- Location
- Glen Clova, Angus, DD8 4RD
Positive then.....
Positive then.....
I rent some river flat land which is more free draining, lower down and may have a go at Lucerne there. I’ve left it this and last year as Landlord has planning permission pending for industrial units.
Will be interesting to see if cattle graze those mature seed heads and not just strip off the green leaves, thinking of coarse stemmy chicory in particular.I'm trying a slightly interesting approach, hence my multispecies reseed in '5 Gates'
Name of the paddock gives the game away, really, the idea is to manage this one with "kids gloves" and haul the seed away in the bellies of the cattle.
We'll see how that goes.... if a success then there are plenty of other places for a "chaos garden" around the boundaries, the only species missing is trefoil/lotus, but it's already in the soil.
You better hadn't fall asleep reading it, you may not want to wake up
Don’t you know he doesn’t sleep. ?You better hadn't fall asleep reading it, you may not want to wake up
I've had almost 30 hours good sleep this week alone, that's a ton of it!Don’t you know he doesn’t sleep. ?
They probably won't have a great deal of say in the matter, as they will be on/off grazed we can give them a lot of pressure for a short period of timeWill be interesting to see if cattle graze those mature seed heads and not just strip off the green leaves, thinking of coarse stemmy chicory in particular.
It is interesting stuff, I make a wee bit here.
It's my gift to the generations to follow
I've had almost 30 hours good sleep this week alone, that's a ton of it!
Book is " the Biochar Solution ", quite captivating TBH.
One early point is how we may become so focussed on "Carbon" that we forget our other nutrients - a 'monoculture of the mind' he calls it.
But from a natutal sequence farming viewpoint it's very interesting, especially the collapse of the western hemisphere
Just an oil drum, not very efficient but much more efficient to load.Two barrels or have ya some fancy method of making it?
It is interesting stuff, I make a wee bit here.
It's my gift to the generations to follow
I used to have a block heavy with Yarrow, it's magic stuff.May have posted it before, but when I dd'd some herbal ley stuff into an existing sward during the summer, I had masses of yarrow come through. But I didn't put any harrow in the mix! Not really seen it before in the field though - perhaps because it's not had chance to express itself. View attachment 848390
The large pit method appears pretty popular as a historical way to improve soils - much of the Amazon lies on top of it, remnants of the Western Hemisphere's lost civilisation.Interested too in biochar. Though I would like to find a way of simply making large volumes. Perhaps some sort of giant pit that I could cover with soil?
As for the herd we have stopped providing hay about 10 days ago. They weren't interested in it anyway.
Grass looks good, as do the cattle. Heifers also are off the hay. Really pleased with how its all working out. They are normally inside by now.
I had huge doubts during the drought back in August. We held the cattle back so long to respect the rule of avoiding untoward acceleration. Now it seems to be paying off.
View attachment 848544
There are some good videos online showing different pit methods. I'll see if I can post one or two.The large pit method appears pretty popular as a historical way to improve soils - much of the Amazon lies on top of it, remnants of the Western Hemisphere's lost civilisation.
The main points to consider: firstly you need to regulate airflow into the pit and secondly you need to be able to cut that off at the right time - which is why they evolved their production system to smaller pits later on; the losses were less when they got it wrong.
Unfortunately the recipe was lost when diseases and viruses wiped them out
No less fortunate than what's happening to those areas today, ie industrial soybeans and corn for biofuel ..... humans certainly take stupidity and greed to new heights