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

[Sheila Cooke]

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

Farmer Roy, it's interesting to hear you talk of your experience with native grasses coming back. I am often asked about reseeding, and I asked Allan Savory what he thought about it. Here is a synopsis of what he said:

Unless you are short of time for some reason, there are almost no circumstances under which you need to reseed for grassland, because there is so much seed in the soil already. We don't really understand seed. I once worked with a farmer in the desert in New Mexico, and after three years of holistic management they had 19 species without planting anything. When a new island forms in the middle of the ocean within a few years plants are growing on it. When they bring up ships from the bottom of the ocean which have been sunk 200 years, and dry them out, plants grow between the planks in no time. All you have to do is use the livestock to create the conditions for grass and you'll get it, because the seed already exists in the soil.

 

[Sheila Cooke]

@newholland I think you'll enjoy this thread.
"Improving Our Lot" - Planned Holistic Grazing, for starters

 

[Kiwi Pete]

@newholland I think you'll enjoy this thread.
"Improving Our Lot" - Planned Holistic Grazing, for starters

Thanks from me, too, the second video especially I found very useful as "reading the land" really is something I strive to do; it seems a lost concept to so many these days.
While many can look at their livestock and decide it seems to be much more difficult to decipher the language our land is using!

On the brittleness subject, we enjoy a very non-brittle environment here - but it is beginning to show what we can perhaps expect in future with a changing climate.
Regular surprises in NZ - but this year opened my eyes that we just cannot rely on summer rains to make rotational grazing work every year, with the stocking rate we have - just no drought reserve unless you plan to put it in there!

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Further to the above reason why rotational grazing didn't work for us this year was simply too many seperate mobs which I plan to consolidate much more next grazing season, my plan was to try to put the lambs into fresher pasture then follow with cattle but of course if I subdivide paddocks with a single poly then they can do that themselves - so I missed out on much of the animal impact and, of course, limited recovery of the grass.

Two valuable lessons, really, we squeezed through but I didn't enjoy the stress - I then realised that is likely how many farmers operate and how they feel as a result
I can't be done with that "winging it" feeling

 

[Sheila Cooke]

Hey folks, I am writing to ask your help in promoting an upcoming 3LM event -- please post it to all your social media. Many kind thanks!

On the 1st of June we are delighted to host Walter Jehne, with co-sponsorship from Rheged in Penrith on the topic:

Climate Change – the answer is beneath our feet

Walter is one of my husband's dear friends from Australia, and we are so lucky to have him coming to the UK. He is on a three-month whirlwind tour called "Regenerate Earth." If you're in or near Cumbria, you won't want to miss his upbeat, soft approach to explaining hard science.

https://3lm.network/climate-change-answer-beneath-feet/

 

[Farmer Roy]

Thanks from me, too, the second video especially I found very useful as "reading the land" really is something I strive to do; it seems a lost concept to so many these days.
While many can look at their livestock and decide it seems to be much more difficult to decipher the language our land is using!

On the brittleness subject, we enjoy a very non-brittle environment here - but it is beginning to show what we can perhaps expect in future with a changing climate.
Regular surprises in NZ - but this year opened my eyes that we just cannot rely on summer rains to make rotational grazing work every year, with the stocking rate we have - just no drought reserve unless you plan to put it in there!

That's where ( apparently ) the use of grazing charts & constant " plan, monitor, manage " are crucial

 

[Farmer Roy]

Farmer Roy, it's interesting to hear you talk of your experience with native grasses coming back. I am often asked about reseeding, and I asked Allan Savory what he thought about it. Here is a synopsis of what he said:

Unless you are short of time for some reason, there are almost no circumstances under which you need to reseed for grassland, because there is so much seed in the soil already. We don't really understand seed. I once worked with a farmer in the desert in New Mexico, and after three years of holistic management they had 19 species without planting anything. When a new island forms in the middle of the ocean within a few years plants are growing on it. When they bring up ships from the bottom of the ocean which have been sunk 200 years, and dry them out, plants grow between the planks in no time. All you have to do is use the livestock to create the conditions for grass and you'll get it, because the seed already exists in the soil.

yeah, sort of " build it & they will come "
rather than using a lot of heavy metal & diesel & expensive inputs & trying to bash things into submission, just take a step back, & with a little bit of manipulation ( hooves mouths wire etc ) allow the conditions to develop that allow the return of the natives
Every arable farmer spends a lot of time on weed control, a main focus is controlling them before seed set, to reduce next years numbers. But, every year more just keep coming up - seemingly inexhaustible . . .

talking about reintroducing new grasses, or creating an environment where existing or native ones will once again dominate - " build it & they will come ", makes me think a similar approach could be taken with soil biology. My focus is on cropping, so I am more interested in soil biology / soil health, than I am in actual grazing itself. My main interest in livestock / grazing is from a soil improvement point of view, although I have recently completed an RCS Australia ( I assume you may be familiar with them ? ) Grazing For Profit school, which was fascinating, eye opening, inspiring & potentially life changing
Anyway, I got a bit side-tracked then. From an arable cropping point of view, we are all pretty aware of the role that soil biology plays & the interactions between plants, fungi, bacteria etc. There are increasingly more & more biological products on the market ( some very reputable, some probably snake oil ) to help us achieve this aim. However, I always questioned this approach. Are we better off introducing biology ( which, by its very nature, may be quite singular in its lack of diversity ) ? Or are we better off creating the conditions ( ground cover, living root systems, reducing / avoiding fungicides, herbicides, insecticides ) to allow them to thrive & sit back & let them do the work ? Or maybe a combination of the two initially, to maybe kick start or help things along ?
Personally, fungicides are a big thing for me, I don't use them at all now. Very little insecticide use, looking to build up predators etc for the future. Reducing synthetic fert is not too hard, but the biggy for me is glyphosate use. Currently our dryland systems rely on it . . . still a work in progress, but aiming to reduce / eliminate herbicides as well
long rambling flow above I know, but following on from the soil biology question, i'll leave this interesting article from someone just down the road from me. . .

SOIL BIOLOGY – build it and they will come or introduce them in?
posted by Kirrily Blomfield
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.

Following are a few things that will help us to most effectively apply the research and which may influence our approach.



Nature prevails
We know that nature always prevails – it is why there is resistance to herbicides and insecticides. While some may curse this resistance, it is actually heartening that nature has such amazing resiliency. [private]
In the case of soil microbiology, ‘nature prevails’ also applies. Dr Karl Ritz from The University of Knottingham says that the native microbes of a soil will eventually overcome introduced species1. If we think about it, we can relate to this – this is why legume crop seed is inoculated with nitrogen fixing rhizobia each year at planting time – they don’t live on in the soil well enough to be there for a later crop. This will likely also be the case for other species introduced to the system – in time they will be overrun by the native species that have adapted to thrive in that environment.

It may be however that a specific, isolated species has such benefit to the production system that there is financial and ecological value in including it as an input each crop or year. The potential commercialisation of melanitic fungi - (see past blog), may be one such example. Whilst such microbes may become an ongoing input each year, if the return on investment warrants annual application, then the case for them is clear. They also tick the box for sustainability and regenerative agriculture as they are a renewable resource – able to be cultured, brewed and multiplied perpetually.



tight and loose relationships
The association between plants and soil microbes vary. Some associations are ‘tight’. A tight association between a plant and microbe means that there will likely be more success of colonisation when the microbe is cultured and added to the farming system via inoculation. Most plant/microbe associations are not ‘tight’. To use the rhizobia example again – the culture and introduction of these into cropping and pasture systems via inoculation has been very successful because they form tight associations with plants. Most associations are loose associations, making successful introduction and colonisation less successful.



Most microbes are ‘unculturable’
We might be able to culture some microbes to use for our advantage on our farms, but Dr Ritz states that the fact of current technology is that 90-95% of soil microbes are not able to be cultured. So, if we are relying on cultured and applied microbes – we are missing a massive amount of organisms, many of which we probably don’t even know their role.



some diseases are not caused by a single pathogen
Some plant diseases are not caused by a single pathogen, but rather the interaction of a number of microbes associated with the plant. It is likely too then, that the resistance of plants to disease may well be with the help of multiple microbes, so the application of a single species may not be the answer alone to solving disease or plant ill-health.



The system needs energy
There are several variations of soil carbon – and it is both the driver or energy source (as plant sap and labile carbon) for the microbiome and is also an end product of the plant growth process (as humus) – given the help of the soil microbiome. So soil carbon is both the end product or goal of the process (in terms of building stable soil carbon), and also the fuel for the process.

Carbon pools tend to be termed different things, depending what you read. But there are essentially three pools.

Humus carbon

I have often had the impression and even reported that humus is the pinnacle of carbon – it increases water holding capacity, is a large holding site for nutrients, and improves soil structure and drainage. It is a stable form (relatively resistant to microbial breakdown), so is great for increasing soil carbon levels for the long term. This can then have positive impacts for climate change and will ensure its advantages mentioned above are enjoyed for long periods. Humus is a carbon form which can no longer break down any further and mycorrhizae play a big part in its formation (from plant sugars). Whilst humus does all these amazing things, Professor Karl Ritz points out that labile carbon is also very important.

Labile carbon

Labile carbon is not a long term solution to carbon in our soils – labile means ‘more easily changed’. It is unstable and readily lost again from the soil. So in terms of storing carbon in soil and impacting climate change, it is not really a solution. Labile carbon is still very important however for the stimulation and feeding of the soil microbiome, for nutrient availability and turnover, especially nitrogen and for outnumbering potential plant pathogens of the soil. It is made up of both living and non-living components, such as green manure crops, stubble, plant roots and manure.

Recalcitrant carbon

Recalcitrant carbon is not known to be affected by the soil microbiome. I will mention it however to round out these comments. It is resistant to decomposition and is highly stable (for thousands of years) and is often in the form of charcoal. Biochar is a recalcitrant form of carbon.



How to apply the above Learnings
If we understand some of the above mentioned things about the likelihood of success of planning to colonise microbes in our soils and their relationship with plants, it helps us to understand our approach to soil biome health. Do we ‘build it and they will come’ or do we apply cultured microbes to our soils and crops? It seems that the build it and they will come approach may be the best overall approach – which will encourage the biology native to each person’s region, soil types and climate, and which should have greater resilience to remain there. In doing so, we are also nurturing and encouraging a large multitude of species, some of which we may be unaware of and not even able to culture and the benefits in our systems of which are yet unknown.

There may be cases however, where the introduction of specific fungi or bacteria may prove financially viable for that crop or season, and while it may not offer long term colonisation of that species in our soil – the short term ecological and financial benefits outweigh the application and purchase cost. Pulse crop inoculation has been a good example of this in the past.

How do we build it for them to come?
The way to create the soil environment that will then encourage a proliferation of microbiota has been the topic of many of my blogs. Building diversity underground requires diversity above ground – whether it be as pastures or in cropping situations. Things like diverse perennial pastures, pasture cropping to introduce diversity and active root growth for more of the year, multispecies cover cropping to bring diversity to the cropping system, planned grazing and more.

We should also keep abreast of developments in the isolation, culturing and commercialisation of specific strains of microbes. We now know some of the questions to ask about these products as they come on the market, given what we have learnt today. Things such as how tight is the relationship of your product with the plant? and does your product prevail among native soil microbe populations? We must also remember that specific microbe strains will only be a piece in the puzzle – one strain may for example help sequester carbon, but will it help with plant disease issues?

I hope this helps with your approach to your farm.

References

1. Ritz,K. University of Knottingham. Direct contact

 

[hendrebc]

yeah, sort of " build it & they will come "
rather than using a lot of heavy metal & diesel & expensive inputs & trying to bash things into submission, just take a step back, & with a little bit of manipulation ( hooves mouths wire etc ) allow the conditions to develop that allow the return of the natives
Every arable farmer spends a lot of time on weed control, a main focus is controlling them before seed set, to reduce next years numbers. But, every year more just keep coming up - seemingly inexhaustible . . .

talking about reintroducing new grasses, or creating an environment where existing or native ones will once again dominate - " build it & they will come ", makes me think a similar approach could be taken with soil biology. My focus is on cropping, so I am more interested in soil biology / soil health, than I am in actual grazing itself. My main interest in livestock / grazing is from a soil improvement point of view, although I have recently completed an RCS Australia ( I assume you may be familiar with them ? ) Grazing For Profit school, which was fascinating, eye opening, inspiring & potentially life changing
Anyway, I got a bit side-tracked then. From an arable cropping point of view, we are all pretty aware of the role that soil biology plays & the interactions between plants, fungi, bacteria etc. There are increasingly more & more biological products on the market ( some very reputable, some probably snake oil ) to help us achieve this aim. However, I always questioned this approach. Are we better off introducing biology ( which, by its very nature, may be quite singular in its lack of diversity ) ? Or are we better off creating the conditions ( ground cover, living root systems, reducing / avoiding fungicides, herbicides, insecticides ) to allow them to thrive & sit back & let them do the work ? Or maybe a combination of the two initially, to maybe kick start or help things along ?
Personally, fungicides are a big thing for me, I don't use them at all now. Very little insecticide use, looking to build up predators etc for the futureReducing synthetic fert is not too hard, but the biggy for me is glyphosate use. Currently our dryland systems rely on it . . . still a work in progress, but aiming to reduce / eliminate herbicides as well
long rambling flow above I know, but following on from the soil biology question, i'll leave this interesting article from someone just down the road . . .

SOIL BIOLOGY – build it and they will come or introduce them in?
posted by Kirrily Blomfield
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.

Following are a few things that will help us to most effectively apply the research and which may influence our approach.



Nature prevails
We know that nature always prevails – it is why there is resistance to herbicides and insecticides. While some may curse this resistance, it is actually heartening that nature has such amazing resiliency. [private]
In the case of soil microbiology, ‘nature prevails’ also applies. Dr Karl Ritz from The University of Knottingham says that the native microbes of a soil will eventually overcome introduced species1. If we think about it, we can relate to this – this is why legume crop seed is inoculated with nitrogen fixing rhizobia each year at planting time – they don’t live on in the soil well enough to be there for a later crop. This will likely also be the case for other species introduced to the system – in time they will be overrun by the native species that have adapted to thrive in that environment.

It may be however that a specific, isolated species has such benefit to the production system that there is financial and ecological value in including it as an input each crop or year. The potential commercialisation of melanitic fungi - (see past blog), may be one such example. Whilst such microbes may become an ongoing input each year, if the return on investment warrants annual application, then the case for them is clear. They also tick the box for sustainability and regenerative agriculture as they are a renewable resource – able to be cultured, brewed and multiplied perpetually.



tight and loose relationships
The association between plants and soil microbes vary. Some associations are ‘tight’. A tight association between a plant and microbe means that there will likely be more success of colonisation when the microbe is cultured and added to the farming system via inoculation. Most plant/microbe associations are not ‘tight’. To use the rhizobia example again – the culture and introduction of these into cropping and pasture systems via inoculation has been very successful because they form tight associations with plants. Most associations are loose associations, making successful introduction and colonisation less successful.



Most microbes are ‘unculturable’
We might be able to culture some microbes to use for our advantage on our farms, but Dr Ritz states that the fact of current technology is that 90-95% of soil microbes are not able to be cultured. So, if we are relying on cultured and applied microbes – we are missing a massive amount of organisms, many of which we probably don’t even know their role.



some diseases are not caused by a single pathogen
Some plant diseases are not caused by a single pathogen, but rather the interaction of a number of microbes associated with the plant. It is likely too then, that the resistance of plants to disease may well be with the help of multiple microbes, so the application of a single species may not be the answer alone to solving disease or plant ill-health.



The system needs energy
There are several variations of soil carbon – and it is both the driver or energy source (as plant sap and labile carbon) for the microbiome and is also an end product of the plant growth process (as humus) – given the help of the soil microbiome. So soil carbon is both the end product or goal of the process (in terms of building stable soil carbon), and also the fuel for the process.

Carbon pools tend to be termed different things, depending what you read. But there are essentially three pools.

Humus carbon

I have often had the impression and even reported that humus is the pinnacle of carbon – it increases water holding capacity, is a large holding site for nutrients, and improves soil structure and drainage. It is a stable form (relatively resistant to microbial breakdown), so is great for increasing soil carbon levels for the long term. This can then have positive impacts for climate change and will ensure its advantages mentioned above are enjoyed for long periods. Humus is a carbon form which can no longer break down any further and mycorrhizae play a big part in its formation (from plant sugars). Whilst humus does all these amazing things, Professor Karl Ritz points out that labile carbon is also very important.

Labile carbon

Labile carbon is not a long term solution to carbon in our soils – labile means ‘more easily changed’. It is unstable and readily lost again from the soil. So in terms of storing carbon in soil and impacting climate change, it is not really a solution. Labile carbon is still very important however for the stimulation and feeding of the soil microbiome, for nutrient availability and turnover, especially nitrogen and for outnumbering potential plant pathogens of the soil. It is made up of both living and non-living components, such as green manure crops, stubble, plant roots and manure.

Recalcitrant carbon

Recalcitrant carbon is not known to be affected by the soil microbiome. I will mention it however to round out these comments. It is resistant to decomposition and is highly stable (for thousands of years) and is often in the form of charcoal. Biochar is a recalcitrant form of carbon.



How to apply the above Learnings
If we understand some of the above mentioned things about the likelihood of success of planning to colonise microbes in our soils and their relationship with plants, it helps us to understand our approach to soil biome health. Do we ‘build it and they will come’ or do we apply cultured microbes to our soils and crops? It seems that the build it and they will come approach may be the best overall approach – which will encourage the biology native to each person’s region, soil types and climate, and which should have greater resilience to remain there. In doing so, we are also nurturing and encouraging a large multitude of species, some of which we may be unaware of and not even able to culture and the benefits in our systems of which are yet unknown.

There may be cases however, where the introduction of specific fungi or bacteria may prove financially viable for that crop or season, and while it may not offer long term colonisation of that species in our soil – the short term ecological and financial benefits outweigh the application and purchase cost. Pulse crop inoculation has been a good example of this in the past.

How do we build it for them to come?
The way to create the soil environment that will then encourage a proliferation of microbiota has been the topic of many of my blogs. Building diversity underground requires diversity above ground – whether it be as pastures or in cropping situations. Things like diverse perennial pastures, pasture cropping to introduce diversity and active root growth for more of the year, multispecies cover cropping to bring diversity to the cropping system, planned grazing and more.

We should also keep abreast of developments in the isolation, culturing and commercialisation of specific strains of microbes. We now know some of the questions to ask about these products as they come on the market, given what we have learnt today. Things such as how tight is the relationship of your product with the plant? and does your product prevail among native soil microbe populations? We must also remember that specific microbe strains will only be a piece in the puzzle – one strain may for example help sequester carbon, but will it help with plant disease issues?

I hope this helps with your approach to your farm.

References

1. Ritz,K. University of Knottingham. Direct contact

Soil gets more and more complicated and interesting the more i read about it

 

[holwellcourtfarm]

Soil gets more and more complicated and interesting the more i read about it

Complexity is everywhere in nature, more so in soil. We've been deluding ourselves for decades.

 

[Farmer Roy]

the more diverse an ecosystem is, the more stable it is

 

[newholland]

@Sheila Cooke ... we certainly are enjoying the thread.

 

[holwellcourtfarm]

Oooooohhhh! Pressies

Thanks Kevin

 

[hendrebc]

I think as long as you dont do anything stupid to the soil it will sort itself out its too complicated to try and 'fix' it

 

[holwellcourtfarm]

We really need more animals on here, I'm slightly worried that we're not eating enough off.

 

[hendrebc]

View attachment 672408

We really need more animals on here, in slightly worried that I'm not eating enough off.

Shut them in a smaller space?
Your dad is going to love that

 

[Kiwi Pete]

View attachment 672408

We really need more animals on here, in slightly worried that I'm not eating enough off.

Looks like they are getting the best of it though

 

[hendrebc]

Came across this i hope the link works. Not sure how to upload a video to here
Edit. Click the blue button saying watch on vimeo. Save you reading the mext few posts were i think i cant get it to work but it does

 

[hendrebc]

Came across this i hope the link works. Not sure how to upload a video to here

Well that didnt work did it

 

[Farmer Roy]

its not displayed here, but if you click on the blue button " watch on vimeo " it plays

 

[hendrebc]

https://www.facebook.com/huw.bryncyffo/posts/330480660813226
Try again with that one then