Biodynamics

We have dabbled with biodynamics for many years. For a while at Anabank, we were involved in some carbon trials with other land managers, where we were measuring the amount of carbon that we were building using various methods. It was some time ago, and I can't remember how many people involved, but we were doing biodynamic spraying and another bloke was making and spraying compost tea. We were both cell grazing. It didn't continue long enough to see how much carbon we were building, but I do remember that we tested the spray liquid - ours was BD500 and his was compost tea. The BD500 had better biology than the compost tea. So for those of you that think Biodynamics is just woo woo stuff, it's not. It is grounded in science (and astrology or, is that astronomy).

If you want to read a lot more than I know about Biodynamics, please check out these two sites. This is an American site and this on is an Australian site and the one I am a member of.

The way I understand it, is that it's based around preparations (preps) that are made through a composting process and are a bit like homeopathic, you don't need a lot of them to do a job.  For example BD500 is a prep that is mixed at the rate of about a handful in a bucket of water and then sprayed or splashed by flicking out droplets over your entire garden. It's the essence of a fertiliser, rather than a fertiliser spray.

We have recently put down two different preps. BD500 and Cowpat Pit (CPP). CPP can be done any time of year, however BD500 is done over the winter, so is usually put down around Easter and lifted in early Spring. The CPP takes about 3 months, but will depend on the temperature and conditions at the time. It's easy to keep an eye on as it's only in a box with a bag and tin cover. The horns are buried, so we hope for the best with them.

BD500 is just cow manure, stuffed into cow horns. The cow manure should be from lactating biodynamic managed cows. The horns should also be from females, but ours are a mixture. The manure is from lactating cows, but we haven't been managing them biodynamicaly.

Manure collected from my milking cows. Four cows produce a lot of poo. The horns we got from the Biggenden abattoir. Back in the day when we were regularly going there, we asked them to keep some. It cost us a carton of beer. We did lose some horns because the dogs found them once and chewed a few up.

Me (Lucy) filling the horns. Gloves are optional......

Kim placing the horns in the ground. He dug the pit with the tractor first. We read in a book by Peter Proctor, to "plant" the horns and to have soil around them. When we've helped in the past, the horns were just piled in, but we thought we'd do it this way.

You need to back fill with soil. We put the bag down to hopefully make it easier when it comes time to retrieve the horns.

We had space in the hole and still had manure left so we thought we'd make some CPP. We went down to the shed where Edmund was building a dog cage, and asked him for some timber so that we could frame up for a box to contain the CPP. He quickly put together what we required. I love seeing a craftsman in action! 

Back up the hill to the garden and the box was a little big for the space left. I also love seeing a man on the end of a shovel. Men can handle a shovel so much better than a woman!

The box doesn't have a base, as it needs to connect to the earth.

Mixing the CPP. Manure, 200g crushed eggshells, 400g basalt rock and we also added about 200g seaweed as I reckon that would go well.

I had previously bought the preps, as I had intended to make some of this when we first moved here. 

The 5 compost preps are put in holes and then a liquid prep is added - first in the two bigger holes and then sprinkled around the whole area. 

The area around the BD preparations need to be kept moist, like a garden. We've covered the horns with hay to help insulate them and we'll keep it watered and will keep an eye on the CPP to make sure the bag covering the manure stays moist.

I have done several intro to Biodynamic courses and read some books but am a long way from being very knowledgable about it. It's one of those things that you just need to start doing and learn along the way. If you would like to know more, please click on the links I gave above or just google it and then you can spend hours down the rabbit hole of the the www.

I look forward to writing more about it once we dig it up and start using it. Although, I do have a kg of purchased BD to use yet - I bought a mix of BD500 and CPP - it's called Combine Soil Preparation. And we also need to look at purchasing a flow form or stirring machine when we go to put it out. More on that when we get one.