Fertiliser | The Conscious Farmer

INTERCROPPING – A Winter Crop Example

31 August 2015 / 0 comments

A quandary of many grain farmers is knowing that the rotation to a pulse crop is a good thing for the soil and farming system, but that this choice has often come with an increased risk associated with these crops. This is when some farmers decide to be innovative to solve such problems – as is the case with Nick Shady on his farm near Lismore in Victoria, Australia (West of Melbourne). Nick has moved to low rates of liquid fertilizer and has begun to experiment by combining a pulse crop with another of his grain crops.

This has led Nick to discover the world of companion cropping or intercropping, with his crop that he aptly calls ‘Peaola’ (a mix of field peas and canola). His ideas developed after he planted a field pea crop quite late (as planting was delayed due to wet weather); in a season that rapidly turned dry. The crop that resulted was not worth harvesting, but was rather treated as a brown manure crop and then worked into the soil prior to summer for the associated advantages. Continue reading “INTERCROPPING – A Winter Crop Example” »

INTERCROPPING – FOR CROPS AND FORAGE

24 July 2015 / 2 comments

Intercropping is a way that we can introduce diversity into our cropping systems. There are many reasons why one might chose to do this, including reducing the use (and potential financial risk) of high input fertilisers, reducing pest problems and reducing soil erosion. Intercropping can also aid in weed control and helping to make the most profitable and productive use of land, through the complementary access to a greater range of the soil’s resources than with a monoculture.

The history of intercropping is long – with developing countries still using it as a common technique. Developed nations’ farmers however predominantly moved away from it around the 1940’s¹, and into monocultures, but in some cases have now done the full circle and are beginning to incorporate it back into their programmes. The added bonus now is that they have the use of modern day technology and the value of greater scientific understanding. Continue reading “INTERCROPPING – FOR CROPS AND FORAGE” »

CARBON TRADING – now more relevant to you all!

16 June 2015 / 0 comments

Carbon! I usually talk about how it helps our production and how to get more of it in the soil. There is however another aspect to carbon that I haven’t touched on yet. This is the opportunity for farmers to earn money from trading carbon – either storing carbon or reducing the emissions of carbon (and other greenhouse gases). For some, this may be adding extra income to their farm business, while for others the income might be an added bonus to putting carbon in the soil, which they know will benefit their production in many ways.

I don’t know about you, but in the evolution of the Carbon Farming Initiative in Australia (what the last Government called the agriculture component of carbon trading), I felt a bit like switching off from the politics involved with it. As a farmer, I felt – “Just give me something that’s easy to work with on-ground!” This is why I am grateful for people like Louisa Kiely of Carbon Farmers of Australia. Louisa has contributed to the hard work for us, to help get our industry to a point where there are now some usable aspects of the Australian Governments’ carbon reduction scheme. This is why I’ve chosen to speak with Louisa about where things are up to with carbon trading and the now called Emissions Reduction Fund. Continue reading “CARBON TRADING – now more relevant to you all!” »

HOW TO MAKE THE CHANGE TO REGENERATIVE FARMING – with Graeme Sait

5 June 2015 / 0 comments

There are some really fantastic regenerative practices that we can and have learnt about. I understand that for many of you, these are things that you are likely to try first on a trial basis over a small area. It was pointed out to me by some croppers that they are happy to undertake some trial area of a quite different practice but this is over a small area and they also want direction for what they how they can tweak their farm inputs over the remaining and largest area of the farm. They want to reduce their reliance on high fertiliser and chemical inputs, while being more sustainable. This is a really great point – and so, this week I have addressed it.

Many of the initial ‘tweaks’ that we might make to traditional system are input related. It’s about choosing inputs that are kinder to soil life, and more balanced for the plant and supportive of the soil. As a rule I tend to concentrate on farming practices for this blog, as it keeps me independent, and also because discussion of inputs can begin a very long list.

I do however want to address this point that was raised with me about how a farmer or grazier can make some more minor changes to their system (while trialing other more significant changes) – and this does lead me to the topic of inputs.

THE PRACTICALITIES OF COVER CROPPING – Planter Setup

15 March 2015 / 0 comments

If we can achieve a thick, deep mulch of material on the soil surface from a cover crop, it is great for weed control, and for preventing soil moisture loss. But, what is the best method for planting into this thick mat of cover crop residue?

I will share with you what Jeff Moyer, Farm Director from the Rodale Institute in the US has done with his planter to adapt it for planting his grain crops into the mulch, created from a rolled down cover crop. The Rodale Institute are conducting cutting edge research into organic no-till practices, in the US.

If you haven’t already done so, I suggest reading my past cover cropping blogs The ‘New’ Cover Cropping, Experiences from the U.S. – Cover Cropping and last week’s The Practicalities of Cover Cropping – Crop Termination.

Jeff has a Monosem planter. They are a double disc precision planter, favoured in the vegetable industry due to its ability to plant a wide range of seed sizes with precision. Jeff has added an extra couple of tool bars to the planter, to aid with planting into the mulch of a cover crop. Continue reading “THE PRACTICALITIES OF COVER CROPPING – Planter Setup” »

GROWER EXPERIENCES WITH EXHAUST EMISSIONS and basic plant physiology

5 October 2014 / 0 comments

I spoke with a couple of farmers this week who have been using the Bio-Agtive Emissions Exhaust system, to see how their crops are performing. I want to share this with you, but I also want to share a basic understanding of plant physiology in trying to help you understand how the Bio-Agtive exhaust system may be getting the results it is and how natural processes can support plant growth. Sometimes we forget to go right back to basics to understand things and I think it is helpful in this situation. Regardless if you are a cropper or a grazier or what you think of the exhaust system, there is some great understanding about plant growth here.

HOW DO PLANTS GROW?

Photosynthesis

I’m sure you will all recall the process of photosynthesis. Carbon dioxide is taken from the air by plants, and along with water from the soil and light energy from the sun, plants convert these things into plant photosynthates (sugars, starches, proteins, carbohydrates). Oxygen is released from the plant in this process. It can be simply represented by this equation.

6CO₂+ 6H₂O + sunlight energy = C₆H₁₂O₆ + 6O₂

(Carbon dioxide + water + sunlight = glucose + oxygen)

This is how carbon gets from the air into plants. The plant releases some of the produced sugars as root exudates to feed soil microbes and fungus (which supply nitrogen and other nutrients to the plant), as a result this is also one way that carbon ends up in the soil. Continue reading “GROWER EXPERIENCES WITH EXHAUST EMISSIONS and basic plant physiology” »

TRACTOR EXHAUST EMISSIONS AS A SOIL PRIMER

20 September 2014 / 0 comments

If we can omit a negative from our farm businesses, then this is a good thing, but if we can turn that negative into a positive, then even better still! This has been the experience of growers who have taken tractor exhaust emissions are directed them into the soil.

Three negatives are eliminated:

The release of carbon into the atmosphere
The use of certain artificial fertilisers that can harm beneficial soil microbes, leach into waterways and aquifers and create mineral imbalance in the plant.
The use of fungicides as seed treatments – which can also harm beneficial fungi in the soil.

The exhaust emissions become a desirable thing – as they stimulate soil biology, fumigate planting seed and provide carbon and micronutrients to the soil. The emissions are not designed to be a plant fertiliser in themselves, but rather are there to prime the soil microbiology, so that THEY can make available the necessary nutrients for the crop or pasture. Continue reading “TRACTOR EXHAUST EMISSIONS AS A SOIL PRIMER” »

WHAT’S CONTRIBUTING TO THE CARBON DEPLETION OF OUR SOILS?

30 August 2014 / 2 comments

The adoption of no-till farming has been great for many reasons, but why are carbon levels of soils still depleting despite the return of much carbon back to the soil via stubble? This week I examine why high rates of synthetic nitrogen fertiliser is contributing to soil carbon depletion, as well as what to consider in transitioning from high N agriculture to a lower input system.

The liquid carbon pathway, which is described by Christine Jones and I have reported on in ‘There’s Carbon, then there’s Carbon”, is the way that plants take carbon from the atmosphere and convert it via photosynthesis to carbon rich plant sugars. These sugars which provide two functions for the plant:

providing immediate fuel to the plants
are exuded from the plant roots to feed soil microbiology. In turn, these soil microbes make nutrients (including nitrogen), available to the plant. One particularly important outcome of this process is that these root exudates are the substances in which carbon enters the soil in a stable humate form.

When we bypass nature and supply nitrogen in an inorganic form (synthetic fertilisers), there is no requirement for the plant to supply exudates to the soil microbes that in turn supply nitrogen to the plant. This is because the plant already has access to luxury levels of nitrogen. This means we have interrupted the process by which plants deliver stable carbon to the soil, and soils are subsequently being depleted of their carbon stores.^{1
Continue reading “WHAT’S CONTRIBUTING TO THE CARBON DEPLETION OF OUR SOILS?” »}