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<body><div>Unlike Dr. WatJohn who grew up on a working farm, I was born and raised in the city so have been removed from working the earth for a number of generations and as such, am talking out of my hat (some might say a completely different anatomical region) when it comes to agrarian knowledge but have comments nevertheless.</div><div><br></div><div>From what I've seen, corn stover is even more "woody" than the "waste" residues (ie straw) left over from growing cereal grains. </div><div><br></div><div>Decomposition of such cellulosic materials which are ploughed back into the soil consume valuable nitrogen from the soil and corn stover, being so woody, requires a long time to decompose.</div><div><br></div><div>So, in addition to depleting nitrogen from the soil (nitrogen being essential to leafy vegetative growth), the long decomposition time of the very coarse debris hinders planting of the next growing season's crop.</div><div><br></div><div>In the Olde Days, farmers dealt with these issues by spreading manure (human or animal) fertiliser on their fields (ie the manure containing lots of nitrogen which helps to accelerate decomposition of the cellulosic crop residues and well as putting nitrogen into the soil) and then leaving the fields to remain fallow for a year before planting a different crop (ie crop rotation). </div><div><br></div><div>In Modern Day MegaFarming, leaving a field to lay fallow for a year would be an unspeakable sin, from the viewpoint of a financial bottom line and just not done.</div><div><br></div><div>So in the Olde Days, in addition to improving soil fertility without the use of the fertiliser equivalent of Monsanto crystal meth which has a similar effect on soil as does the Breaking Bad chemicals on humans , soil tilth (ie soil structure) would also be improved by having had the crop residues worked back into the soil.</div><div><br></div><div>Which is to say, in a long and roundabout way, in answer to Sanjay's musing, I would venture "Yes", working crop residues like corn stover back into the soil does make a significant contribution to sustainablity.</div><div><br></div><div>The health of soils in which such practises are utilised will be vastly different than the soils in which crop residues are removed and used to make stuff like building panels. The latter soils will most likely have a structure like concrete and be biologically burned out, essentially dead.</div><div><br></div><div>Without healthy soil, well, you know.</div><div><br></div><div>Which is to say the same thing as Dr. WatJohn but in way more words, the "new type of chipboard" was not a problem that needed to be solved.</div><div><br></div><div>(And I would have said the same even if I weren't such a hater of gumboard (aka OSB, aka crapboard) as a building material. )</div><div><br></div><div>
<div>-- </div><div>=== * ===<br>Rob Tom . . . T60BOM<br>Kanata, Ontario, Canada<br><br>A r c h i L o g i c at Y a h o o dot C A<br>(manually winnow the chaff from my edress if you hit "reply")</div></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>On Wed, 17 Sep 2014 14:03:48 -0400, sanjay jain <sanjayjainuk@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:<br></div><br><blockquote style="margin: 0 0 0.80ex; border-left: #0000FF 2px solid; padding-left: 1ex"><div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff; font-family:HelveticaNeue, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Grande, sans-serif;font-size:12pt"><div><span>Interesting - did not know that Corn Stover is reused in this way.</span></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 16px; font-family: HelveticaNeue,Helvetica Neue,Helvetica,Arial,Lucida Grande,sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal;"><span><br></span></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 16px; font-family: HelveticaNeue,Helvetica Neue,Helvetica,Arial,Lucida Grande,sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal;"><span>Of course the vast majority of corn is fed to animals in factory farms. Animal agriculture being a significant contributor to climate change. Not sure if working it back in the soil makes a significant contribution to sustainability.</span></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 16px; font-family:
HelveticaNeue,Helvetica Neue,Helvetica,Arial,Lucida Grande,sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal;"><br></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 16px; font-family: HelveticaNeue,Helvetica Neue,Helvetica,Arial,Lucida Grande,sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal;"><span>~sanjay<br></span></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 16px; font-family: HelveticaNeue,Helvetica Neue,Helvetica,Arial,Lucida Grande,sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal;"><br></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 16px; font-family: HelveticaNeue,Helvetica Neue,Helvetica,Arial,Lucida Grande,sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal;"><span><br></span></div><div><br></div> <div style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Grande, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> <div style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, Helvetica
Neue, Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Grande, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> <div dir="ltr"> <hr size="1"> <font face="Arial" size="2"> <b><span style="font-weight:bold;">From:</span></b> John Straube <jfstraube@uwaterloo.ca><br> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">To:</span></b> "sanjayjainuk@yahoo.co.uk" <sanjayjainuk@yahoo.co.uk>; Green Building <greenbuilding@lists.bioenergylists.org> <br> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Sent:</span></b> Tuesday, September 16, 2014 5:07 PM<br> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Subject:</span></b> Re: [Greenbuilding] New Type of Chipboard<br> </font> </div> <div class="y_msg_container"><br><div id="yiv6377707457"><div>
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Corn stover is routinely worked back into the soil as it increases the resistance to erosion and increase organic structure and potash. </div>
<div style="width:100%;font-family:Calibri, 'Slate Pro', sans-serif;color:rgb(31,73,125);background-color:rgb(255,255,255);"> Farmers who don't look forward more than a year or two will bale up stover </div></div></div></div></div></div></div></blockquote><div id="M2Signature"><div><br></div></div></body></html>