"Improving Our Lot" - Planned Holistic Grazing, for starters..

Farmer Roy

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
NSW, Newstralya
@Kiwi Pete i think it was this thread - anyway, somewhere you asked me what would come up if it rained ?
I had a water leak here, this is the only thing that came up
Noogoora Burrs - introduced from South America in the late 1800's ( in hay / forage / seed imported then due to a massive drought, surprise suprise !! Hence our very tight quarantine / bio security laws now )
I had to get this trough operational again, even though I don't have any stock, just so the Roos & birds & insects can have a drink, as there is no surface water anywhere . . .

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holwellcourtfarm

Member
Livestock Farmer
@Kiwi Pete i think it was this thread - anyway, somewhere you asked me what would come up if it rained ?
I had a water leak here, this is the only thing that came up
Noogoora Burrs - introduced from South America in the late 1800's ( in hay / forage / seed imported then due to a massive drought, surprise suprise !! Hence our very tight quarantine / bio security laws now )
I had to get this trough operational again, even though I don't have any stock, just so the Roos & birds & insects can have a drink, as there is no surface water anywhere . . .

View attachment 671544 View attachment 671546 View attachment 671548
The like is for giving the wildlife a drink, not the Burrs being the only thing to come up :rolleyes:
 

Henarar

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Somerset
It's a harsh land . . .
We are either in drought
Recovering from drought
Preparing for drought

Or, we are flooded :)

Moisture conservation is at the forefront of every management decision

It just comes with the territory :)
I spose it's more difficult growing crops to conserve moisture
Perhaps some of it should be grassland or at least some of the time ?
 

Farmer Roy

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
NSW, Newstralya
I spose it's more difficult growing crops to conserve moisture
Perhaps some of it should be grassland or at least some of the time ?

that's why we have our "long fallow" periods between crops, to build up moisture, & zero till to conserve it

although, you may be right about grassland. Along with my increasing dissatisfaction with chemical & synthetic fert use, maybe I am better off changing to livestock & planned holistic grazing, following more regenerative farming practices

I will admit, I'm struggling at the moment, Im losing my faith in our "conventional" high input chemical dependent agriculture, almost like a committed Christian who starts questioning " is there a God ? ". Its real big for me, not sure where I'll end up . . .

but yes, having a real " crisis of faith " when it comes to farming . . .
 

Henarar

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Somerset
that's why we have our "long fallow" periods between crops, to build up moisture, & zero till to conserve it

although, you may be right about grassland. Along with my increasing dissatisfaction with chemical & synthetic fert use, maybe I am better off changing to livestock & planned holistic grazing, following more regenerative farming practices

I will admit, I'm struggling at the moment, Im losing my faith in our "conventional" high input chemical dependent agriculture, almost like a committed Christian who starts questioning " is there a God ? ". Its real big for me, not sure where I'll end up . . .

but yes, having a real " crisis of faith " when it comes to farming . . .
"you can't go again the weather" as Dad use to say

a chap down the road use to try growing corn on land much like ours, it was ok for a year or so then it just seemed to end up with loads of grass in it, he said to us one day "it wants to grow grass it likes growing grass and who are we to defy it" always stuck with me that although it was 25 years or so ago
 

hendrebc

Member
Livestock Farmer
Bleddy agronomists again! No idea why anyone bothers with them really.

All our soil samples include organic carbon, among many other things. Not sure how you can make informed management decisions without all the information at hand.

These are the test packages we use...
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Nithing wrong with agronomists or even salepeople we all need them at some point. As long as they arent the pushy type who want to sell you something wether you need it or not and csnt take a hint and have to be told to f**k off instead of just leaving a csrd and maybe a catalogue :rolleyes:
 
I don't know if I can post a Vimeo here, but I'll give it a try. This is a video you won't find on Youtube.

The video is called, "Understanding Brittleness to Better Read Your Land". Brittleness is one of four key insights in Holistic Management. The reason Brittleness matters is because tools often have different outcomes depending on where the land is on the Brittleness scale.

I hope it works for you.

 

Farmer Roy

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
NSW, Newstralya
Would you would need moisture to plant grass or would it just grow eventually as a "weed" or just graze whatever is there?

if I was to go down that route, I doubt if id plant any ' grass ' as such. Money would be very tight, so I'd be letting nature do most of the work. No point planting anything ( or buying any stock ) without moisture, but when it comes I would plant something cheap & bulky, say oats ( cool season, or maybe sorghum / millet warm season ), just to get some groundcover, some bulk, some feed & to kickstart the biology, then I'd just use hooves mouths & electric wire to do the rest. If you walk away from this country & do nothing, the native grasses come back & tend to dominate again in 10 - 15 years - once all the succession & pioneer species ( weeds ) have done their thing. That can be sped up by careful grazing management. Oats are a very good plant here & could potentially be direct drilled into pastures if needed to temporarily bulk them up, or potentially introduce a few relatively cheap hard seeded legume plants such as vetch, clover etc or even annual summer legumes like cow peas
Tropical grasses are very popular here but very expensive & establishment can be very difficult if you don't get favourable damp weather conditions after planting. I have seen many people put a lot of money into grass / pasture seeds without any guarantee of success
 

Treg

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Cornwall
I don't know if I can post a Vimeo here, but I'll give it a try. This is a video you won't find on Youtube.

The video is called, "Understanding Brittleness to Better Read Your Land". Brittleness is one of four key insights in Holistic Management. The reason Brittleness matters is because tools often have different outcomes depending on where the land is on the Brittleness scale.

I hope it works for you.

Some really good messages in there @Sheila Cooke , it's really what ought to be taught at Agricultural colleges.
One of the speakers said about looking at the whole picture & reading the land, what a simple message for youngsters coming into Agriculture to understand.
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

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    Votes: 80 42.3%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 66 34.9%
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    Votes: 30 15.9%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 7 3.7%

Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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