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PRODUCTS WE ARE USING
BASALT DUST
Spreading Basalt on farmland can:
BOOST SOIL FERTILITY
Volcanic Basalt Rock Dust contains essential micro-nutrients like iron, magnesium, and calcium, which help to promote plant growth and health.
IMPROVE SOIL STRUCTURE
The fine dust particles help to create a better structure in the soil, improving drainage and allowing for better water retention.
ENHANCE PLANT GROWTH
The minerals and trace elements found in Volcanic Basalt Rock Dust provide a natural source of nourishment for your crops, helping to promote healthy growth and yield.
PROMOTE ROOT DEVELOPMENT
Volcanic Basalt Rock Dust helps to create an ideal growing environment for roots, encouraging healthy root development and growth for crops.
Some additional benefits could include lowering the emissions of nitrous oxide, reversing soil acidification that limits yields, and reducing demands for imported fertilisers.
PULVERISED CONCRETE
Our Concrete product is derived from the surplus and wasted amounts of concrete that are used in everyday construction products. The material is crushed to 0-4mm. The crushed concrete is completely safe to use on farmland.
The crushed concrete which is like a limestone product due to its manufactured content once spread will react with acidic rain and create a product called carbonic acid. The crushed concrete which is like a limestone product due to its manufactured content once spread will react with this carbonic acid (aided and abetted by the rainy Irish & British weather) and create a product called carbonic acid.
This carbonic acid is stored within the soil, not released from it in any way, shape or form and as part of the natural process within the soils this bicarbonate is transferred to the water table, on to the rivers and eventually will end up in the sea for hundreds of years.
Once this material is crushed down to the required size, the amount of actual carbon we can sequester is greatly increased due to the area it can now be applied to.
OTHER SILICATE MATERIAL
ENHANCED WEATHERING USING CONCRETE DUST
Typically, ideal application time for our crushed concrete will be after harvest or before seeds go in the ground in the spring, which means either August - September or February - April.
Again, with the crushed concrete product, the perception is that there will be a visible layer or film across the spread once applied. This is not the case.
The dust will in a matter of days will completely disappear, much the same as lime or indeed basalt rock dust.
Concrete is made up of the following components:
The cement element contained within can again be broken down into the following constituents with Lime and Silica being by far the main constituents:
There are small risks that exist for some ultramafic materials, such as potential heavy metal contamination, but the literature available and the percentage contents do demonstrate that any negative effect, will be almost certainly negligible.
Subsequent testing of water from water courses will prove this and underline our methodology and alleviate any concerns our clients will have. Another important factor is keeping the carbon emissions from the entire process low. We know that the transportation of the material to our farm locations will be our biggest source of emissions.
We can, again in conjunction with our farmers add various other components which can promote additional growth and reduce the need for weed management using pesticide. Keeping the transport distance to farm short is important; if that distance is too far, the emissions from the haulage can be counterproductive against the model we are trying to create.
BENEFITS
Farmers already use a different type of rock dust on fields: Agricultural limestone - to de-acidify the soil before crops are planted.
By getting the application of basalt, concrete, or other Olivine materials dust right, the use of limestone could be replaced.
(Like agricultural limestone, it must be applied carefully, because rock dust is dangerous to breathe, but when it’s mixed into the soil- it is there forever.)
Basalt, as an example is filled with nutrients like calcium and magnesium, can also boost crop yields as much as 45% as farmers apply it each year.
That may be the main reason that farmers start to use the new practice.