- Location
- Owaka, New Zealand
What If We’re Thinking About Agriculture All Wrong?
Two pioneers believe we can feed the world with trees
heated.medium.com
I like the way they think
"Improving Our Lot" - Planned Holistic Grazing, for starters..
- Thread starter Kiwi Pete
- Start date
heated.medium.com
I like the way they think
- Location
- West Yorkshire
I was at my monthly group meeting last Thursday night where we had this guy https://www.soilassociation.org/staff-bios/paul-flynn/ as a speaker on building soils, carbon and productivity.
A great speaker to be fair.
anyway at the end off the session i went for a chinwag with him as i am the only one in the group even attempting to do any sort of re gen agriculture.
( i do believe we all will have to get into it though if we want to collect any form of future subsidy)
anyway he was saying hes been commissioned to write a book/paper ( i think book) and would like to come see what i am doing solely of my own back for research purposes as i am in a complete different area climate and soil to him and as i am at the beginning of my mission would hopefully like to take samples etc to document the changes going forwards. I hope he does come back to me to do some work on this.
He was amazed at that id gone out and bought my own lime spreader, and was already getting some 300+ grazing days per acre on some land.
- Location
- Owaka, New Zealand
Yes, it's pretty impressive how quickly you're getting things turned around there Karl!
I think that's the key - you have to go and put yourself out there a little, go and 'grab people by the lapels' rather than "sit and wait for someone to do something"
That someone is you, and me
It's hard for a start because in some ways our ideals are very good, but also the rest of the conventional supply chain (convenience) works totally against those
I've got a lot of confidence because the better things come to work, the less bound we are to "production" to stay profitable
Then we can actually step back and look at things more clinically and this can help the whole organism that is "The Farm" evolve into something much better
What begins as "an experiment to see if we can ........." then ends up as a proper journey, it's worth announcing that you are off on a journey because interest comes from making a little statement, things snowball; our knowledge grows and our network improves all the while.
I really like doing new stuff now, eg the covercropping thing, just to see if we can jumpstart the journey a little.
If it doesn't work then I learned more!
If it does work then we can integrate it into the future plans.
- Location
- Derbyshire UK
Great pics, Bury the Trash, thank you for posting them.grew them with oats one year , excellent sheep feed for this time of year when the winds howling and therains falling, human equivalent of hot stew...
View attachment 856705
i think from memory that pic was taken in the combine tank,
the big point is ,for combining, anyway i the fact that the peas were kept off the ground at harvesting, and made it into the store instead of back onto the ground....
i ❤ peas
- Location
- Derbyshire UK
That sounds interesting, shame about the distance (approx 3 hour drive from me), would love a JV setup for overwintering cattle on arable ground, particularly on soil like they have in Elveden (free draining, light, hungry, blow away sand). Near to my old stomping ground, Bury st Edmunds.We are members of the PFLA. Today the attached email was sent to members. There are arable farmers out there for whom the penny has dropped and they know that a well thought out JV with a livestock producer will mean that everyone can be a winner.
These Pasture For Life boy & girls seem to be ahead of the game. Like their "Trace Your Meat" tool on the website https://www.pastureforlife.org/trace-your-meat/ , do you use it on meat sold through your shop?
- Location
- Glen Clova, Angus, DD8 4RD
Agreed.Yes, it's pretty impressive how quickly you're getting things turned around there Karl!
I think that's the key - you have to go and put yourself out there a little, go and 'grab people by the lapels' rather than "sit and wait for someone to do something"
That someone is you, and me
It's hard for a start because in some ways our ideals are very good, but also the rest of the conventional supply chain (convenience) works totally against those
I've got a lot of confidence because the better things come to work, the less bound we are to "production" to stay profitable
Then we can actually step back and look at things more clinically and this can help the whole organism that is "The Farm" evolve into something much better
What begins as "an experiment to see if we can ........." then ends up as a proper journey, it's worth announcing that you are off on a journey because interest comes from making a little statement, things snowball; our knowledge grows and our network improves all the while.
I really like doing new stuff now, eg the covercropping thing, just to see if we can jumpstart the journey a little.
If it doesn't work then I learned more!
If it does work then we can integrate it into the future plans.
We all need to be driving this forward in the face of the resistance from vested interests.
As for experimenting: if you aren't making mistakes and getting failures then you aren't learning. On that measure I must be learning!
- Location
- West Yorkshire
at the same meeting as i mentioned above we also had the NSA's Make More Off Mutton project manager ( i think he is) Bob Kennard setting up something similar.
https://www.farmingmonthly.co.uk/livestock/9771-mutton-supply-chain-in-good-health/
the whole idea behind this make more of mutton project is purely for british (Native breeds) and to make better prospects (Value) for the older sheep with a new style off packaging like you show above called the ABC off sheep with a QR code
A - Animal - sheep
B - Breed - any type so long as its native
C - countryside - where in the uk it came from.
we also did a blind tasting session for various qualities ie tenderness, juiciness, sweetness, fattiness and a few others from a
herdwick (hogget) 1.5 years
shropshire (mutton) 2 years+
southdown (lamb) under 1 year
how do we think the votes went as to what was everyone's overall favourite about 45 people (i was very surprised)
they were all the same joint cooked the same way just for slightly different lengths of time due to weight differences
- Location
- Glen Clova, Angus, DD8 4RD
Mutton rated top?
Woolless
Member
- Location
- Berwickshire, Scottish Borders
I certainly try to have hogget/young mutton in our freezer. The Hampshire x gimmer we ate last winter (killed at 18mo) was excellent. Having said that, the lamb I hung up in November (seven months) has been good eating.
- Location
- Derbyshire
- Location
- West Yorkshire
The herdwick hogget came out top with about 60% then the Shropshire mutton with the other 40% no votes at all for the lamb.
I was very surprised by this.
Trouble is where would you go to buy hogget or mutton these days without special requests as supermarkets only do lamb and so do most butchers.
I was very surprised by this.
Trouble is where would you go to buy hogget or mutton these days without special requests as supermarkets only do lamb and so do most butchers.
- Location
- Derbyshire
This is where branding and marketing take over as being a major part of the costs of production, and farmers resent other sectors of the food chain taking a cut of the commodity.
A few years back Prince Charles was actively backing the promotion of mutton/hogget. I think we can all agree, it's a hard one to sell.
- Location
- West Yorkshire
I think in the reading on nsa it says prince Philip was back this scheam
- Location
- Derbyshire
@Karliboy it looks like you get some good speakers at your group. Do you accept visiting guests from outside the Republic of Yorkshire? Maybe @Rob Garrett and I could venture up from Derbyshire?
- Location
- West Yorkshire
To be fair the lad that organises does a great job and I’m sure you would be more than welcome. ?? It’s normally only a couple of hours on a evening nothing to extreme and we get tea thrown in too if we want it. Foods out about 6.30 for a 7pm start.
We have had some poo speaker in between too.
This month is solely about woodland I think so won’t be off much interest to me but I’ll go all the same.
I mentioned the other day we are trying for Niels Corfield but I haven’t anything since.
Do you not have no groups as such down your way?
We have had some poo speaker in between too.
This month is solely about woodland I think so won’t be off much interest to me but I’ll go all the same.
I mentioned the other day we are trying for Niels Corfield but I haven’t anything since.
Do you not have no groups as such down your way?
- Location
- Derbyshire UK
Ecclesbourn Farmers Discussion Group, six meetings first Tuesday of the month at the Black Horse, Hulland. Never miss an advertising opportunity! Good bunch of lads (I think wives, girlfriends and lovers are welcome but you don't see many!) for a drink and chat, even if its just to find out that you are not the only one who's had a bit of a bad week. Only two rules are 1. No fighting (hence the lack of wives, girlfriends and lovers!) 2. No speakers on anything to do with farming! The last one was on French Polishing.
- Location
- Owaka, New Zealand
I'd pick a hogget or mutton over lamb any day, honestly I cannot see what the fuss is about
- Location
- Derbyshire
We're in a dairy discussion group. Meet once a month through the year. Very much a focus on costings and cfp's but I think anything with a holistic label may just stretch the conventional mindsets one rotation too far.
- Location
- Quebec, Canada
That’s the same lab I use. I haven’t tested in a few years. It might be time again. We can compare the tests.I understand the flaw of the nutrient aspect regarding what's available and what's locked in, etc. Does that apply to things like OM and water holding capacity though? Those are big things I can see being boosted.
This is the lab that was recommended and they have a Soil Health section in addition to their Soil Analysis. The latter is the one I expect could give drastically different readings depending on the time of year, the former is the one with the stuff I could find more interesting.
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Tests like SBT and SHWHC would cover a lot of my interests but I'm not sure if any of the tests on the Soil Analysis page would be more convincing to the farmer.
(I'd almost also be willing to bet that the soil biology here is opposite to what you think. Working like mad in the spring and then quieting down in fall.)
- Location
- Owaka, New Zealand
I was in a discussion group but they didn't want to talk about anything very relevant to what we're into, that is, making more money from less output
So I sort of canned it, no ill feelings but it was only semi-interesting and very "conventional"