
Michael Quintern- Dr. agr. Managing Director / Founder
- Managing Director at Noke GmbH
Michael Quintern
- Dr. agr. Managing Director / Founder
- Managing Director at Noke GmbH
About
28
Publications
22,933
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Introduction
I bring over three decades of experience in consulting and research, specialising in Circular Economy Strategies, ESG, Organic Waste Recovery, Agricultural Soil Science, and Regenerative Farming. My extensive expertise has been instrumental in collaborating with diverse stakeholders to develop and implement sustainable solutions that drive performance improvement, enhance resilience, and elevate reputations.
Current institution
Noke GmbH
Current position
- Managing Director
Additional affiliations
November 2007 - June 2016
EcoCast Limited
Position
- Founder & Director
March 2007 - September 2023
Noke Limited
Position
- Founder & Head of Innovation and Operation
Description
- Industrial vermicomposting
Education
August 1993 - June 1997
October 1987 - July 1993
August 1980 - July 1983
Landwirtschaftskammer Westfalen-Lippe
Field of study
- Farmer, apprenticeship
Publications
Publications (28)
Earthworms are the emerging work force behind the up-cycling of dewatered sludge from municipal and industrial wastewater treatment plants and of wet organic residues from food processing industries in New Zealand. Vermicomposting is increasingly becoming the strategy of choice, transforming these sludge’s and wastes into a safe and highly valued f...
The traditional means of disposing of processing wastes to landfill is receiving close scrutiny due to high capex and opex costs and negative environmental impacts. Increasingly stringent legislation means communities and industries are seeking the security of alternative solutions when planning their long-term organic waste disposal strategies. Im...
Noke Limited is currently vermicomposting 21,000 tonnes per year of dewatered Waste Activated Sludge (WAS) and Dissolved Air Flotation (DAF) sludge from milk processing plants in New Zealand. The sludge is blended with 30,000 tonnes of several pulp and paper mill sludge from Carter Holt Harvey Pulp & Paper Mills to adjust pH, C/N ratio and other nu...
More than 180,000 tonnes of carbon rich fibrous by-products from New Zealand's largest pulp and paper mills have been disposed to landfills for decades. The aim of this project was to identify a sustainable source of nutrient as well as a cost effective technology to produce a high quality soil conditioner or fertiliser. Blending pulpmill solids wi...
New Zealand is currently producing some 240,000 tonnes of municipal biosolids per year with increasing volumes due to improving standards of effluent treatment and population growths. New Zealand's central north island is home of approximately 450,000 people. Some 40,000 wet tonnes of municipal biosolids (sewage sludge) are produced in the region a...
TECHNICAL FEATURES SUMMARY The Carter Holt Harvey Kinleith pulp and paper mill has undertaken huge efforts to minimise its landfilled organic wastes over the last decade. Besides increasing fibre recovery rates options for alternative uses of pulpmill solids have been evaluated over time. In 2008 a feasibility study of industrial scale vermicompost...
Kinleith Pulp & Paper plant at Tokoroa is recycling 50,000 to 70,000 wet tonnes of primary clarifier and secondary sludges at an organic certified vermicompost plant per annum. In the first year of operation 30,000 tonnes of sludges and wood ash were diverted from Kinleith landfill. This volume estimated to represent about 10% of New Zealand's tota...
Western Bay of Plenty District Council (WBOPDC) has taken up the challenge of producing stabilised biosolids from its wastewater sludges so they can all be safely and beneficially applied to land. Te Puke WWTP biosolids reuse is contracted out for vermicomposting in Kawerau. EcoCast Ltd is mixing some 900 tonnes of biosolids, with several thousand...
This field study was initiated to measure soil CO2 evolution of the Turiel ridge tillage system under faba bean (Vicia faba L.) compared with mouldboard ploughing. The CO2–C measurements were done in situ with a transportable infrared gas analyzer at different positions on the ridges and furrows and on mouldboard plough plots with and without veget...
The present study was conducted to determine the spatial heterogeneity of bulk density, soil moisture, inorganic N, microbial biomass C, and microbial biomass N in the ridge tillage system of Turiel compared to conventional mouldboard ploughing on three sampling dates in May, July, and August. The soil sampling was carried out under vegetation repr...
The pulp and paper industry generates large volumes of organic solid waste from its pulping and papermaking processes, and its subsequent wastewater treatment operation. Currently these wastes are predominantly landfilled. Vermicomposting had been identified as a potential short-medium term option for the beneficial re-use of these solids, and a fe...
Large quantities of biosolids (sewage sludge), which are produced from municipal wastewater treatment, are ever-increasing because of the commissioning of new treatment plants and continuous upgrades of the existing facilities. A large proportion of biosolids are currently landfilled. With increasing pressure from regulators and the general public,...
Large quantities of biosolids (sewage sludge), which are produced from municipal wastewater treatment, are ever-increasing because of the commissioning of new treatment plants and continuous upgrades of the existing facilities. Significant efforts have been made recently to develop new technologies to manage biosolids and make useful products from...
Chisel plough or no-till practises are clearly attributed to sustainable farming for the support of soil organisms and soil biological functioning. However, in organic farming these techniques are only applied to a very small extent since there is a need for cultivation to control weeds. In organic farming it is important to develop and establish l...
Outdoor pig fattening in organic farming has become more popular over the past few years, due to benefits in relation to animal welfare and economical reasons. On the other hand, ecological risks like nutrient accumulation in soils and leaching of nitrate (N) into groundwater have been described and discussed in outdoor pig productions systems. The...
Long-term effects on soil chemical and soil biological properties were analyzed after an 8 y period with addition of biogenic household-waste compost and shredded shrubs with and without N fertilization to an arable field. The addition of compost and shredded shrubs to soil increased significantly all soil organic matter–related properties. The eff...
For monitoring soil fertility after changing farm management from highly conventional to organic farming on the newly established research farm of Kassel University, two permanent–soil monitoring sites were installed in 1999. Representative locations for installing the permanent–soil monitoring sites were selected using geographical information sys...
Outdoor pig fattening in organic farming has become more popular over the past few years, due to benefits in relation to animal welfare and economical reasons. On the other hand, ecological risks like nutrient accumulation in soils and leaching of nitrate (N) into groundwater have been described and discussed in outdoor pig productions systems. The...
Die natürliche Bodenfruchtbarkeit erhalten oder wenn möglich sogar zu fördern ist eines der zentralen Aufgaben der Bodenbearbeitung in der Ökologischen Landwirtschaft. Die Bodenbearbeitung soll die Gare des Bodens, das Bodenleben und das Bodengefüge fördern. Die weit verbreitete Bodenbearbeitung mit dem oftmals mehr als 25 cm tief wendenden Pflug f...
Little is known about the sustainability of irrigated oasis agriculture in northern Oman. The objective of this study therefore was to examine which factors allowed agricultural productivity to be apparently maintained during the two millenia of a mountain oasis' existence. Soil moisture and physico-chemical properties were measured in a typical fl...
In the interdisciplinary research project a field experiment of alternative tillage systems in organic farming was installed. Ridge till system from Turiel-Major and Ecomat- system from Kverneland will be compared with conventional ploughing system. Within the project, located on the experimental farm of the University of Kassel, regular yearly wor...
Summary:
Within an interdisciplinary approach 24groups of 20 pigs each were fattened outdoor to examine and calculate the nutrient inputs and their distribution in soils in relation to several management strategies. Management strategies varied in diets, field crops to pigs, static or moved installation units like huts, troughs, and sun shelters. S...
Alternative Anbausysteme Tief lockern, flach mischen, welche Form der reduzierten Bodenbearbeitung für Bio-Betriebe von Interesse ist und was das Turiel-Dammkultur-System bringt, erläutert Dr. Michael Quintern, Kassel.
Little is known about plant biodiversity, irrigation management and nutrient fluxes as criteria to assess the sustainability of traditional irrigation agriculture in eastern Arabia. Therefore interdisciplinary studies were conducted over 4 yrs on flood-irrigated fields dominated by wheat (Triticum spp.), alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) and date palm (...
The material used to reduce soil erosion is collected by the communities and originates from the pruning of bushes and trees in gardens and park areas. Due a new law it is obligatory to prove wheather all waste materials can be recycled and re-used. One way to recycle these organic wastes - the so-called shredded shrubs - is to compost it, which is...
The effect of the utilisation of non-composted shredded shrubs from gardens and parks on arable land was investigated in field plots. The application of shredded shrubs on the soil surface avoided soil erosion by water. The infiltration was kept high and runoff was reduced when shredded shrubs were applied. Shredded shrubs increased aggregate stabi...
Questions
Questions (5)
Dear colleagues,
Positive effects of Liquid Vermicast/vermicompost Extract (LVE) have been studied and published over the past decades, and the results on soil and plant health, yield, crop quality, suppression of diseases and pests, and mitigation of plant stress, to name a few, are overwhelming.
Often the publications describe the process of generating the LVE, the concentration or dilution and the frequency of the application. This information is very beneficial for consulting with farmers and growers, leading to increased requests for vermicast/vermicompost and its extract.
I often find application rates are missing: such as litres/ha or kg/ha or when applied in an orchard. What are the application rates when LVE is used in hydroponic systems?
I have the following question or request:
Can you share information, papers, or studies publishing the application rates in combination with the crop applied to and, if available, the concentration or dilution?
Please share links or uploads in this forum.
You can directly contact me at michael@mynoke.co.nz
Kind regards,
Michael Quintern
We often receive requests to adding biochar to the vermicomposting process to increase the value of the vermicast or the process itself. Most papers I found to this topic are actually finding that biochar hardly ever adds value to vermicast but vermicast almost always adds value to biochar. I would like to see a comparison of the products as single product (controls) and as of combination and to understand where the value adding aspect is.
As the quality of the compost vermicast and biochar varies a lot we need to compare high quality products against each other. Using a low grade compost and a high grade biochar will of course increase the compost quality (even sawdust might do so). But on the other and a high valuable biochar might be 'misused?
Regarding Terra Preta which is used as a referent for the value of biochar. These soils are high in nutrients, biochar, and earthworms (vermicast). What exactly is adding how much value to the soil fertility?
I am looking for some studies showing effects of vermicompost, vermicast, worm tea, etc to Macadamia orchards. Any links or references are highly appreciated.