I see our opposition leader is pushing the production of biochar. Of course it is political but I think that he also sees the merit in looking at it. Thing is adam, uncle crud has taken bucketloads of money out of ag research and therefor it leaves ag out in the cold when we have a possiblilty of playing a major part in carbon sequestration. While I think that AGW is a load of crap I understand the importance of carbon in the soil and would love to be able to boost it using biochar. I will be doing some basic trials myself this year with some I am going to make. While my trials may not be the most scientific(if I can see a difference I consider it a success) one around they are better than nothing. Will see how much stuff I can make to see how many trials I can do. I did read in a trial result from WA that 250kg/ha got a 40% increase in yield but that may be on a soild type that suited. Only way to see it it WILL work is to trial it myself

What about BCG ROM? are they looking into it? would not be surprised if they wouldn't though no money it it for them

Nope, haven't heard of anybody looking at this at BCG, Adon.
I think that BCG is just looking at survival techniques for the Mallee farm area at the moment as even the southern areas are not getting much attention from BCG.
The Nhill members of which there are quite a few haven't got any attention at all.

I'm trying to get a name of a very quiet lady soil biologist from DSE who keeps a low profile but apparently is a wealth of knowledge on soils.
Will check and pass the name on if and when I get it.
Apparently she has researched items like retaining standing stubble against slashing stubble down and found that below an 18' rainfall there is absolutely no benefit to the soil in keeping stubbles standing as the microbiological activity simply does not exist in sufficient amounts to break down standing and dry stubble straw.
Slashed stubble in a less than 18 inch rainfall allows enough moisture to be in contact with the stubble to get the microbes active and break down the stubble and to incorporate the products of stubble breakdown back into the soil.

Adon, just google" Pauline Mele".
She is thee very switched on soil biologists with the DPI here in vic.

Thanks ROM. I reckon that if you speak to a lot of farmers they could tell you the same thing about stubble as slashing give soil life a much bigger area to work on.

It has ben a bit of a challenge to get stubble 8 inches high for the last few year let alone 18 inches of rain!