COMPOST
NIR Conference in Poland
I was honoured to be invited to speak at the 4th MCSubstradd NIR conference on 17 June this year, which was held in the Cardinal Palace Hotel in Lukow, just outside Siedlce. By Dr. Helen Grogan, Teagasc, Ireland
so it was a great opportunity for me to learn from the experts. There were six presentations followed by a group discussion on Day 1, folllowed by a visit to the annual Pieczarkalia on Day 2 (see MB71). The conference was opened by Joris Kaanen, a director with Havens MCSubstradd, who gave a history of the company. It has a dedicated r&d team behind them which enables them to be innovative in their product development, one of which is the Ecopro slow-release coating to their supplement, which they report gives higher yields compared to the standard supplement without the coating. They also provide NIR (Near Infra Red) databases for Phase 1, 2 and 3 compost to provide nutritional information for customers and, since 2013 they have a NIR straw-line. The theme of the workshop was given as Dare to Share - an idea I fully agree with - as it is by sharing information with each other that we all learn and advance both our own knowledge and the industry.
A Compost yard pitfalls
The next speaker was consultant Peter Christi- aens, spoke on the importance of having good quality materials and expertise in the construc- tion of compost yards. High quality concrete and steel/stainless steel for bunkers and Phase 2 tunnels is essential, due to the high corrosive action of ammonia gases. Similarly it is impor- tant to use a construction company with a good reputation. With new builds, importance should also be given to ease of cleaning and making sure there are no hidden places for compost debris to hide and preventing pests and diseases finding a refuge from which to infect new batches of compost.
Next up was Hennie van den Einde of Walkro. He 16 MUSHROOM BUSINESS
s I spend most of my time researching mushroom diseases, I am not so familiar with compost science and mushroom nutrition,
Frédéric Mathieu and Martyna Comte of Euromycel with Brendan McKenna (JFMcKenna) and consultant Dermot O’Morchoe (Premier Picking) at the 2015 Pieczarkalia fair.
spoke about the difficulties of starting up a new Phase 1 facility and how even for experienced composters there is a time of uncertainity and unpredictability while staff become familiar with operating the new system. Procedures may need to be adapted as new facilities will be more efficient and on a larger scale so that that what worked before may not work quite the same in the new facility. It is therefore important to make decisions based not only on intuition and experience but also hard data. He also stressed the importance of investing in knowledgeable and responsible staff and clear instructions. It takes skill and knowledge to be alert and react appropriately when, for example, the quality of new straw is different to old straw, leading to changes in structure, moisture content and performance.
Research
Yves Moriamez from Euromycel/Bonduelle, France spoke next, outlining some of the work his company does for their customers such as NIR and NMR analyses of samples. He also spoke about some of the research that is going on in the background. They are looking at
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44
