Muffler in the dirt? Will it work?

[nate_m]

Tractor fumes used to put more carbon in soil


Thursday, 18/09/2008
A grain-growing family in south west New South Wales is taking a different approach to try to improve the health of the soil.
This season, the owners of Trentham Cliffs Station captured their tractor exhaust fumes and sowed it with their seed.
Daniel Linklater says the practice originated in Canada and is believed to put more carbon into the soil.
He says the family has a trial paddock testing different sowing treatments, and this will help determine if the initiative has paid off.
"That was all sown at the same rates under the same circumstances on the same rainfall and just to look at it now you wouldn't notice the difference, that's just above the ground," he says.
"Below the ground we believe there are several advantages, and, of course, harvest time is when we'll really get the results."

[john_bud]

Crazy!

jb

[aczlan]

there was a piece on that in the farm show magazine a few months back, someone converted a big JD to inject exaust gases into the ground along with the grain drill... I think they said that it adds nitrogen to the soil...

Aaron Z

[Treemonkey1000]

Aren't there a lot of other by-products coming out of that exhaust stack? Unburned fuel, petroleum distillates. Things like that? Wouldn't be able to call that organic farming I would think.

[ray66v]

Since Diesel exhaust is composed of a mixture of many different toxic chemicals, including human carcinogens, I am at a loss for a response to this seemingly "brilliant" idea.

The only thing I can think of is they are going to argue that the chemicals are going to end up in the ground either way?

[shane]

Maybe they are burning bio-fuel.

[JDeerekid]

The only thing I see is that if it puts carbon in the ground it will raise the PH of the soil. Doing this instead of putting lime down. But just how much is going in the ground and what kind of effect does/will it have?

[actionaj]

I am not sure how they go about doing this. It seems to me like it would creat a lot of back pressure and heat and damage your engine. I'm sure its more than just sticking your exaust pipe in the ground but it sounds like a lot of restriction. I bet it would be a lot quieter.

[Kernopelli]

Originally Posted by aczlan

there was a piece on that in the farm show magazine a few months back, someone converted a big JD to inject exaust gases into the ground along with the grain drill... I think they said that it adds nitrogen to the soil...

Aaron Z

I was about to say the same thing about Farm Show. I was thinking it said they had been doing this for several years with supposed success and I was thinking they said it added nitrogen.

[tomd999]

Hiya,

I think they must have read a book from the 17 or 1800's where it talked about putting "exhaust" into the soil to improve crops, however, back then they meant "horse exhaust"

My 2 cents,

Tom