The Force of Nature Podcast is where regenerative thinking meets high-performance farming. Hosted by farm consultant Conan Moynihan, this show dives deep into the future of food, farming, and human health. Tune in for real-world conversations with farmers, thinkers, and disruptors who are transforming agriculture from the soil up; building profitable, resilient, and life-giving systems. If you’re ready to farm with purpose and live with intention, this podcast is for you.

I cover a lot and happy to talk about the benefits of biochar to composting and to dairy farms as outlined in the work I have been doing for BNNZ - under the Economic Applications page.

Listen on your favourite podcast app or on Conan's podcast.

Sharing to a farmer friend or composter appreciated!

Gerard turned 65 and then bought a 550ha farm for his retirement! Together with his son Jake, they are exploring more regenerative ways of farming livestock while also looking after the land. Biochar is an emerging part of this journey and I really like the DIY, give-it-a-go approach Kaipara Coast Farm is taking.

We chat about diversifying pastures, spraying out biochar with special brews designed to stimulate fungal activity and enhance pasture recovery, grazing mobs with high density and long rotations, and feeding biochar to livestock as well as using biochar in compost!

An introduction and overview of Biochar: https://www.sces.org.nz/biochar

The national biochar association in NZ: https://biochar.net.nz/ (BNNZ)

Intro sound: https://freesound.org/people/joshuaempyre/sounds/250749/

Great to get dairy farmers on the Char Chit Chat who actively use and promote biochar in many aspects of their farming operation. We delve into their farming journey and reveal many very sensible aspects such as once a day milking, cow barns with bunkers to give the cows comfort and to harness their nutrients, as well as their use of biochar as a feed supplement and carbon sponge.

In addition to farming, Megan shares her experience and knowledge as a farm coach and Daniel has a transport company and is distributing char based products sourced locally as well as other products that farmers require.

This interview is an excellent follow up and practical example happening in New Zealand to the recent release of the 10 Benefits of Biochar for Dairy Farms by BNNZ.

The last podcast for the year for Season 1! Dylan is joined by Matt from Carbon Options at Gallops Ridge Farm in the lower north island.

We talk about Matt's journey in life and with biochar as a solution to forestry slash on their property. They are giving parts back to nature and parts are being rehabilitated for farming. Biochar and livestock are being used to build the topsoil again after 3 pine forest rotations and it's working well. Matt uses a batch retort kiln and sells to wholesale customers as well as small scale sales at a local market.

He also educates in the local community about biochar making and use.

In addition Matt is also using two more waste streams (yeast and hops from a local brewery and cotton textiles) to make (a fertiliser and) biochar. He also has a novel product in development to be used as a spill kit filter. Tune in the hear all the details.

This is an audio version (with some commentary) of the literature review and creation of 10 Benefits of Biochar to Dairy Farms completed in late November 2025: https://biochar.net.nz/about-biochar/economic-applications/dairy-cows-and-biochar

Raymond is the founder, driving force, and funder behind BiocharTP. His company is developing two main products - an air curtain biochar producing machine and a livestock feed supplement called Carbon-kai.

We chat about Raymond's working life journey, his entrepreneurial success, and current huge biochar project and the problems it can potentially solve: grape marc, king salmon mortalities, wilding pines, livestock culling, green waste at councils, chicken mortalities, forestry residues, and so on.

Cool quote by Raymond: "....creating solutions for environmental issues with a carrot rather than a stick..."

Trevor is one of the founding members of Biochar Network New Zealand (BNNZ) and the secretary since its inception in 2019. He joined me for a chat and talked about his journey with biochar and many insights into its prevalence in SouthEast Asia and New Zealand.

Another flame cap method using Warm Heart kilns, that I hadn't heard of before, was described in detail and the Warm Heart organisation is doing superb work in promoting biochar in Thailand and in some countries in Africa. Their resource bank is superb. They have provided a way for small holders to earn carbon credits as well through their http://biochar.life/ program which offers a way for individuals or businesses anywhere in the world to offset their carbon emissions by supporting these people on the land to make biochar from ag wastes instead of open burning it.

Trevor also talked about the history of research into biochar in New Zealand and how the The New Zealand Biochar Research Centre came about - it lasted around 10 years. He reflected on 'kicking the tyres' of the pyrolysis machine built at Massey Uni:

Here is the thesis about the machine above: https://mro.massey.ac.nz/bitstream/handle/10179/5864/02_whole.pdf and more biochar related dissertations from Massey: https://mro.massey.ac.nz/browse/subject?value=Biochar&bbm.return=1 - there is not much left online about the The New Zealand Biochar Research Centre. Auckland and Lincoln universities also do biochar research, but it is difficult to find info on their websites.

Trevor outlines many areas of society where biochar could complement - a long list - and where BNNZ could engage if it had more resources (both people and funds).

I enjoyed Trevor's obvious passion, dedication, and simple tips such as matching the char method to the biomass resource at hand...

In this episode Dylan reads the article now on the BNNZ website that outlines the benefits of adding biochar into any composting system. Dylan was paid by BNNZ to create the article and a couple of versions of it to help promote biochar being used in composting. It outlines 10+ ways that biochar benefits composting. Aeration, nutrient adsorption, biology habitat promotion, pH improvement, carbon sequestration, less smells, quicker completion, and so on. Every benefit is backed up with links to academic research! 2-10% by weight and high temperature (above 600° C) best so that the biochar has high surface area.

Here are some great supporting resources:

USBI brochure on composting with biochar (pdf)

Video featuring biochar made at a composting facility in Spain: https://youtu.be/oHbdtJxb6ZE?si=ckop5L8FBJg0OURr (4.5 mins)

Thorough and referenced blog post: https://www.compostmagazine.com/biochar-in-compost

Extremely well referenced white paper by Pacific Biochar: https://pacificbiochar.com/wp-content/uploads/Pacific-Biochar_Biochar-Compost_white-paper.pdf

Excited to release this chat with Huhana so you too can enjoy her passion for biochar and growing good food. Huhana is an artist, university professor, farmer, kaitiaki, biochar enthusiast, and more...

We explore a recent stream rehabilitation project made into an art project that has probably exposed thousands of people to biochar with an exhibition in Wellington.

We go into some detail on making biochar paint and how it was applied to the hemp and wool roll with a design inspired by pukeko footprints... Supporting blog post: https://passionatepermies.wordpress.com/2025/09/24/podcast-with-huhana-smith

Loads more detail of the Kuku Biochar Project: https://www.drawingopen.com/blog/2024/3/3/the-kuku-biochar-project-2021-2024

Listen to Huhana on RNZ: https://www.rnz.co.nz/podcast/countrylife/2025/huhana-smith-artist-scholar-activist-and-farmer

Follow Huhana on instagram @dooze69High and her property website: https://www.waikokopuoil.co.nz

Episode 14 featured Cameron who lives on a lifestyle block near Pukekohe in the Auckland region of New Zealand.

I liked Cameron's answer to what is biochar: "I like the coral reef analogy - I think it's something people understand. They have a strong visual image of what a coral reef is... and full of life, a structure, a habitat..."

Cameron is super passionate about biochar because of the results he gets after adding it to his growing areas.

We talk about the practicalities of making biochar and how his methods have adapted over time to suit his context. Retorts at community gardens, TLUDs for corn cobs, pits for home biomass, to old dairy vat for prunings and sawmill waste...

We also talk about feeding biochar to various animals and using it successfully in a deep litter sytem for chickens.

We hear about Cameron's optimism for making serious inroads into predator control with the confluence of intelligent, resetting, and dynamic traps that hopefully will become low cost enough to be deployed throughout all of New Zealand.

The chat gets into permaculture near the end and you can also read more on Cameron's blog: https://onionroadfarm.com/ including some posts about biochar :)

An introduction and overview of Biochar: https://www.sces.org.nz/biocharThe national biochar association in NZ: https://biochar.net.nz/ (BNNZ)https://freesound.org/people/joshuaempyre/sounds/250749/