OK this thread is exactly what I wanted to get into.
So let me document the concept of what I'm think I'm going to do.
Making Charcoal: Intially I plan to make a 55 gallon drum charcoal burner to get the hang of making charcoal on a small scale. There are a number of websites that describe how to do this.
Of course for my needs this won't make a dent. So for a larger scale I have access to an old "wigwam burner" left over from the old lumber mill near my pastures. I plan to start with the a traditional mound burn as described in the following site.
Chapter 6 - Making charcoal in earth mounds
These wigwam burners were built because when they burned mill waist the sparks would not get out and start fires nearby if winds start blowing. If I build my mound inside and cover it with soil it will be safe to let burn for the several days required to make charcoal.
I have to be sure there are no issues with the local state laws to use this for making charcoal. I'm pretty sure there are none but want to be sure. The laws on burning for farming are pretty liberal in rural Oregon.
I will start with a small pile of wood and cover it with dirt using my backhoe and learn how to control it to get the proper burn. Then progress to larger burn mounds. (This is the interm design in the long run if sucessful we would probably chip the wood and build a iron kiln out of the wigwam burner.) This probably is not a real efficient and cost effective method but it should give me a method to produce a large enough amount of carcoal to work up an acre or so of pasture and amend it with charcoal.
So now I plan to produce the charcoal and load it into an old manure spreader and spread it on the pasture. Then take a rotivator (a big 5' wide rototiller on a 3point hitch run by the PTO on a tractor) and rotivate it into the top foot of soil. I think that makes for the most efficient and effective method of getting the carcoal incorporated into the soil along with the organic matter of the existing grass cover on the pasture I plan to use.
There is some conflicting information on the websites as to whether this will tie up all the nitrrogen or not. I know putting ash into the soil will but not sure about the carcoal. I would like to know what others have experienced.
Reguardless I then plan to plant grazable alfalfa on the site and keep the cattle out till it gets well established and irrigate just the same along with the rest of the pasture. Alfalfa is a legume and a great nitrogen fixer. So it should build up the nitrogen and hopefully turning in the current grass will get the soil microbes going.
My goal is to try to document the gain in productivity of the charcoal pasture compared to the rest of the pasture both in pictures and in pounds per acre production.
So if I can show big production gains in the pastures and it will last long term the ranchers around here would probably be willing to buy the carcoal. That is my concept any way.
OK enough for now.
I would love get any feed back people might have and what you think about my plans.
Thanks
Taildragerdriver
