Farmer Roy's Random Thoughts - I never said it was easy.

[Steel]

apparently a “large bone” was found while doing some excavation work at the local Catholic high school, declared a crime scene while forensic stuff is done. That’s all I know.

Police set up crime scene as 'large bone' found at NSW high school

Students and staff at a Gunnedah high school have been offered counselling after the find during "routine maintenance".

www.abc.net.au

If it is a single large bone it was probably buried by a dog and its not even human.

 

[Farmer Roy]

If itaca single large bone it was probably burtied by a dog and its not even human.

Yes, but the police have to always investigate







Catholic high school, site of a former Convent from the 1800’s - who knows what secrets lie there ?

 

[holwellcourtfarm]

What do you make of this piece?

What’s the missing ingredient in Regenerative Agriculture? Water!

By Stuart Orr, WWF Global Freshwater Lead, and Bruce Lankford, School of International Development at the University of East Anglia

medium.com

written based entirely on this academic paper: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fsufs.2022.891709/full

 

[Humble Village Farmer]

What do you make of this piece?

What’s the missing ingredient in Regenerative Agriculture? Water!

By Stuart Orr, WWF Global Freshwater Lead, and Bruce Lankford, School of International Development at the University of East Anglia

medium.com

written based entirely on this academic paper: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fsufs.2022.891709/full

It's bollards, water infiltration is all part of.

 

[som farmer]

What do you make of this piece?

What’s the missing ingredient in Regenerative Agriculture? Water!

By Stuart Orr, WWF Global Freshwater Lead, and Bruce Lankford, School of International Development at the University of East Anglia

medium.com

written based entirely on this academic paper: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fsufs.2022.891709/full

interesting article, but we cannot farm without water, and we need to produce food
l suppose we could be called a semi arid farm, and that would make life easier to accept.

We are trying, and hopefully getting there, to improve soil structure, and water retention, my thinking is the better the structure, the better the crop, a broad explanation.
l would love someone to explain exactly how to retain moisture, in free draining sandy soils, if regen isn't the answer, and no irrigation. I cannot really see an alternative to regen.
Irrigation, feeds the crop, perhaps more than the soil, as does fert, and perhaps both will become less available.

I have always said fert and sprays are a new addition to ag, and they have become a mainstay of modern ag, and highly likely they haven't done us any favours in the longer term. A lot of our ground is sandy loam, and l think a lot of our problems here, are my own fault, like a lot of lighter soils, we have degraded it, used up the natural organic matter, and this is the result, l farmed for a long time for max production, and was pretty good at it, but perhaps in the last 20 yrs, with prices what they were, probably pulled it to much, previously, l used a proper rotation, mixing arable and grass.

But what is the answer ? l am a firm believer in, if it isn't working, stop, and try something else, just as l believe, if you are in a hole, stop digging. Well, it wasn't working, and buying fodder, was getting us in that hole. So we looked around, and decided a way forward, whether it works, yet to see.

But it all boils down to water, with it it grows, without it, it doesn't, and for us, improving soil structure, is our only hope, with different crops, that has roots that will follow moisture down, we have no irrigation, very few water sources, and none, on most of the farm. So, if there is another way, please tell me.

If we go back in time, from the archaeology done here, the climate/rainfall, must have been very different, there are ditches, and drains everywhere, and l don't expect they dug them for fun.

Going forward, what we will continue to do, is concentrate on soil structure and health, and keep looking at 'other' crops. Recovery time for grass, causes some minor disagreements, the pic, is of 1 of our cut only fields

the middle picture is from the bottom of the field, the first and third, are separated by a fence.
the grass was cut for 2nd cut, about 6 weeks ago, and a reasonable cut.
The maize, has grown well, and with a decent 2nd cut, clearly shows the benefit of ground cover, holding moisture. The maize is just starting to stress.
It might have been interesting, to have left some, to see what would have remained now, if it would have shrivelled up to nothing, perhaps a good job we didn't !!

 

[Farmer Roy]

🌧

 

[Farmer Roy]

No trucks tomorrow

as I said before, at least we will have a full profile for our summer crops

our biggest problem for the next year or two will be more flooding.
This will see us through 2 years of drought

 

[Yale]

Need a hover craft.

 

[Farmer Roy]

148 mm in 2 rain events since last week.

after an already wet autumn / winter ( we are a summer rainfall dominant area )

 

[Farmer Roy]

Need a hover craft.

In all seriousness, when we had a run of wet years in the 70’s, my father wanted to get one

 

[Farmer Roy]

I’m actually thinking a decent drone would be a very good thing to have for these situations

I think we might be heading for a wet spring & summer, at least

 

[Steel]

Still bugger all rain here.

Irrigating now.

 

[Kiwi Pete]

We've had more rain fall in the past 13 weeks than we received in 2021

 

[CPF]

Down at Wye river nr geelong yesterday 24mm, today 12 mm and 15 mm expected in the next 24hrs

 

[cows sh#t me to tears]

Down at Wye river nr geelong yesterday 24mm, today 12 mm and 15 mm expected in the next 24hrs

Rains where it's least needed all the time.

 

[cows sh#t me to tears]

interesting article, but we cannot farm without water, and we need to produce food
l suppose we could be called a semi arid farm, and that would make life easier to accept.

We are trying, and hopefully getting there, to improve soil structure, and water retention, my thinking is the better the structure, the better the crop, a broad explanation.
l would love someone to explain exactly how to retain moisture, in free draining sandy soils, if regen isn't the answer, and no irrigation. I cannot really see an alternative to regen.
Irrigation, feeds the crop, perhaps more than the soil, as does fert, and perhaps both will become less available.

I have always said fert and sprays are a new addition to ag, and they have become a mainstay of modern ag, and highly likely they haven't done us any favours in the longer term. A lot of our ground is sandy loam, and l think a lot of our problems here, are my own fault, like a lot of lighter soils, we have degraded it, used up the natural organic matter, and this is the result, l farmed for a long time for max production, and was pretty good at it, but perhaps in the last 20 yrs, with prices what they were, probably pulled it to much, previously, l used a proper rotation, mixing arable and grass.

But what is the answer ? l am a firm believer in, if it isn't working, stop, and try something else, just as l believe, if you are in a hole, stop digging. Well, it wasn't working, and buying fodder, was getting us in that hole. So we looked around, and decided a way forward, whether it works, yet to see.

But it all boils down to water, with it it grows, without it, it doesn't, and for us, improving soil structure, is our only hope, with different crops, that has roots that will follow moisture down, we have no irrigation, very few water sources, and none, on most of the farm. So, if there is another way, please tell me.

If we go back in time, from the archaeology done here, the climate/rainfall, must have been very different, there are ditches, and drains everywhere, and l don't expect they dug them for fun.

Going forward, what we will continue to do, is concentrate on soil structure and health, and keep looking at 'other' crops. Recovery time for grass, causes some minor disagreements, the pic, is of 1 of our cut only fieldsView attachment 1056058View attachment 1056059View attachment 1056060the middle picture is from the bottom of the field, the first and third, are separated by a fence.
the grass was cut for 2nd cut, about 6 weeks ago, and a reasonable cut.
The maize, has grown well, and with a decent 2nd cut, clearly shows the benefit of ground cover, holding moisture. The maize is just starting to stress.
It might have been interesting, to have left some, to see what would have remained now, if it would have shrivelled up to nothing, perhaps a good job we didn't !!

Welcome to our world...... The answer for us has been make as much conserved fodder as you can when you can and feed it back over summer into autumn. Permanent pasture went by the by 15 years ago now. I'm sorry, but regenerative ag just doesn't work when you get months of bugger all rain and extreme Temps (try weeks of 35°+) .

 

[Yale]

Welcome to our world...... The answer for us has been make as much conserved fodder as you can when you can and feed it back over summer into autumn. Permanent pasture went by the by 15 years ago now. I'm sorry, but regenerative ag just doesn't work when you get months of bugger all rain and extreme Temps (try weeks of 35°+) .

It bends your mind how much water is needed for irrigation. You need serious quantities and the infrastructure.

Think it would be easier to sell up here and move to OZ, at least stuff is set up up for irrigation and the sun generally shines…..probably a bit too much.

 

[som farmer]

Welcome to our world...... The answer for us has been make as much conserved fodder as you can when you can and feed it back over summer into autumn. Permanent pasture went by the by 15 years ago now. I'm sorry, but regenerative ag just doesn't work when you get months of bugger all rain and extreme Temps (try weeks of 35°+) .

for the first time in years, we have some pp, took on 56 acres last yr, and another 30 next year, we hope. Virtually everything here is/has been cultivated, all leys or cropped. The pp has to be set stocked, so 2 big changes for us. The pp seems to keep the older cattle content, younger ones not, both look well, even though it looks like a desert. Silage from there is good, as is some 2nd cut hay.

Regen, for us here, has improved our farming, considerably, but l would agree, its not the total solution, thankfully it hasn't got a rule book, yet, so we can mix and match quite happily. The principles of regen are correct, it is a much better way to farm, hopefully, it will continue to improve our system here.
The biggest drawback, and the reason we moved towards it, is substantial lack of water, and it, and us, struggle. But it is a massive improvement.
As a dairy farmer, winter fodder stocks are vital, we cannot graze all year round. Quality is crucial as well. Bulk fodder, we are trying, and succeeding, with either double cropping, or 3 in 2 years, on our better grounds.
We haven't really got the right type of cow here, to graze very well, labour is the cause, or lack of it, cow numbers have dropped 150 head, in the last 30 months. But, we need milk volume as well, so hols are back. That's just a fact of life.
We were on target, to top 9,000 litres, on relatively low cost, this summer will have stopped in the 8's, and a lot more conc, has been fed. Again, that's life.
Fully agree, fodder stocks have to be maximised, a good year can carry a bad one, quality is important as well. Having had to buy a lot of forage in the last few years, you need your own, buying eats the profit.
What we could do with, is a reliable summer crop for grazing, in a dry summer, we have relied on forage rape, but issues with that.

Back to regen, and residuals, we carefully built up a nice wedge of grass, in front of the cows, which shrivelled away when it became so hot. So, having fed buffer, to allow for that wedge, we should have eaten it, and saved the silage.

The other problem with residuals, is quality - wrong type of cow-, we get over that, in the spring, by matching grass growth, to the cows, concentrating on quality grass. We still leave longer residuals, than recommended, and will continue to do so, it sort of works. The sort of bit, what seems to happen is the prg synchronises itself, and buggers us that way, l have a love/hate relationship with rye grasses.

At least we are doing 'something', which is a lot better than just hoping for a 'good' year, and regen has done us an awful lot of good, soil health, structure etc is crucial. We just need to find the missing bit, to overcome a drought time.

 

[cows sh#t me to tears]

Yes, but what will you do IF this becomes your new normal? Regen doesn't work without moisture. We go into a kind of holding pattern for 5 months of the year where zero soil moisture and high Temps mean only the cùñtiest of cùñt weeds like bindis thrive.....Hopefully one day they learn to breed its trait into something usefull. Was reading recently they're doing it with portulaca.

 

[holwellcourtfarm]

Yes, but what will you do IF this becomes your new normal? Regen doesn't work without moisture. We go into a kind of holding pattern for 5 months of the year where zero soil moisture and high Temps mean only the cùñtiest of cùñt weeds like bindis thrive.....Hopefully one day they learn to breed its trait into something usefull. Was reading recently they're doing it with portulaca.

The UK is a very long way from the position you describe though. With attention to returning or soils to healthy water function we could still grow grass and herbs during periods of several months without rain.