Favorable results for the climate, that is, in short, the conclusion of an agricultural practical test. Related data has been collected since 2019.
Bleckwedel – An agricultural practice trial has been running for several years in Bleckwedel, a district of Visselhövede. The idea behind this is to gain starting points for climate-friendly agriculture. Since 2019, Jan de Groot, Paul Wacker and Samuel Kruse-Pralle have been collecting information for a research project in which the raw materials of a biogas installation in modern dairy farming are treated with a special product from Rinagro. In this way, the aim is to achieve a more climate-friendly treatment of biomass. “We are satisfied with the results of the practical test in Bleckwedel,” Kruse-Pralle summarizes as the first conclusion during a farm visit.
Thanks to the method, the processed thin fraction can be beautifully spread over the fields and meadows without resulting in soil compaction. The biogas researchers tested this on the plots of farmer Jan de Groot. ‘With a hose system and a trailing foot injector, you can work very efficiently with ample time windows. This way, the fertilizer ends up exactly where the plant can absorb it directly,” Kruse-Pralle explains on site.
Some time is needed before the immediate environment can process these nutrients with its microbial community. The microbiome is, as it were, the soil life around the crops, which makes the nutrients usable for the plants in the first place.
Farmer Jan de Groot has prepared biogas residues in the storage tank for soil life and plants in a test. Beforehand, he added substances to the manure – i.e. to the organic manure, such as animal manure, compost or digestate – that initiate the biochemical processes. These processes stop emissions, leading to microbial binding of the nutrients. As a result, the climate-damaging gas does not escape into the atmosphere, but is absorbed and stored as a nutrient by the plants – this is how those involved explain the process.
Whether this technology delivers what it promises was in turn examined in a separate practical test. The experiment was scientifically supervised by the Ingenieurgemeinschaft für Landwirtschaft und Umwelt (Iglu). Analyzes were carried out on the mineral nitrogen stock in the soil, the availability of nitrate in the leaf, and manual harvesting and weighing took place.
The results are satisfactory and show that the nutrients are available to the plants more quickly and evenly. As a risk manager, Samuel Kruse-Pralle is convinced of the importance of this system. “The environment wins in any case,” praises the Schwitschen resident.