Lobato

The podcast Fresh Growth features innovative producers in sustainable agriculture. Michael Lobato of Lobato Farms in Colorado and Holly Stanley with the Mesa Conservation District discuss their work on restoring farmland and researching biochar. Michael transformed five acres of land from a sheep ranch into a productive farm by clearing the area and planting native grasses. He also incorporated biochar, which improved water holding capacity and reduced weed pressure. Holly joined the project as a research assistant and they developed a method of injecting biochar into the soil using a machine used in golf courses. The project has shown positive results, including increased water holding capacity and improved soil health. Hello, and welcome to Season 4 of Fresh Growth, a podcast by the Western SARE Program at Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education. I'm your host, Steve Elliott, alongside co-host Stacy Clary. Thanks for listening for the past three seasons and joining us as we sit down with more innovative producers from around the West. For background, Western SARE is funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture to promote sustainable farming and ranching across the American West through research, education, and communication efforts like this podcast. Fresh Growth introduces producers and agricultural professionals who are embracing new ways of farming and ranching. They'll tell us about their experiences adopting more sustainable agricultural practices and the challenge and benefits they've seen. Today's guests are Michael Lobato of Lobato Farms in Fruta, Colorado, and Holly Stanley with the Mesa Conservation District. With Lobato Farms, Michael is working to clean up and restore five acres of farmland, transforming what was once part of a large sheep ranch into a thriving produce farm. He's also working with Holly to research biochar and new technologies. Michael and Holly, welcome and thanks for sitting down with us. Thank you for having us. Thank you. To start, Michael, would you please tell us about the location and the climate of your farm and specifically, why did you take on this project of transforming the land? The climate here in Fruta is USDA Zone 6B. Some of the areas around here nearby is just a few miles away or 7A, so it's highly variable in this valley. We're about 4,600 feet along the Colorado River. I took on this project because I can't sit still, partly, but I like to stay busy. But also, you know, with my background in the natural sciences and just appreciating natural resources, I just wanted to do a project like this and see what it took and what I could learn and all that. So it's just more or less a personal challenge and also, this was a way to acquire some farmland without having to buy some ready-made farmland. It's just too expensive, so that's why we had to put the sweat activity into it. Tell us what you're doing specifically. What was the land like and what's your background in the natural sciences and then what you're bringing to this and trying to accomplish? Just sort of describe that a little. So the land, it was a 30-acre sheep ranch, so this five acres was split off of it, and so there was no fencing, no irrigation, infrastructure, nothing like that. The land that I'm on was mostly the feedlot part, so it was high in salts from manures. It wasn't irrigated, this part of the land, so it was really just dirt and a monostand of kochia, which is, of course, an invasive weed, and that's virtually what I had to work with. So it looks very much different today, but that's it. What have you done to go from the five acres of kochia to what you've got now? I started by basically clearing a six- to eight-foot kochia stand. We burned as much as we could, and then we basically started irrigating the land, and we planted all Western native grasses, so mostly Western wheat, thick-spiked wheat, and then some warm-season species, gailleta and cytodesgrammas and things like that. They seem to be doing well now. It took quite a bit of reseeding and things like that, but they've taken a hold now, and the soil quality is definitely improving. I don't have the weed pressure I did, and, of course, I don't have the erosion now either. And then you started incorporating biochar. How did that get off the ground? Even though I studied geology, I've never heard the term biochar. We, of course, dabble a little bit with coal and things like that, carbon things, but biochar we've never studied. But it basically came about, my father was watching the news one night, and this local group called Citizens for Clean Air Grand Junction were looking for lots of land to do a study involving biochar and compost. And anyway, my father told me about that, and so I called that group up and said, you know, part of the reason why I bought this farm was to collaborate and learn and everything like that. And I said, you're more than welcome to do the trial. And so they did their trial, collected their data, and it was mostly good data. But what I was really struck by was how much water holding capacity improvement from just bare dry dirt in this hot desert climate drying out every day to now drying out every three, four, five days. And, of course, part of that could be the compost or is the compost, but also a big component of that was the biochar. So that's what hooked me. And so I put it in my third acre market garden, and it was night and day. I just did not have the water as much. And so that's why that started the whole thing. And that's my main focus with biochar. I know there's a lot of aspects to it, but the water holding capacity is really large because, of course, we live out west in the drought of the Colorado River and stuff. So, yeah, that's how that came about. Emily, how did your agency get involved with Michael, and what are you guys doing together? I actually got involved in this project as a student at Colorado Mesa University. I took this on as an internship in my senior year. I worked for the Bruce Powell Sessions Water Center at CMUMU at the time and had learned about biochar from other people who were interested in water and water conservation through that organization. And so when I saw the position available through Michael to do some biochar research, I was super excited and immediately applied to be his research assistant. And that whole experience has taken off. And once I graduated from CMU, I started a position at Mesa Conservation District, which Michael sits on the board with for them. So they are very much involved in supporting, or we are very much involved in supporting the project as well. And what is the project? What is it that the two of you are working on, and how has that led to looking at developing a new way to install biochar? So how the project itself, the research project, came about was, of course, I had said I would use the biochar in the third acre market garden and noticed those water holding capacity improvements. So I wanted to use biochar in the three-acre native grass pasture to see if I could make an already drought-resilient native grass stand even more drought-resilient. So then I thought, well, how am I going to put it on this field? Broadcasting didn't seem like really worthwhile. I just didn't see how that would show any benefit. And then so the next option was tilling it in, and I wasn't going to do that because I just got done planting it. So I'm like, well, how do I get this biochar in the soil? And so I just started thinking, and I came up with the idea to use an aeration. Aeration, and then the next question was, how do I fill those holes? And so that's how the whole thing started. And then I searched the web for a machine that would do what I envisioned it to do, and there was one machine that does, used in the golf industry on golf courses. They use it for sand on the putting greens. And so I applied for a few grants, hired Holly, and went out and did this trial, and we're seeing some great results now. So this machine essentially injects the biochar into the pasture? To some degree, yeah. This machine is, again, it's specifically used for turf, for golf turf, and on flat, even slopes and land. And so it wasn't necessarily the greatest tool to use to do in an agricultural field, but with much effort, we got the job done. We were able to inject biochar into the soil without tilling it at a depth of about six to eight inches. And so yes and no, the machine does inject things, but not really useful for agricultural purposes or any kind of topography that isn't even. So yes and no. We just had to try this concept and test it, and this was literally the only way we could was to have a golf course franchisee come out here and be willing to put in a 12-hour day and really get his machines dirty. We were worn out. All of the day was science. When did you do this, and what have you seen since? We installed the biochar May of last year. I believe it was like May 9th. So it's comprised of four strips. Each strip's a half acre. It's floodwater, furrow, irrigated dry land, grass, hay. We weren't particularly testing it in hay per se, but we just wanted to measure the water holding capacity improvements, and it just happened to be a hay field. But so far what we've noticed, we have noticed about a 23% increase in water holding capacity in those soils from 0 to 24 inches. So that profile was virtually modified in one day to now hold 23% more water. The other things we noticed, virtually both biochar strips showed higher protein and relative feed qualities in the hay versus the controls. And then Holly can go into depth about some of the SPAD and NDVI data as well. For sure. The main reason why beyond just the no-telling aspect of injecting biochar as compared to some of the other known methods of implementing it is because there's some research out there that shows that getting that biochar at the root zone is actually the most optimal way of seeing those positive soil health and water conservation results. And so that was another reason why we really thought that this was the best way to do that. After just a few months getting some of those soil moisture results and some soil microbiology results as well as testing the biomass of the forage, we saw that as far as the microbiology, there were more microbiology communities as far as fungi and bacteria in the strip that had 50% less watering by frequency and was injected with the biochar. And that was compared to all the other strips both being not injected with biochar and watered at 100%. We also saw that with the SPAD results, which show chlorophyll in the leaf of the plant, that there was more chlorophyll present in the strip that was watered less at 50% and injected with biochar. We also did a green seeker analysis, which will tell you after converting that into the equation what kind of fertilization regimen you would use or prescribe for that area. We saw more nitrogen also in that strip that was watered at 50% and injected with biochar. So this was kind of not the results that I was expecting when first starting the experiment. I thought for sure the strip that we watered at 100% by frequency and injected with biochar would be the strip that would show the best results because you're watering it like you would any other agricultural field and you're also implementing it with biochar, which all the research suggests this is a good thing to put into the soil. So I thought for sure that that would be the strip that did the best. But funny enough as it is, our results on every single thing that we tested showed that that wasn't the strip that did the best. The strip that you actually watered less at 50% by frequency showed the best results all the way around in every aspect that we tested. So that leads me to believe that there may be the sweet spot with watering when you inject biochar. It almost forces your hand if you want to get the best results as far as foraging and soil health and water conservation. Obviously you have to water less when you inject biochar into a system. Have you noticed that in your third acre garden plot that you are watering less and that you're seeing better results as a result of watering less? In the market garden, it's only, this year would be its fourth year having any vegetables planted in it. And each year it's really, that plot has been a trial and error with watering regimes. I've done sprinkler, flood furrow, and drip. So it's hard to say if I've watered less and seen better benefits in that plot. But I definitely noticed it does not dry out near as fast as it did for sure. Like I said, a day versus now it can go four days without being dry. Sounds like there's an opportunity for a really good mechanical engineer to adapt that golf course machine for use in agricultural fields. Is that part of your background, Michael? Are you interested in learning that as well? Well, actually some of my background does include some time as a heavy equipment mechanic. So, of course, I love all types of machines. And so, yeah, this project kind of just came together with my background of being an equipment tech and my love for natural resources and science and soil. So, yeah, certainly we do have a patent pending on some new technology to replicate what we've done. Because the existing machine is strictly designed for golf courses. Although it completed our trial, I mean, it's just not viable to do this in any large acreage or an ag field. So, yeah, we're taking what we've learned and designing something that we can scale and use. For either Michael or Holly, are you seeing interest from other folks in your area about what you're doing and what you found out? Yeah, a lot of people are very interested in it. I think partly because it's so new and different that it's just interesting to them. And then part of the other reason is they're interested as we're just seeing such great results. So, people are like, what is going on here? Like, is this for real? And we have this data. We have very little data to show that there's any negative benefit. So, people are certainly interested, but they're also a little unsure because they, you know, with Biochar, a lot of people just A, don't know about it, and B, you know, how much do you use? How do you install it and what crops? There's really no guide for Biochar, you know, for different crops and different soils and climates. So, there's a little bit of skepticism with it, which is fine and understandable, but we're just presenting our results in this field with our methods, and we've seen great results. So, yeah, people are certainly excited. And I think it gets a lot of people excited that, you know, not just the average farmer, but somebody, mechanical engineers that we're working with at Colorado Mesa University. It gets people excited just about technology in general, water conservation, and then it all ties back into agriculture, which I think there's a lot of opportunity to explore and invent and create right now. So, yeah, there is a lot of excitement, for sure. It's a really good reminder because, you know, in this field, we always, in this arena, we hear about the problems in agriculture and the challenges and climate and water and everything. But it's a really good reminder that all those challenges are opportunities to innovate, to invent, to do things differently and do things better. And so, thank you for that. Sure. Do you have any advice for other, you know, growers, anybody who wants to try something different on their farm? I mean, what would you recommend? Who would you recommend? I mean, the kind of connections that you would urge them to explore. I would start with reaching out to the local NRCS office, USDA office, and local conservation districts to get started with some, you know, different new practices. You could maybe get some grants to help so you don't have the burden of trying something drastically different and it doesn't work. But that's fine because you still learn some things. But, yeah. Do you have anything, Noelle? I would just say that reaching out to, like, universities. We're a very lucky Colorado State University. The Western Research Center is in Fruita. There's also one in Archer Mesa, which is just right around the way as well. And reaching out to local schools. You know, the collaboration with the students there, the mechanical engineering students, it's just been eye-opening. And we've learned so much about the process of implementation and, you know, and how that could be worked out. And so that was an amazing, it has been an amazing experience as well. But I would just say never give up because for as many yeses as we've had, we've had, you know, five more nos. And so just, you know, when you have an idea and you really believe in it and, you know, you have, you know, research to back it up, just keep trudging forward because it could be, you know, an amazing innovation in agriculture. And that's definitely what we believe, what we're creating. And with our patent-pending innovation, we definitely believe that this could be some game-changer for a lot of agricultural producers in drought, you know, driven areas and our prone areas, I mean. And so, yeah, just don't give up. Yeah, Hans-Peter Schmidt of the Ithaca Institute in Switzerland, they research carbon strategies and technologies. And I first sent this concept to him because he's one of the ones that studied deposit the biochar near the root zones and how that's far more optimal than just filled in the soil. And so his work showed that. And so when I sent this to him, he was like, yes, we've been waiting for somebody to figure this out. We've got the data out as well, but they just did it on little by hand, right? And they called it by hand how they needed to. And so, yeah, I mean, at first there was, when we said we were going to inject biochar with a golf course machine using pistachio shell biochar to save water in western Colorado, people were like, this is crazy, like what? A lot of people literally didn't really understand. And still, until we can show them or show them the trial plan, it's hard to really understand what we're doing. But once you read it or see our data, it makes perfect sense. It's really not crazy complicated, but our data and our results are straightforward, and we're pretty excited about them. Actually, just today, we got the spring soil samples back from the lab, and they are showing one of our hypothesis was that maybe biochar installed in this manner would somehow hold on to the nutrients. And the next year you wouldn't need to apply as much fertilizer. And so I got those results back today, and those are showing exactly what we hypothesized. The biochar strips are needing far, far less recommended amounts of fertilizer applied. The non-amended strips are needing tens of pounds per acre applied. And so already, you're already gaining back the cost to implement this. Yeah, everything has been on point so far. Not to say, you know, with biochar, a lot of different trials, you get different results. But nobody has literally tested or studied it in this manner. So there may be, you know, maybe that's the golden ticket. Who knows? There's a lot of more research to be done, but with our study, we're seeing awesome results. It all sounds great. Any timeframe for a prototype of the new injector? Man, I don't know. It's hard to put a timeframe on that because there's a lot of work to do. Yeah, yeah. We're really just doing our best to do our job in addition to this trial. So, yeah, we're in the industry stages. But we're confident we will get something and keep working towards, you know, this solution, this potential solution. Yeah, outstanding. I'll look forward to hearing that it's been approved, you're moving on, and the new research you're doing and all that. I hope we stay in touch and you keep letting us know how it's going. Absolutely, yeah. All right. Well, thank you very much for your time and describing all your work. And I thought it was a really good point about building partnerships. It sounds like a lot of excitement in your community. So thank you. Yeah, thank you for having us. And if you're ever in western Colorado, we can go show you the product sold. I'm actually really hoping to get out there pretty soon, so thank you. I would like to see it. Awesome. All right, thanks. All right, thank you, Stacey. Thanks, Steve. Thank you for listening to Fresh Birth. We hope you enjoyed this episode. For more information on Western SARE Grants and our learning resources, visit westernsare.org.