One of the most important aspects of this project has been bringing a balanced left-right brain mentality to find a working medium between conventional engineering science and the more esoteric ideology of Biodynamic farming.

I believe I bring this balance to what has become the BD Stirrer Control project..

Biodynamics is a holistic, ecological and ethical approach to farming, gardening, food and nutrition. Biodynamics was developed in the early 1920’s based on the insights and suggestions of the Austrian Dr. Rudolf Steiner.

Biodynamic farming strives for a diversified and balanced farm ecosystem that sustains health and fertility as much as possible from within the farm itself.

Preparations made from fermented manure, minerals and herbs are used to help restore and harmonise the vital life forces of the farm and to enhance the nutrition, quality and flavour of the food being raised.

“You must make sure, however, that the entire contents (of the preparations) have been thoroughly exposed to the water.” – Rudolf Steiner, The Agriculture Lectures

This is where stirrers come into the picture..

They produce the vortex and chaos required for the preparations to be ready for spray rigs to deploy to the farm.  The process takes exactly an hour during which motor control as shown is being successfully managed by a BD Stirrer Control Unit and float mechanism.

There are a lot of other variations on control being used to drive these stirrers, and a lot of them have issues which play havoc when it comes to reliability of the operation and the hour long stirring cycle.

The project started up as a prototype for my dad’s stirrer, back then I didn’t think it would evolve into “a project”.. But evolve it did!

I took the original concept of ‘simplifying the engineering’ – and added a few smarts to make operation simple and effective.

However it has evolved even further into larger applications and a more diverse range of motors being used to drive stirrers, and much needed time to complete current development of the project is where we are at now.