2005)

20 55 kg/ha Sol. 30 kg/ha Sol. Min+ 50 root colonisation; flowering, % Pindar at flowering deep banded charcoal, t/ha char increased AMF colonisation (especially the inoculated microbes)

21 HS LS M Grains per head Pindar at flowering root colonisation September % AMF colonisation associated with grains/head - may have helped reduce drought stress fungal hyphae extend root system

22 S55 S30 M+ S biomass at tillering, g/m SYMBIOTIC? PARASITIC? banded charcoal, t/ha char increased early growth for lower soluble P conditions But decreased early growth for higher soluble P conditions

23 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.

24 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

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

26 Ogawa and Okimori (2004)

27 Ogawa and Okimori (2004)

28 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.