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

Rob Garrett

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Derbyshire UK
Top signposting, thank you, very interesting. I've been squirting a bit of seaweed juice & molasses around which makes me feel good but with no significant effect! Thinking now adding magnesium & manganese (historical low in soil analysis) plus fulvic acid (if I can find some) and looking at min. three applications (currently two). Would reduce fungicide & pre emergence applications on winter barley to pay for it.

How do I take a brix measurement of a plant leaf? Have got a refractometer I use for honey, if it's the same thing for brix?
 

Crofter64

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Quebec, Canada
Top signposting, thank you, very interesting. I've been squirting a bit of seaweed juice & molasses around which makes me feel good but with no significant effect! Thinking now adding magnesium & manganese (historical low in soil analysis) plus fulvic acid (if I can find some) and looking at min. three applications (currently two). Would reduce fungicide & pre emergence applications on winter barley to pay for it.

How do I take a brix measurement of a plant leaf? Have got a refractometer I use for honey, if it's the same thing for brix?
yes, I think the brix is analysed the same way. I had a lot of trouble getting sap out of grass till I learnt that you have to roll it back and forth between your hands till the fibres are very damaged , then you can use pliars to squeeze out a drop of sap onto the refrectometer. Legumes are easier to squeeze than mature grasses.
 

Kiwi Pete

Member
Livestock Farmer
yes, I think the brix is analysed the same way. I had a lot of trouble getting sap out of grass till I learnt that you have to roll it back and forth between your hands till the fibres are very damaged , then you can use pliars to squeeze out a drop of sap onto the refrectometer. Legumes are easier to squeeze than mature grasses.
I use a garlic press, what is reasonably important is that you roll those samples for about the same time each time, otherwise you end up with the results you want 😉
 

Crofter64

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Quebec, Canada
I use a garlic press, what is reasonably important is that you roll those samples for about the same time each time, otherwise you end up with the results you want 😉
Does that mean that breaking the fibers and extracting sap has something to do with how much sugar is in the plant.? Wouldn’t that stay the same however you handled it ?
 

Kiwi Pete

Member
Livestock Farmer
Does that mean that breaking the fibers and extracting sap has something to do with how much sugar is in the plant.? Wouldn’t that stay the same however you handled it ?
Yes, but how you handle it makes a fair difference as to how many cells you burst open,, which affects what drips out of the sample.
Also it must be dry!! as a bit of dew will dilute the plant contents


You can get a refractometer to show you what you want it to show, but also a very handy gadget to have.
 

awkward

Member
Location
kerry ireland
How’s that?
according to Hugh Lovel (rip,) we can increase the effect of our solar energy by having the right amount of silica available to our plants, it splits and multiples the light to make the plant cells more productive, or something along those lines. Take a look at his tribute page ,his wife posts many of his discussions on it for our benefit, he had a unique understanding .
 

awkward

Member
Location
kerry ireland
Top signposting, thank you, very interesting. I've been squirting a bit of seaweed juice & molasses around which makes me feel good but with no significant effect! Thinking now adding magnesium & manganese (historical low in soil analysis) plus fulvic acid (if I can find some) and looking at min. three applications (currently two). Would reduce fungicide & pre emergence applications on winter barley to pay for it.

How do I take a brix measurement of a plant leaf? Have got a refractometer I use for honey, if it's the same thing for brix?
Epsom salts or keserite could work and the sulfur would strengthen the cell walls to combat fungal infection.
 

awkward

Member
Location
kerry ireland
One of the biggest problems in soils is availability ,so we may have enough in our soil but is unavailable to our plants, often this is governed by a natural chemical or biologic action, but our biology by is damaged by our actions so we need to learn the sequence of activation and solution to soil problems.. so we can have plenty sand but little or no silica
 

Kiwi Pete

Member
Livestock Farmer
One of the biggest problems in soils is availability ,so we may have enough in our soil but is unavailable to our plants, often this is governed by a natural chemical or biologic action, but our biology by is damaged by our actions so we need to learn the sequence of activation and solution to soil problems.. so we can have plenty sand but little or no silica
Yes, well explained. Silica, oxygen, aluminium are basically what the crust of the Earth is mainly made of.
Lose the Si or O from the soil and you're in trouble. Too much free Al and you're in trouble.

This is why the ag service industry keep pushing salt/acid fertilisers, because it keeps the soil in trouble, and keeps farmers coming back every year for more.

Hence why the old guys used a lot of slag or sands to remediate tight soil, now it's pretty much scoffed off because people are too clever to be smart - just ask @Derrick Hughes .
If you have soil with air in it, (when I went to school air was 78% N) then you have a nitrogen supply.
Silica (in an available form) is an incredible input because it doesn't "supply nutrients" but rather unlocks pathways where nutrients become available .
Hence the biodynamic prep "horn silica" is like waving a magic wand sometimes, a few grams per acre and the place wakes up from being suffocated
 

Kiwi Pete

Member
Livestock Farmer
20201213_203154.jpg

Having a bit more horsepower is handy!
20201213_175509.jpg

"accidentally" grazed around the duckpond
20201213_205312.jpg

and away to eat more weedy stalky rubbish
 

GC74

Member
I've had a book come at me from out of nowhere that I bought on the back of a tweet this morning. It's called The Psychobiotic Revolution and features our relationship to our gut microbes, how they influence our thinking and disposition to depression and other illness. I'm only maybe 4 chapters in yet I can say, buy it.
thanks for the recommendation, what an interesting read, not that far into it downloaded it at lunchtime. Now I'm late getting back to work!
 
"disruptive"

...actually, there are some really good things that come out of this thread, because of the 3 principles linked in lately;
1. the cascading/compounding effects of putting likeminded people in a group (or likeminded people joining in, to be more accurate)
2. the diversity aspect, because we're all different, have different goals
3. ....and you being disruptive ? because sometimes we forget to push the boundaries, get out of the comfort zone, because of our nature - one of forming habits, to save us from thinking all the time
Only by someone taking things too far, do we know how far we can take things.

fallen behind a bit... will I miss much if I skip 167 pages?
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 79 42.5%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 65 34.9%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 30 16.1%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 75-100%

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

    Votes: 6 3.2%

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

  • 1,287
  • 1
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/
Top