> Sorry I've been abit quiet, I have just spent a number of days out > at our research site. I installed a BBS out there and soon hope to > encourage local farmers to participate in the activities that we > offer. Great show! Looking forward to communicating with them. Are any of them vegetable/fruit growers? Did you install RA under FD with TosScan? Of course you did. :-) > I see sust_ag has been rather busy while I have been away, but in > future I will be able to participate from our research site. We > meet with out field managers every month to review our broad acre > management programs and activities. I'm sure they will find interesting subjects for discussion in this conference. Hope so anyway. > We have about 1,600 acres under our care and our next trials span > only a small 10 acres. These new trials will expand my horizons > and knowledge, and I am keen to see sustainable agricultural > methods in practice. Our government is now pushing hard for > minimun till, sustainable methods. Needless to say I am keenly interested in vegetable production and would like to learn from the research you are doing. The underground micropore irrigation could be easily adapted to my farm and would be very effective. A main advantage would be reduction of water loss through evaporation. Reducing the time the well pump has to run and the load on the aquifer would be highly desirable. My 2hp pump would cost well over $1000 to replace. Purging the pipes with air prior to irrigating with a very dilute mixture of any combination of fish emulsion/liquid seaweed/manure tea/compost tea with water should produce fantastic results. My soil is very well drained, well aerated red-colored Georgeville silt loam and would respond well to this system of irrigation/fertilization. Any input from you on this would be welcome, i.e. the equipment needed for the system: micropore pipes, liquid pump/air pump, monitoring equipment, moisture sensors, etc.