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permaculture - Re: Cow poop & lignite (leonardite)

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  • From: "Steve Diver" <steved@ncatark.uark.edu>
  • To: "Permaculture West" <permawest@olywa.net>
  • Cc: permaculture@listserv.oit.unc.edu
  • Subject: Re: Cow poop & lignite (leonardite)
  • Date: Tue, 25 Nov 1997 02:38:07 +0000

Kirk Hanson asked:

>Q1: What, exactly, differentiates cow manure from other animal manures
> thus leading to its historical agricultural fame?

Manure from ruminant animals such as cows and sheep have an advantage
over poultry manure, as far as ability to stablize nutrients and produce
humus.
Poultry litter also contains odorous compounds that can dis-flavor
vegetables.

The microflora in ruminant is beneficial to composts. Biodynamic
compost has a long history in favor of cow manure. In addition to
the aforementioned points, there is probably an esoteric reason that
BD likes cow manure so much.

If you really want to see something strange, look at paper
chromatogram of poultry litter.

See "Chromatography Applied to Quality Testing" by
Ehrenfried Pfeiffer for color plates.

When you do a chroma on poultry litter, you can expect to get the
same response. However, if you compost the litter and then run a
second chroma, you get something quite different. The benefit of taking
shit and composting it properly, as can be seen thru the chroma test,
cannot be stressed too much. Stuart Hill talked about "shallow organics" and
"deep organics." To shift the whole farm in terms of soil quality, food
quality,
and pest resistance thru the use of well made compost, that is in the realm
of deep organics.

There are also differences in the number of weed seeds in manures:

Horse manure is notorious for weed seeds.

Poultry litter has been examined and determined to contain no
weed seeds, due to gizzard action. But, poultry litter will
produce a proliferation of weed growth when applied to land, and this
is due--by my estimation--to be a result of immature humic
substances that mimic conditions akin to weeds of disturbed sites..in
addition to the well recognized fast nutrient release. The
message of immature humic substances is "wake up you stupid
weed seeds, get up and grow and cover this bare soil fast...before the
rains come and wash our home away."

In contrast, well made mature compost can suppress weeds. Biomature
compost, having undergone physical, chemical, and biological
transformation, is built into long-chain humic compounds. These
compounds mimic a mature, stable soil ecosystem and therefore
do not tell weeds to jump up and grow, but rather they signal
an "all is well" message to the soil ecosystem. "Hang tight lads,
our sensors tell us we've got in made in the shade...vegetative
stability is already there."


>Q2: What is lignite (or leonardite) and what virtues does it bestow upon
> the soil as an amendment?

The following paragraphs are selected excerpts from an ATTRA
publication written by Bart Hall:

Humates and humic acid derivatives are a diverse family of products,
generally obtained (directly or indirectly) from various forms of
oxidized coal.

Coal deposits are of three types. Anthracite coal is very dense and
hard with quite low sulphur content. Bituminous coal is a softer coal,
usually with rather high sulphur levels. Lignite coal is a very soft,
coarse coal with highly variable sulphur content and often marginal
fuel value. Softer coals, particularly lignite, are (as a result of
their more open texture) subject to oxidation, especially if found in
a near-surface deposit.

While oxidation decreases the fuel value of lignite coals, it
increases the percent of alkaline-extractable humic matter.

Oxidized-coal-derived (OCD) humus and humic substances are
essentially the same as humus extracts from soil, but there has been a
reluctance to accept OCD humus as a worthwhile soil additive. In
part, this stems from the belief that only humus derived from
recently-decayed organic matter is beneficial.

Production and recycling of organic matter in the soil cannot be
replaced by OCD humus _ the sugars, gums, hemi-celluloses and similar
materials from fresh organic matter play a vital role in both soil
microbiology and structure, but they are not humus.

Sod-based rotations, green manures and cover crops, preservation of
crop residues and additions of manure or compost remain fundamental
elements of any healthy soil management system, but especially organic
management systems.

[SGD: Bart is saying that humate products can be beneficial in an
organic farming system, but they do not replace the fundamental
roles of biologically-derived organic matter]

Many forms of oxidized coal are available, and are generally
classified by stages of oxidation eventually ending in the complete
humification of the starting material.

In the case of lignite coal, the apparent end-product of natural
oxidation is a soft, loose-textured, almost earthy OCD humus known as
leonardite. Leonardite usually occurs at lignite outcrops, or at
the top of very shallow beds of lignite, grading into the parent
lignite seam.

Partially-oxidized lignite is called slack lignite and contains far
less OCD humus than leonard-ite, but nevertheless more than lignite.
The following table summarizes approximate chemical properties of
potential sources of OCD humus:

Lignite Slack
lignite Leonardite
Oxygen in source material 20% 25% 30%
Extracted humic acids 5% 30% 85%
Oxygen in humic acid extracts 25% 30% 30%
================================================
- end excerpt-
================================================

The grandaddy reference on humates, humic acids, leondardite,
and all the rest is William R. Jackson's award-winning 958-page
book titled Humic, Fulvic, and Microbial Balance: Organic Soil
Conditioning.

Jackson, William R. 1993. Humic, Fulvic, and Microbial Balance:
Organic Soil Conditioning. Jackson Research Center, Evergreen, CO.
958 p.

Finally, you can hardly find a more informative web site on humates
than Dr. Robert H. Faust's Bio-Ag Services at:
http://www.wp.com/bioag/

For example, check out:

A REVIEW OF HUMUS AND HUMIC ACIDS
http://www.humic.com/review-ha.html
by
T. L. Senn, Head, Department of Horticulture
A. R. Kingman, Instructor in Horticulture
Horticulture Department Research Series No. 165
The South Carolina Agricultural Experiment Station
Clemson University

and,

Do You Know Humic Acid Derivatives Are?
from CALIFORNIA FARMER
http://www.humic.com/dohad.html

"One of the important benefits realized from using manure is that
manures are parent material for the synthesis of humic acid
derivatives (HAD). Humic acid derivatives are mixtures of humic acid,
ulmic acid, and fulvic acid, and are products or organic matter
transformations by the soil microorganisms."

"There are several ways to build up humic acid derivatives in soil -
the application of manures, the growing of a soil-building crop such
as a grass sod in rotation, the growing to maturity of green manure
crops, or by applying concentrated Humic Acid material in the
fertilizer mix."

"Some organic deposits found in various parts of the world contain
various percentages of humic, fulvic, and ulmic acids."

"Humic acid derivatives have several known benefits to agriculture.
University of California research scientists, scientists from other
U.S. universities and European scientists have agreed on these
benefits from the soil humus formation:

1.Improves soil physical properties.

2.Holds exchangeable plant nutrients.

3.Improves moisture conditions.

4.Affects the release of plant nutrients through slow decomposition by
organisms, especially nitrogen release.

5.Improves trace element nutrition through chelation.

6.Has a growth promoting effect.

7.Has a high base exchange capacity - an important basis for soil
fertility concepts."


Steve Diver
ATTRA


--
steved@ncatark.uark.edu




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