Pastures | The Conscious Farmer

INFLUENCING SOIL PORES FOR MORE PLANT AVAILABLE WATER

6 November 2015 / 1 comments

From time to time I hear comments about “how quickly it’s dried out”. Farmers can experience going from a situation of ample plant growth and OK conditions on the farm, to desperately needing rain, over a short period of time. Has it always been this way and can we insulate ourselves from this seeming cliff face nature of moisture availability and growth?

If we understand how water is held in the pores of the soil and how plants extract this moisture, it will go a ways to helping us understand how we might positively influence soil moisture. So let’s first understand a few terms relating to soil moisture levels (the irrigators among you will likely be all very familiar with these). Continue reading “INFLUENCING SOIL PORES FOR MORE PLANT AVAILABLE WATER” »

SOIL BIOLOGY – build it and they will come or introduce them in?

20 October 2015 / 2 comments

I got some clarification recently on the question of making soil biology work for us. Do we take the ‘build it and they will come’ approach or do we actively introduce microbes to ‘enliven’ our soils? My gut feel says ‘build it and they will come’ – it just sits best with me. It’s mostly about practices, not inputs. But, let’s not discount microbial inputs either – there’s a place for all things. It must be considered too, that cropping and grazing may lend themselves in varying degrees to the two approaches.

I often write about soil biology, because I believe it is an area not given enough attention in farming in the last half century. There has been much research into the chemical and physical properties of soil, but only more recently has the biology been explored and our production systems are still catching up and working out how to make the biological research practical. Continue reading “SOIL BIOLOGY – build it and they will come or introduce them in?” »

FUNGI – Helping build plant resilience to drought and pests

7 October 2015 / 0 comments

I recently had a fascinating talk with Dr. Mary Lucero, a former USDA molecular biologist who now works to restore food systems by restoring microbial health.

Mary’s work and knowledge confirms to me the absolute necessity for diverse microbial communities in our agricultural systems, if we are to produce nutritious, chemical free food. Mary’s particular area of interest has been plant and soil fungi. Fungi are not just a ‘choice’ extra that might be nice to have in our farm systems, but are an integral part of healthy plants. Continue reading “FUNGI – Helping build plant resilience to drought and pests” »

PERENNIAL WEEDS and planned grazing

15 September 2015 / 0 comments

I recently spoke with a fellow farmer who was sharing his challenges of perennial weeds – particularly, in this case, mid story native shrubs. This conversation prompted me to think that this was probably a fairly pertinent subject to follow up here on the blog.

If we get our grazing practices right, we know that we can have succession of species towards more stable plant communities and most likely more desirable species for our production systems. So, if there is a season where we have annual weeds, we could use herbicides or mechanical means to control, or we may choose to leave the ground covered with that plant, create conditions favourable to higher succession plants and hang in there hoping that our complex and dynamic ecosystem is being driven in the right direction. Following seasons will likely then see the change to a different species – and possibly a more desirable one. This is because the presence of that annual weed creates changes in the micro-environment around it, which then allows other species to establish that may not have been possible before these micro-environment changes occurred. Continue reading “PERENNIAL WEEDS and planned grazing” »

CONSIDERATIONS FOR EARLY SEASON GRAZING – with Brian Wehlburg

6 August 2015 / 1 comments

How best to manage early season pasture growth is something I was keen to get a thorough handle on, so I spoke with Brian Wehlburg this week. Brian is a Holistic Management educator based on his farm near Port Macquarie NSW, but training in Holistic Management all over Australia. Early season growth was something he talked about when he visited our farm with his training group earlier this year, so I thought I’d follow it up with him.

First, I will explain that when I am referring to early season pasture growth – we are talking about the window when growth really starts to take off. A time when we might double the quantity of plant dry matter in a relatively short period of time. For us here on the Liverpool Plains in NSW, this is well into Spring, when the weather warms up and the days get longer and our summer growing grasses (C4 or subtropical, or warm season grasses) begin to grow.

Should we change the way we manage grazing at this time of year? Well Brian rightly points out that we should always be considering changes to our grazing in response to pasture growth, seasonal conditions, time of year, and monitoring – something very strongly advocated in Holistic Management. There are however, some extra things that can be considered at the seasons’ beginning. Continue reading “CONSIDERATIONS FOR EARLY SEASON GRAZING – with Brian Wehlburg” »

HOW MUCH GRASS TO REMOVE IN A GRAZE?

11 July 2015 / 0 comments

Planned grazing and allowing grasses to recover from grazing certainly works to restore pastures, improve ground cover, engage natural nutrient cycles and increase pasture growth. Lots of farmers around the world will attest to this. This doesn’t mean that it is easy to get it right though!

The following information draws on research from many years ago that a subscriber sent me a while ago, and the information is still so relevant. I believe it may be one factor in why not everyone gets the same outcomes from planned, rotational grazing. The information relates to what happens to the root system of a perennial grass plant when the top growth is grazed to different levels. This will obviously influence when we choose to move animals out of a paddock.

The trial included cool and warm season grasses of different growth patterns – rhizomes, stolons and bunch type growth. Grazing of these grasses was simulated by the manual cutting of their foliage. When half or more of the foliage of the grasses was removed, root growth was halted for a time after the removal (with the exception of one grass type). The time period for which the root growth was halted varied with the degree of the foliage removal. Foliage removal occurred in intervals of 10% – ranging from 10% to 90%. Continue reading “HOW MUCH GRASS TO REMOVE IN A GRAZE?” »

ANIMAL HEALTH THROUGH NUTRITION

23 March 2015 / 0 comments

I like to think about how nature intended things to be, while still asking how we can use this knowledge to be profitable and clever in our farm businesses. What I have learnt from my discussion with Fred Provenza this week, about animal behaviour and grazing, is the perfect example of this. Our agricultural sciences are sometimes much focussed around reductionist techniques and the physiology of plants and animals. While we can learn a lot from this, there is also merit in standing back to observe a living thing interacting in its natural system (its ecology) and then discovering how we can use this to our advantage.

This is just what Fred Provenza, Professor Emeritus of Animal Behaviour and Management at Utah State University has done. Fred’s real-world observations of wild and domestic animals along with his research of the past 40 years are all about how animals make a living through where they live and how they forage. If I were to pick out a few words from his writings and my discussion with him that reflect the work it would be: Animal Health through Nutrition. Continue reading “ANIMAL HEALTH THROUGH NUTRITION” »

CONVERTING CROPPING COUNTRY TO PASTURE

19 February 2015 / 0 comments

As I mentioned last week, I have been asked by a subscriber that has visited our farm about how we transitioned country from full zero till cropping to perennial pasture. We have two alluvial self-mulching black soil paddocks that have had two quite different approaches, with different outcomes in the short and long term. Sharing these examples with you may offer some helpful learnings. The outcomes – after a few dry years are worlds apart right at the moment.

In 2008, Derek and I decided that we wanted our business to be solely grazing based. This decision was made after Holistic Management training and discussion about what we really wanted out of life (but that’s an aside in this article). I would like to share with you how we took two different paddocks from cropping to pasture, and the current outcomes of each.

When we chose to take land from cropping to pasture Derek and I considered the best way to go about it. We were aware of situations where farmers had left country and allowed natural succession of plants to occur in order to establish a pasture, while more often others choose introduced pasture mixes, planted at considerable expense. We did a bit of both. Continue reading “CONVERTING CROPPING COUNTRY TO PASTURE” »

WATER SPREADING BANKS

29 January 2015 / 0 comments

If some of our most marginal grazing country can be regenerated from 5% groundcover to 80% groundcover, then surely there is the ability to regenerate virtually all our agricultural land. The marginal country I’m talking about is in western NSW, northwest of Cobar in Australia. I mention this marginal country because the McMurtrie family have used water spreading banks (combined with thoughtful grazing management) to help regenerate areas of their property and I thought this was a good flow on from last week’s topic.

I will first point out that water spreading banks are NOT keyline farming as I talked of last week – where water is spread from the valleys to the ridges. Water spreading banks however, have a similar purpose in that they aim to alter water movement and runoff, spreading and slowing water movement so that there is more opportunity to infiltrate rainfall into the soil.

VALUING EVERY DROP OF RAINFALL – with Keyline Design

19 January 2015 / 0 comments

What Mark Shepard has achieved at New Forest Farm is truly inspiring, admirable, provides hope and is enviable to anyone interested in nutrient dense, chemical free food production and consumption and most certainly to farmers – with its low inputs and high outputs. But it is also daunting, overwhelming and, honestly, in the past has actually made me switch off to a degree, because its production system is so far removed from our current beef cattle grazing operation or from the monoculture cropping enterprises of current agriculture. Do you ever feel a little like that?

It’s like I haven’t been able to bridge the gap on a ‘how to’ basis between what currently is and this pinnacle of agriculture of what could be. But let me describe it to you and see how we could apply some of the techniques to our farms.

New Forest Farm is a perennial permaculture farm in Wisconsin, USA that grows chestnuts, hazelnuts, pine nuts, apples, asparagus and other fruit, nuts and berries, as well as raising cattle, pigs and turkeys (see above image). It has been regenerated from what was a degraded, eroded, chemical intensive monoculture cropping farm. Rich, dark, humic soils have been built from degraded, hard setting, dead red-clay soils. All this regeneration and production has occurred without the use of pesticides or artificial fertilisers. The farm is “agriculture redesigned in nature’s image” as Mark described it to me. Continue reading “VALUING EVERY DROP OF RAINFALL – with Keyline Design” »

TREES AS PRODUCTIVE BIODIVERSITY

22 December 2014 / 2 comments

If there is a consistent message coming out of regenerative agriculture practices of all kinds it is the need for soil biology, and for a diversity of this. We gain this from a diversity of species of plants, as well as animals.

I used to think about biodiversity as diversity in the soil, or in our pastures or of native fauna – all of which might have benefited and supported the production of one product from an area of land – be it beef, lamb, goats, wheat or corn. But of late, (as well as the wonderful benefits that biodiversity can offer to a current traditional production system), I have started to consider biodiversity from the point of view of the number of layers of productive biodiversity that we can have. Continue reading “TREES AS PRODUCTIVE BIODIVERSITY” »

Melanised fungus growing on an agar plate

IMPROVED OPPORTUNITIES FOR STORING SOIL CARBON?

16 November 2014 / 0 comments

A predictable and reliable increase of long-lived carbon in cropping and grazing soils would be a wonderful thing for the farming industry. Carbon sequestration will benefit soils, improve the resilience of businesses and the productivity of our farms. There may also be opportunities for financial gains from carbon trading.

To reap the benefits for crops and pastures, and for the confidence of trading however, we need to ensure stable soil carbon. The processes required for deposition of stable organic carbon is the subject of research of which details are emerging. When similar topics popped up several times in my learnings in the last few weeks I thought it was time to check it out.

I have previously written about the importance of root exudates in the process of sequestering stable soil carbon (see There’s Carbon, then There’s Carbon). We also know that many different soil microbes play a critically important role in the carbon cycle. Microbiologists/mycologists at Sydney University, have proposed a process that gives us a better explanation of how carbon is sequestered. The potential commercialisation of their findings could be an enormous breakthrough to our industry – especially for grain growing industry. Continue reading “IMPROVED OPPORTUNITIES FOR STORING SOIL CARBON?” »

MAGNIFICENT MYCORRHIZAE

12 September 2014 / 0 comments

We found a mushroom in our black soil country this week, which was very exciting for us. This country has been in perennial pastures for 4 years now, but before this, had a history of years of chemical use and fallow periods. We think this is a pretty good indicator of the soil health improving as Derek has never seen one on this black soil farming country before… ever. My Dad talks of taking box trailers full of mushrooms to the Sydney markets, which he picked as a kid from the pastures in their paddocks at Yass, in southern NSW (Australia). Whilst there are still mushrooms about, they are not of this quantity that they once were and it got me thinking about fungi, which led me to mycorrhizal fungi.

It’s pretty clear that mycorrhizal fungi are a wonderful advantage to have in soils – you will even hear the benefits of it touted in conventional farming circles! Let’s examine it a little more though – because when we understand the potential benefits of something, is when we begin to value it enough to encourage it and work out how we can incorporate it into our farming systems.

Unlike mushrooms, mycorrhizal fungi exist in obligate symbiotic relationships with plant roots. What does this mean? This means that the mycorrhizae are entirely dependent on the plant roots for their survival – they cannot exist without the plant roots. They rely on the liquid carbon containing exudates from the roots of their host plants. You will no doubt be familiar with the appearance of fungi – with the strand like threads of hyphae that they produce. These hyphae grow into the tips of the roots and extend out into the surrounding soil – seeking nutrients like N, P, S, Zn and Boron, as well as moisture. It seeks and supplies these things for the plant in exchange for the carbon rich root exudates which it feeds on for energy. Continue reading “MAGNIFICENT MYCORRHIZAE” »

WATER SYSTEMS FOR LIVESTOCK

5 September 2014 / 3 comments

I know as farmers (and possibly more you men folk) we love to learn from each other the nitty gritty practical ways that we address certain things on the farm. So this week I thought I might start a conversation about stock water delivery and share what we’ve been up to here at ‘The Conscious Farm’. We have a fair variety of troughs and water delivery systems, which you will see. I want to share with you the relative success and downfalls of each and their influences on the land regeneration that we want to achieve.

Our farm consists of black soil plains, sloping red soil country with scattered timber and timbered, less productive hill country. On the plains and some of the sloping country we have portable water troughs and smaller paddock sizes – this is our most favoured system. Some of the sloping country also has smaller blocks, but with a central point that stock water from. The hill country has around 200ha hectares of land that all still comes back to the one watering point – and this is something we would like to change. I will share with you the merits of each system what we have done to optimise each one – given that some systems are less than ideal.

This blog will address water delivery systems, so I won’t go into the details of water quality here today – but be aware that this is a very important factor in stock performance. I might look at that on another occasion.

We have loved the many benefits that rotational grazing has brought to our pastures and farm. As part of this system change, it has meant that we had to alter some of our water delivery systems.

Continue reading “WATER SYSTEMS FOR LIVESTOCK” »

‘CHANGE’ AS A LAND HEALER

22 August 2014 / 0 comments

For those of you practicing planned, rotational grazing, can you remember the AMAZING change in your pasture when you first moved from set stocking to a planned/rotational grazing?

Phenomenal wasn’t it? I bet nearly any of the advances since then have not been as dramatic as what that initial change was?

For those of you not practicing planned grazing, it is these fantastic outcomes that keep the rest of us in this regenerative and low or no input system.

Hold these thoughts….

Dick Richardson is an educator and grazier at Boorowa in southern NSW, Australia. He is originally South African, where he practiced HM principles and he now does similar in Australia. It was Dick that suggested to me that “too much grass is a bigger problem than not enough grass”, that I mentioned in a previous blog. It is fantastic to speak to Dick about how to optimise planned grazing, as he puts a very practical slant on planned grazing that is both production and regeneration focused. Now before I go on to talk more about Dick’s thoughts on grazing, I will link you back to the question from the start.

Can you remember the AMAZING change in your pastures that you got when you first moved from set stocking to planned/rotational grazing?

Has there been any pasture advances since, that have surpassed that initial pasture boost from the change in management? This is what Dick advocates – it is the CHANGE in the system that is kick starting something great in the soil and in the pastures. This change may be from set stocking to rotational, or from low density to high density or from a completely ‘spelled paddock’ (ie. 12 months) to an intensively grazed paddock. It may be grazing one paddock as the first with new spring growth, but leaving this as the last grazed spring growth the following year.

So the message is to mix it up as much as possible.

What are the variables in a paddock that can be altered to achieve this desired change?

Continue reading “‘CHANGE’ AS A LAND HEALER” »

THE MIGHTY DUNG BEETLE

2 August 2014 / 2 comments

Dung Beetles! – These little guys were something that I knew were a great advantage to have on your farm but had really underestimated just how fantastic they can be! I have rarely seen the production advantages of dung beetles measured, and it may really surprise you – it certainly did me.

If you could get a 50% increase in your pasture production, sustained over at least a 9 year period you’d be pretty happy right? Well this is the change capacity that dung beetles possess. And at no cost! So, wouldn’t the smart thing be to make choices that encourage them onto your farm, or to introduce them to your farm if they are not already present?

Dung beetles are a ‘no off farm input’, true regenerator of the soil – and that’s what we’re interested in! Their tunneling aids in rainfall infiltration, breaking up compaction, moving nutrients into the soil and leaving pathways in the soil through which root systems can easily penetrate – and importantly, they help contribute to our bottom line.

Not to mention that they can be pretty fun and interesting to watch! Derek and I were most excited the first time we came across the ball rolling beetles here at home.

So, the question is, how do they achieve regenerative outcomes and how can we encourage them onto our farms?

Continue reading “THE MIGHTY DUNG BEETLE” »

ANIMAL PERFORMANCE & TALL GRASS GRAZING

25 July 2014 / 0 comments

I mentioned a few weeks back the feedback I had from Cam at Uralla (NSW, Australia) about how he is optimising animal performance in his planned grazing operation on the New England Tablelands of NSW. This is something that Cam, like us, has had trouble optimising in the past. But Cam is turning this around with some tweaking of his management; he doesn’t profess to fully understand why he is getting the outcomes he is, but with his income reliant on consistent weight gain and meeting growth targets of dairy heifers, he has got a pretty good handle on what is working and what is not. He takes on heifers from around 120 – 180kg and carries them through until the point of calving, during which time he is regularly weighing, observing and monitoring and changing tact to optimise performance. He is paid for weight and size gains.

It is the density of stocking and the time between moves that Cam has been playing with. He has practiced time controlled grazing for some 25 years now, but it is only within the last few years that Cam has really felt he’s getting a handle on how to optimise animal performance – which is also coinciding with better pasture performance. Let’s look at what Cam has been doing.

Continue reading “ANIMAL PERFORMANCE & TALL GRASS GRAZING” »

ANIMAL PERFORMANCE & PLANNED GRAZING

4 July 2014 / 0 comments

All graziers must surely want to be able to grow more grass – more grass means more stock, which means more kilograms of beef or lamb (or whatever animal), which means more money, right? Well – only if managed correctly.

“Too much grass is a bigger problem than not enough grass”

This is something I was told once and my initial reaction was ‘What??!’. I’ve learnt that this CAN be right and I will explain why and when.

…. Years ago we began to manage our cattle under a planned grazing rotation and moved away from a set stock system. We saw lots of fantastic changes in our farm as a result of this changed management. These include:

Dramatically increased ground cover
A lack of weeds, as the opportunity for them to germinate disappeared together with the poor ground cover.
Massive dungbeetle numbers
Much improved water infiltration – evidenced by farm dams that now rarely fill (we water cattle from portable troughs supplied from our bore).
When soils are saturated and do reach the point of runoff – it does so as beautiful clear runoff water.
A succession to higher order pasture species.
The natural regeneration of trees
And LOTS more grass.

Let’s talk about the ‘lots more grass’.

Continue reading “ANIMAL PERFORMANCE & PLANNED GRAZING” »

THERE’S CARBON, THEN THERE’S CARBON

28 June 2014 / 0 comments

Can we increase stable soil carbon levels with no till cropping systems?

and

Will crash grazing plant matter to the soil surface increase stable soil carbon levels?

Ground cover

These are important things to consider, as carbon is one of THE main things that will help to restore our soils. It will increase the resilience of our farm businesses in dry times, by allowing greater water holding capacity of our soils. And longer dry spells we are having – with more intermittent rainfall events. For most of us, water is the most limiting factor in our production systems. Continue reading “THERE’S CARBON, THEN THERE’S CARBON” »

PASTURE CROPPING

20 June 2014 / 2 comments

There is one thing that seems quite clear to me, is that one of the best ways to improve our soils, is to have root systems from a diversity of plants, actively growing for as much of the year as possible. Pasture cropping fits the bill here beautifully and has resulted in some truly impressive soil and profitability improvements.

Now if you are a cropper and think, “this isn’t relevant to me”, or you’re a grazier and you’re thinking, “I don’t crop” – do read on, as pasture cropping has such a wide applicability and there are lots of lessons about soil health to be learned.

But first, let’s look at what pasture cropping is….

WHAT IS PASTURE CROPPING?

Pasture cropping is the coming together of cropping and grazing for the symbiotic benefit of both enterprises, economically and environmentally. It is the

‘zero till sowing of annual crops into living perennial pasture’.

Colin Seis, one of the founders of pasture cropping, also refers to it as

Perennial Cover Cropping.

Continue reading “PASTURE CROPPING” »