Regenerating the Diversity of Life in Soils- Hope for: Farming, Ranching, Nutrition, Environment, Health, and Climate!
WHO: Dr. David Johnson and wife, Hui-Chun Su
WHAT: Dr. Johnson and his wife, Hui-Chun Su Johnson, are co-creators of the Johnson/Su Compost Bioreactor. They will cover the construction, filling, and management of the Johnson-Su static pile composting bioreactor. They will discuss:
• How this composting process creates a fungal-dominant, biologically diverse compost inoculant that can be used in a “Biologically Enhanced Agriculture Management” system to jump start soil biology and increase crop production.
• The composting do’s and don’ts for producing a mature and biologically diverse compost end product
• Best practices and preferred methodologies for applying the compost in scaled farming operations.
Alberta producers, Short Fensky and Jana Von Freier, will share their experiences using a Johnson-Su Compost Bioreactors on their own farms.
CARASHL Manager, Dr. Yamily Zavala, will have a microscope and compost sample to examine with participants to answer the question: "What is in your Johnson-Su Compost Bioreactor?"
WHERE: CARA Soil Health Lab
WHEN: June 26th, 9am-4:30pm
WHY: David's research, in soil microbial community structure and function, has opened a window for viewing the interdependence between plants and soil microbes. Optimization of these plant-microbe associations promotes; restoration of soil fertility, improved growth of crops, and increased plant-water-use efficiency, soil’s water holding capacity, soil microbial-carbon-use efficiencies and soil carbon storage capabilities. These benefits provide a path to significantly increase farm and ranch productivity and profitability due to better plant, soil, and ecosystem health by rebuilding a soil’s microbial community population, structure, diversity and biological functionality.
HOW: Producers will have the opportunity to watch, help, and ask realtime questions about the step-by-step process of how to create their own bioreactor. Each producer attending will recieve a free in-house, compost analysis through the CARASHL for the compost created in their own bioreactors after the workshop.
