By Mark den Ouden, Maartje Frankena and Roel Dreve COMPOST
Successful 7th NIR MCSubstradd Workshop
From 18 to 20 September, the 7th NIR MCSubstradd Workshop took place in hotel Maashof in Venlo, the Netherlands, again with great success. With about 60 participants from different continents, it was a varied and enthusiastic group. The focus was on the composting process and the use of NIR.
D
NIR is not a sacred, 100%
reliable analysis tool, but,
depending on
input, it can be very useful.
uring the workshop, presentations were held on a variety of topics, such as the use of new or alterna- tive raw materials and how to deal
with the abundance of information from the composting process. In addition, many more interesting themes were discussed. There was plenty of discussion, knowledge was shared and the new generation of compost experts was also well represented. It was nice to do this live again - the last edition of the Workshop was organized online due to COVID.
Havens and NIR After a welcome dinner on Tuesday evening, Joris Kaanen, CEO of the family business Havens, opened the actual event on Wednesday. Havens was founded in 1845 by one of his forefathers. In addition to animal feed, the company also produces a supplementary feed for mushroom cultivation and also supplies grains as a raw material for spawn in Maashees. Since 1990, a supplement has been produced - since 2008 under the brand name MCSubstradd - and in ‘94 Havens started NIR analysis for mushroom compost in collaboration with analytical research laboratory MasterLab in Boxmeer. In the meantime, the application of NIR has been further optimised, according to Maartje Frankena of Havens. “More and more so-called ‘calibration lines’ are being set up and improved, and the database is being expanded, also for e.g. alternative substrates, in collabora- tion with MasterLab and users.” During the workshop, critical questions were asked about the reliability of the NIR analyzer, compared to a traditional laboratory. “But NIR is not a sacred tool that can be used to make 100% good analy-
16 MUSHROOM BUSINESS
sis, but perhaps even better than a traditional laboratory. In order to make the calibration lines better and better, it is important to send sam- ples. But compost, chicken manure and other animal products are not easily allowed to cross borders, especially from outside Europe. Work is currently underway to facilitate this, e.g. by first having the sample scanned by NIR, then drying and sending. An additional advan- tage is that the compost has been heated by drying, and therefore any diseases have died, and the package is also lighter to send.” Bart de Leeuw of Havens explained during the workshop that NIR also makes it increasingly possible to predict with models how raw materi- als will react, for example at the annual change from old to new straw. To improve these models, samples are also needed.
Laurel Valley en Highline Jeremy Uncles and Tyler Blackwell of composter Laurel Valley Farms in Pennsylvania, US, then talked about their years of application of NIR (Near Infrared Reflectance Spectroscopy). After 8 years of comparing the NIR data with their own lab results, they purchased their own FOSS NIR in 2019. Nowadays they only use NIR and a separate pH meter for all their analyses. Accor- ding to them, the biggest advantage of NIR is the speed of the analysis, which allows them to make adjustments to the ongoing process, they can now analyze larger volumes and they get more information about the seven process pha- ses (raw materials, floor load, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd transfer, tunnel fill and spawning. Joe Cartier of Highline Mushrooms from Onta- rio, Canada, added to the program at the last minute, also gave an insight into the use of NIR on his farm.
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