# Applied Biodynamics — Issue No. 053 (Summer 2006) **By JPI Admin** · 2025-12-31 _Applied Biodynamics_ Issue 053 (Summer 2006) follows Peter Proctor from Hohepa Farm in New Zealand to large-scale biodynamic education and farm renewal in India, emphasizing preparation quality, local teachers, field demonstration, cowpat pit preparation, and food quality. [**Download Issue 053 PDF**](https://go.jpibd.org/ab-053) ## From Hohepa Farm to a life of teaching Proctor began horticultural work at Wellington Botanical Gardens in 1948, studied agriculture at Massey, and in 1965 became farm manager at Hohepa, an anthroposophical community. There he learned animal husbandry, vegetable production, and the preparations within a lively community of practice. Hohepa became the base for twenty years of farming and for his work as an adviser to the Biodynamic Association of New Zealand. Neighbors noticed the quality of Hohepa’s milk, vegetables, and fruit. An experienced dairy farmer invited Proctor to work on his hundred-cow farm after tasting the apples. With [BD 500 horn manure](https://go.jpibd.org/product-bd-500), the farmer observed changes in soil structure, water-holding capacity, earthworm activity, grass quality, and animal response, then welcomed other farmers to see the land for themselves. ## Field demonstration as a research culture Proctor’s account offers a strong model for practitioner research. Establish matched fields or paddocks, keep grazing, mowing, fertility, and water management consistent, and record the preparation schedule. Measure aggregate stability, infiltration, moisture retention, earthworm counts, rooting depth, pasture biomass, forage quality, milk solids, animal preference, and production. Repeating the same measurements through several seasons lets the land communicate in a form farmers can share. ## Biodynamics in India Proctor’s first Indian course in 1993 grew into a network of preparation sites, training programs, demonstration farms, and farmer associations. At Kodaikanal, C. Jeyakaran cultivated the preparation plants and taught students to make the preparations. Agricultural graduates came from across India, learned through intensive practical courses, and carried the work back to their villages. The scale is striking: - At Nainital in the Himalayan foothills, Binita Shah cultivated preparation plants and made high-quality preparations; the site filled about 10,000 horns annually. - Near Mysore, a degraded 300-acre property was brought into fertile production with bananas, coconuts, and about 20,000 vanilla plants. - The Mysore project worked with roughly 500 nearby vanilla growers whose combined production represented thirty percent of India’s vanilla exports at the time. - In Gujarat, Savdaman Patel’s diversified forty-acre biodynamic farm became a regular seminar site. - The Biore cotton project connected biodynamic village growers with spinning in India and premium clothing markets in Switzerland. - In Maharashtra, community training led to 10,000 compost heaps across more than 5,000 acres, with plans for far more. This is biodynamics as a distributed learning system: central sites grow the preparations, graduates become local teachers, farmers cooperate around markets and compost, and each region develops capacity rooted in its own land and people. ## A direct transition sequence Proctor’s advice to new growers is energetic: begin applying the preparations and build good stirring, mixing, and spraying systems immediately. Increase compost production, remove herbicides and hard synthetic fertilizers from the program, use mineral amendments where needed, and work toward soil nutrient balance and biological vitality. For the first year, he recommends obtaining preparations from an experienced source so the farm can begin with well-grown materials. In the second year, the farm can make its own preparations with biodynamically managed ingredients. For BD 500, Proctor looks for manure from lactating cows on strong biodynamic pasture, collected after two to three days of high-quality forage. Clean water is equally important for stirring and spraying. ## Calcium, silica, and cosmic balance Proctor presents calcium and silica as complementary formative processes. BD 500 supports the calcium-related soil and root pole; [BD 501 horn silica](https://go.jpibd.org/product-bd-501) supports light, substance, and strength above ground. He used [descending-moon periods](https://go.jpibd.org/guide-calendar) for BD 500 and described a [Moon–Saturn opposition](https://go.jpibd.org/guide-cosmos) sequence: BD 500 and [Barrel Compound](https://go.jpibd.org/product-bc) the day before, followed by BD 501 in the morning of the opposition. This timing can be recorded with the same rigor as any field operation: celestial event, stir and spray times, weather, soil moisture, crop stage, plot location, and subsequent root, leaf, flowering, quality, and harvest observations. ## How Proctor recognizes a strong preparation Horn manure should hold together when removed from the horn, carry a living earthy smell, and often show white actinomycete growth. More broadly, a preparation should reveal transformation: the original ingredients are integrated into a coherent new substance with “life” in texture, aroma, structure, and feel. Proctor’s clearest test is downstream performance. A forty-acre coffee farm rehabilitated through biodynamics produced Nandanvan Royal coffee that won international competitions for five consecutive years. In his words, practitioners do not manufacture preparations; they grow them. Skilled judgment develops by connecting preparation qualities with repeated field results. ## Cowpat pit preparation at scale The issue gives a compact cowpat pit method related to Barrel Compound. A shallow pit—about two by three feet and up to one foot deep—is lined on the sides, but not the bottom, with untreated wood and filled with firm cow manure. Five sets of [BD 502–507](https://go.jpibd.org/product-bd-502-507-set) are placed into the manure, the solid preparations pressed about thumb-depth at six-inch spacing. [BD 507 valerian](https://go.jpibd.org/product-bd-507) is stirred separately in water and poured over the pit. Two breathable sacks and a rigid lid protect the material while allowing air. After about four weeks, the transformed material can be stirred with BD 500 and sprayed. Proctor used cowpat pit preparation monthly or even every two weeks, sometimes with a fifteen-minute stir. One pit batch could inoculate about twenty compost heaps using forty gallons of spray per heap, applied bucket by bucket as layers rose to one meter. This let village communities extend compost preparation activity over very large areas while keeping BD 500 and BD 501 at their full prescribed strength. ## Food quality carries the movement Proctor sees taste, vitality, and farmer prosperity as powerful messengers. He describes premium biodynamic wheat earning $800 per ton when prevailing prices were $150–$200, and winegrowers turning to biodynamics because preparation use was evident in the quality of the wine. Better food creates a direct encounter with biodynamics and gives farmers an economic basis for continuing the work. ## Editorial renewal Hugh Courtney and guest editor Hunter Francis describe a new phase for _Applied Biodynamics_. Their shared direction is clear: biodynamics is spiritual science, and its communication can join spiritual understanding with disciplined agricultural observation. Francis’s background in soil science and university sustainable-agriculture education brings that confidence directly into the archive. ## Key Topics Covered Peter Proctor’s path from horticulture and Hohepa Farm to consulting, teaching, and preparation networks in New Zealand and India. Practitioner observations of milk, soil, pasture, earthworms, water holding, crop quality, and animal response as prompts for matched field study. Training and preparation making across thousands of acres, including ten thousand horns, twenty thousand vanilla plants, and village-scale composting. A practical first- and second-year transition strategy based on compost, BD 500, BD 501, preparation making, and farmer education. Calcium-silica balance and preparation quality described through Proctor’s biodynamic interpretation, sensory judgment, and field response. A four-week cowpat pit method and premium food markets as mechanisms for extending practice and adoption. ## Repeatable Practice 1. Establish matched or randomized fields and keep grazing, mowing, fertility, irrigation, cultivar, and harvest management consistent. 2. Record preparation batch, source, dose, water, stirring, date, weather, treated area, compost inputs, and all other management changes. 3. Measure aggregate stability, infiltration, moisture, earthworms, rooting, pasture or crop biomass, quality, yield, milk solids, animal performance, labor, and cost on fixed dates. 4. Repeat across seasons and farms, use common forms and sampling methods, and report null or unfavorable results alongside successful demonstrations. ## Explore Related Resources - [BD 500 Horn Manure](https://go.jpibd.org/product-bd-500) and [instructions](https://go.jpibd.org/instructions-bd-500) - [BD 501 Horn Silica](https://go.jpibd.org/product-bd-501) and [instructions](https://go.jpibd.org/instructions-bd-501) - [Complete Set of Biodynamic Compost Preparations](https://go.jpibd.org/product-bd-502-507-set) and [instructions](https://go.jpibd.org/instructions-bd-502-507) - [Barrel Compound](https://go.jpibd.org/product-bc) and [instructions](https://go.jpibd.org/instructions-bc) - [Three Kings Preparation](https://go.jpibd.org/product-erbe-8) and [application guide](https://go.jpibd.org/guide-erbe-8) - [Rudolf Steiner’s Agriculture Course](https://go.jpibd.org/book-agriculture-course) ## Articles - An Interview with Peter Proctor (H. Francis)  - From the Executive Director (H. J. Courtney)  - Greetings from Your Guest Editor (H. Francis)  - Cowpat Pit Directions, Preparation Workshop Notice, and Three Kings Announcement  ## Citation Source: _Applied Biodynamics_, Issue No. 53, Josephine Porter Institute for Applied Bio-Dynamics, Summer 2006. **Tags:** Applied Biodynamics Archive, Farm Economics and Community, Livestock --- > Source: [The Josephine Porter Institute](https://www.jpibiodynamics.org/blogs/applied-biodynamics/applied-biodynamics-issue-053-summer-2006)