Innovative Soil Opening

TechnologiesRevolutionising farming

© Rob Borland 2009

Rob Borland MScRes, IEng IAgrE

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Contents

• ISOT vs Current Methods & Technologies

• ISOT’s Benefits to Customers

• Summary

• Atmospheric CO2 Reduction Potential

• Food for Thought

• Definition of Terms

• Information Sources

© Rob Borland 2009

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Conventional Agriculture285hp @ 2m/s

= 81.4hp/m

= 25.9lt/ha (3.5m x 2857m)

=67.9kg CO2/ha

Train Mass

11.7t + 2.6t = 14.3t

= 4.1t/m

280hp @ 2m/s

= 46.6hp/m

= 14.9lt/ha (6m x 1666.6m)

= 38.9kg CO2/ha

Train Mass

11.7t + 2.9t = 14.6t

= 2.4t/m

200hp @ 2m/s

= 33.3hp/m

= 10.6lt/ha (6m x 1666.6m)

= 27.8kg CO2/ha

Train Mass

11.7t + 9.44t = 21.14t

= 3.5t/m

765hp

= 161hp/m

= 51.4lt/ha

= 134.6kg CO2/ha

Traffic Mass

= 10t/m

© Rob Borland 2009

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Minimum Tillage Agriculture

450hp @ 2m/s

= 75hp/m

= 23.9l/ha (6m x 1666.6m)

=64.3kg CO2/ha

Train Mass

43t + 11.8t = 44.8t

= 7.5t/m

450hp @ 2m/s

= 24.5hp/m

= 7.8l/ha (18.35m x 545m)

=20.4kg CO2/ha

Train Mass

43t + 14.8t = 47.8t

= 2.6t/m

900hp

= 99.5hp/m

= 31.7l/ha

=84.8kg CO2/ha

Traffic Mass

10.1t/m

© Rob Borland 2009

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Current Zero-Tillage Agriculture

(Disc Drill)

300hp @ 2m/s

= 50hp/m

= 15.9l/ha (6m x 1666.6m)

= 41.7kg CO2/ha

Continuous Mass applied

per Opener = 250kg

Train Mass

12.4t + 8.2t = 20.6t

= 3.4t/m

300hp

= 50hp/m

= 15.9l/ha

= 41.7kg CO2/ha

Traffic Mass

= 3.4t/m

© Rob Borland 2009

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Current Zero-Tillage Agriculture

(Tined Drill)

450hp @ 2m/s

= 24.5hp/m

= 7.8l/ha (18.35m x 545m)

=20.4kg CO2/ha

Train Mass

43t + 14.8t = 47.8t

= 2.6t/m

450hp @ 2m/s

= 24.5hp/m

= 7.8l/ha

=20.4kg CO2/ha

Traffic Mass

= 2.6t/m

© Rob Borland 2009

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Zero-Tillage with ISOT

216hp

= 18hp/m

= 5.7lt/ha

= 15kg CO2/ha

Traffic Mass

11.7t + 4t = 15.7t

= 1.3t/m

216hp @ 2m/s

= 18hp/m

= 5.7lt/ha (12m x 833.3m)

= 15kg CO2/ha

Max Mass per Opener

= 20kg

Train Mass

11.7t + 4t = 15.7t

= 1.3t/m

© Rob Borland 2009

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Comparison Table for all Operations to

Establish a Crop

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

180

Hp/m lt/ha CO2/ha t/m

Conventional

Min-Till

Zero-Till (Disc)

Zero-Till (Tine)

ISOT

@ 2.62kg/lt

© Rob Borland 2009

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Comparison Table on Planting

Operations Only

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

Hp/m lt/ha CO2/ha t/m

Conventional

Min-Till

Zero-Till (Disc)

Zero-Till (Tine)

ISOT

© Rob Borland 2009

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Power / Meter Used between

Draught and PTO

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

Hp

/m

Hp/m used by PTO

Hp/m used by Draught

© Rob Borland 2009

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ISOT’s Benefits

It’s Seriously Green

• Reduces fuel usage

• Small Carbon Footprint

• Promotes C02 sequestration into the soil

• Less material in manufacturing

• Long working life

• End of life recycling

© Rob Borland 2009

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It’s Economic

• Up to 80% reduced fuel usage

• Higher crop yields

• Adaptable to different crops, climate &

soils

• Usage in ploughed & zero-tillage fields

• Easy maintenance

© Rob Borland 2009

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It’s High Performance

• It out performs all current planters & drills

• Accurate seed placement

• 5 – 30 km/hr planting speed

• Plants into fields with heavy vegetative

covers

© Rob Borland 2009

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It’s a Revolution in Soil Opening

Technology

• Will change the way crops are planted

• Upgradeable & updateable for years to come

• Can be used in commercial & subsistence agriculture

• Low draught requirement thus soil compaction can be significantly reduced, possibly to negligible levels

© Rob Borland 2009

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Summary

• The ISOT is far superior to all directly competing, current planters in both conventional and conservation agriculture.

• ISOT is a disruptive technology and has the potential to make a sizeable, positive impact in the Agricultural Industry.

• ISOT is also suitable for subsistence agriculture where animal and human draught power is used.

© Rob Borland 2009

Atmospheric CO2 Reduction Potential

• There are 1.365 billion hectares of land under

agricultural food production.

• CO2 Mitigation rate with zero-tillage is between 0.07 &

1.27tonnes C / ha / year.

• If half the world’s land were converted to zero-tillage

between 48 million & 866 million tonnes / year of Carbon

could be sequestered into the soil.

• This is equivalent to 175.68 million tonnes to 3.167

billion tonnes of CO2 / year.

16© Rob Borland 2009

Atmospheric CO2 Reduction Potential

• Conventional Agriculture emits 134.6kg CO2/ha

• Zero-tillage with ISOT emits 15kg CO2/ha

• Difference is 119.6kg CO2/ha

• Net CO2 emission reduction, from planting operations alone, if half the world

converted to zero-tillage = 81.63 million tonnes per year at only one planting

per year. Many countries in the tropics have two plantings per year.

• Ploughing also increases CO2 emissions from the soil, zero-tillage reverses

this.

• Ploughing requires high levels of artificial fertilisers to be applied to crops,

zero-tillage in many cases does not require any extra fertilisers or otherwise

considerably less due to the healthier soils.

• Zero-tillage eliminates run off in the field, thus any fertilisers or chemicals

applied stay in the field and do not end up in the local watercourses where

they cause major pollution and environmental disruption.

17© Rob Borland 2009

Food for Thought

• From a comprehensive study done by the

International Soil Reference and Information

Centre in 1991, “mankind has degraded more

than 7.5million square miles (1.943 billion ha) of

land. An area the size of the United States and

Canada combined.”

• Zero-tillage or Conservation Agriculture can help

to reverse this process.

18© Rob Borland 2009

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Definition of Terms

• Hp – Horsepower. The amount of power produced by an engine measured at the flywheel which is power available to do work. It is also used to define the minimum amount of power required to operate an implement.

• M/s – Metres per second. Ground speed of the tractor and implement train.

• Hp/m – Horsepower per metre. Total tractor power required to operate implements divided by the working width of the implement. This figure accurately indicates how much power is consumed per metre of soil being tilled, in total and by each type of operation.

• lt/ha – Litres per hectare. The amount of fuel that the tractors will burn in each field operation and in total per hectare of land worked in order to establish a sown field.

• CO2/ha – Carbon dioxide per hectare. The amount of CO2 emitted by the tractor engines burning diesel. For every litre of diesel burnt 2.62kg of CO2is emitted.

• t/m – tonnes per metre. The total weight of the tractor and implements divided by the working width of the implement. This figure gives a basic idea as to how much traffic a field has to endure in order that a crop can be sown. The more traffic mass per metre there is the more likely hood of there being compaction problems, although it is not quite as simple as this.

© Rob Borland 2009

Information Sources

• CO2 sequestration figures – Paper written by

Thomas Gaiser et al, University of Bonn;

Modelling carbon sequestration under zero-

tillage at the regional scale. 1. The effect of soil

erosion.

• CO2 emission figures – manufactures product

details and farming data sources

• Soil degradation – ISRIC via National

Geographic Magazine September 2008 issue.

20© Rob Borland 2009