Entire

Fertiliser substitution: Vermiculture is paydirt for farmers

LEXY MARQUIS

WORM farms. A simple on-farm DIY fertiliser alternative for farmers, home gardeners and homesteaders alike.

Are you into your fishing? Worms are an extra benefit for that also.

Successful commercial-scale worm farms have been in banana farms, cattle properties and permaculture farms up and down the far north.

Worm farming in the North Tropics is very different from a cooler climate. However, successful worm farms have been operating for over a decade in our region, and the accumulated knowledge of how to manage worm farms up here is extensive.

Here is what you do:

You choose a location with the help of a specialist. Let them inform how and where to house the worms to keep them cool.

The Wet Tropic Times Newspaper recently visited with local renowned commercial worm farmer Mick Kruckow. An astute farmer who was more than happy to give us a full tour of his facilities and share his vast knowledge about worm farming.

It is well known that special techniques are needed to maintain commercial worm farms in the wet tropics. Mick has been successfully worm farming for over a decade just north of Innisfail.

Looking at the results achieved on his Humidicola pasture was astounding. Compared to what is in our paddocks at home, the difference was immediately evident. The paddocks are lush and green.

Mick also shared an exceptional recipe using worm juice and other ingredients with a special yet easy methodology. Some have equated it as one of the most helpful ways cane farmers can improve their crops and soil. It involves aerobically multiplying beneficial bacteria over two days to produce an extraordinary concoction all plants love.

Mick also explained that worm juice on pasture meant a dramatic reduction, even eliminating the need for cattle licks over time. The nutrition unlocked by the biological effect of the worm made natural biofertiliser which allows for uptake by the grass, meaning grass, previously deficient in phosphorus, now has phosphorus in it that was once locked up in the soil. After applying the worm juice, it is now uptaken by the grass and without any other interventions.

Once the worm farm is set up and a food source is secured, a sizeable commercial worm farm with autonomous systems can be maintained in just five to ten minutes a day. A method of undercover racks is set up with overhead sprinklers to keep them moist.

Worm farms thrive in our conditions with know-how and education about what to do and what not to do.

Commercial farms are set up to automatically syphon off the beneficial worm juice fertiliser into a sump tank, then over to holding tanks ready for foliar application. The juice can be diluted however a large amount of product can be produced commercially onsite, meaning many worm farmers have enough to spray undiluted.

Worms can eat a variety of substances. The only limitation in worm farming is having a good food source for them as their numbers multiply. There are numerous ways to source the food they require.

Food options: •Spent coffee grounds, • chaffed guinea grass, • food scraps, • sprouted seeds such as wheatgrass, • DIY worm chow, • aged manure, • well broken down leaf mulch • and much more. Things to avoid:

A large amount of citrus peel and onions and to ensure they have enough to eat to suit the population.

Here is why you want to farm worms:

They and worm juice are considered among the best soil building substances and make an excellent living fertiliser.

When compost worms eat, the same volume is excreted either via liquid or solid. They can demolish up to 95% of the feed offered to them. This means that you have the potential to produce a lot of fertiliser if you fee them well.

Chemical fertiliser alternatives such as worm products improve the soil in the long-term, manage waste streams, and have other benefits. The results are astounding - natural, beneficial, healthy growth in a highly cost-effective, environmentally friendly manner.

Worms are the intestines of the earth that aerate the soil, help with soil structure and decompose waste. As worms move through the soil, consuming and releasing nutrients, they enhance plant growth at a phenomenal rate through several mechanisms. Combined with their other benefits, they are perhaps better than anything else in naturally improving soil and plant growth.

KAP plan for cheap renewable fuel and electricity

KATTER’S AUSTRLIAN PARTY (KAP) MPs and candidates in Far North Queensland, including Bob Katter, Shane Knuth, and Rod Jensen, are pushing for the installation of increased capacity of co-generation electricity and steam (made from bagasse) in the region’s sugar mills, as well as the development of plants that produce ethanol fuel and sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).

Kennedy MP, Bob Katter, said fuel and electricity sovereignty and security had never been more essential as China continues its aggressive move into the South Pacific and Russia wages war in Europe cutting supplies of key resources.

Mr Katter said moving on bioenergy and biofuels will allow Far North Queensland to lead Australia in providing critical, sustainable energy and fuel services, at an affordable price to the benefit of mills, growers, and the community at large.

“If the KAP have the balance of power after the election, we will use our extraordinary amount of influence to get a Sovereign Fuel Security Bill through federal parliament, which includes a nationwide renewable fuels mandate,” he said.

“This would mean a nearly 20 percent benefit from normal petrol prices to sugarcane farmers, and it would reduce the price of petrol as ethanol fuel would cost $1.05 to $1.10 a litre to produce.”

Mr Katter said sugar mills are now in a unique position to provide baseload electricity if other agricultural and council waste can be used for power production in the months when cane isn’t being crushed.

Currently Queensland’s sugar mills produce enough electricity to power the towns of Mackay and Bundaberg, and the Australian Sugar Milling Council says another 1,000 MWs could be developed.[1]

“Growers can’t compete with Brazil who have ethanol and Thailand and India who have heavy subsidies. Biofuels and bioenergy production would diversify income streams for growers and mills,” Mr Katter said.

“Former Airforce Air Vice-Marshal, John Blackburn, is one hundred precent right in saying that a secure supply of electricity and fuel are essential for national security.[2]

“China has control of 40 percent of the electricity industry. If electricity is cut off then you have no water supply and no sewerage, as they are powered by electric pumps.

“Liddell coal fired power station is closing[3] and if another two close you’ll be on intermittent power. You’ll have to pray to the Good Lord that the sun shines at night and the wind blows 24/7. So, if we can get sustainable baseload power from our sugar mills than that will be a huge advantage. I will add that any new biofuels or bioenergy plants should be Australian owned.”

State Member for Hill, Shane Knuth, said high prices laid squarely at the foot of State and Federal Governments who had done nothing to address fuel security or to develop a biofuels industry.

“It was the KAP that lead the charge and introduced a four percent ethanol mandate into the Queensland parliament, which became law,” he said.

“The State Government are doing nothing to properly enforce this mandate. Communities from Port Douglas to South East Queensland are reliant on a strong sugar cane industry and yet neither level of government is doing anything to diversify and strengthen it.”

KAP Candidate for the federal seat of Leichhardt, Rod Jensen, said governments should look at systems already in place when investing in sustainable energy.

“Co-generation and ethanol from sugar mills are ready to go with installations to existing mills and growing areas,” he said.

“We know that Europe, the USA and Brazil already heavily invest in bioenergy and ethanol, but in Australia we are way behind.

“We could add hundreds of jobs to the sugar industry and power thousands of homes if both levels of government back bioenergy and biofuels production. Our communities are sustained through our growers and the mills.”