Char Chit Chat

Episode 6 featured James from the Hawkes Bay. We talk about his current role as a tutor at Land Based Training where he hopes to incorporate biochar into the horticulture courses.

James' passion for biochar shows through as we get into the chat. He bought himself a kontiki kiln several years ago and wanted to create a business making and selling biochar and blends with other products, but struggled to finance it fully. It is now on the back burner while he works at his current employer. James mentions a company in Australia called Pyrolitech that he considered buying plans from for their biochar retort that goes onto a trailer.

James is a committee member of Biochar Network New Zealand.

Anni talks to Dylan about her life journey from Germany to Portugal to settling in New Zealand in 2012. She and husband Ron homestead on 50 acres in Maheno in North Otago and besides homeschooling 3 children, homesteading with livestock, reading books, she also has a small business providing biological spraying services using biochar!

Anni shares her insights into human health and the link to the health of soil. We go into detail about her small business using a cyclone sprayer to apply soil beneficial concoctions using biochar as a carrier for microbiology. She refers to a paper by Glodowska as her inspiration.

Katerina has been involved in biochar in New Zealand since the 'early days' - one of the pioneers who saw it as a practical way to sequester carbon in response to excess carbon in the air. She talks about her trials in the garden using biochar and how she still continues to use it in her compost and to grow food. We talk about what young people think about climate issues nowadays and some ways people can find a purpose in life that does good for the world.

More info and photos at: https://passionatepermies.wordpress.com/2026/03/08/podcast-with-climate-activist-katerina-seligman/

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...