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

[Kiwi Pete]

We had a really great turnout with the last webinar -- 90 people from many different countries. Here is a link to the recording on YouTube:

YOUTUBE Shifting Perspectives: Long-Term Holistic Thinking for Marginal Farms

There are just a few seats left for tomorrow's webinar. Walter Jehne is the world's leading scientist who understands the connection between soil, water and climate change. Definitely attend if this is an area of interest for you. His thinking will knock your socks off!

Yay, awesome, Walter is my hero!
I'm just setting my alarm early for Friday...... thank you, Sheila

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Putting up a fence for my poor hungry milking cowsView attachment 854420
View attachment 854419
Quite nice tucker in here, the main mob will be in here next Saturday/Sunday/Monday

They actually ate quite a bit! Must have been hungry, or it was tasty

hi ho Silver

 

[Sheila Cooke]

One of my students asked this question this week:

Does anyone know how much oil would be used to make one ton of fertiliser?

Does anyone know the answer?

 

[Kiwi Pete]

To make, deliver and spread one tonne of urea requires the energy equivalent of two tonnes of gasoline - 90-95% of ammonia-based fert is actually made from natural gas, not oil because oil is heavier.
The remainder is mostly from coal.


That's about as close an answer as I can give!

The major question is why we aren't just using the ammonia from our own waste, already, and leaving Haber-Bosch behind as a bad job that undermines food security and value?

 

[Kiwi Pete]

 

[Jungle Bill]

One of my students asked this question this week:

Does anyone know how much oil would be used to make one ton of fertiliser?

Does anyone know the answer?

Yara say they emit near enough 3.5 kg of CO2 for every kg of AN or urea fertiliser they produce. https://www.yara.com/siteassets/inv...lizer-industry-handbook_2017_slides_only.pdf/
A litre of LPG emits 1.5 kg of CO2 per litre burnt, so 2.3 litres LPG/ kg fertiliser or 2.3 tonnes/ tonne fertiliser.

 

[Karliboy]

Yara say they emit near enough 3.5 kg of CO2 for every kg of AN or urea fertiliser they produce. https://www.yara.com/siteassets/inv...lizer-industry-handbook_2017_slides_only.pdf/
A litre of LPG emits 1.5 kg of CO2 per litre burnt, so 2.3 litres LPG/ kg fertiliser or 2.3 tonnes/ tonne fertiliser.

Wow
And that’s just manufacturing the stuff?
so on top of that there is delivery and spreading costs ?

 

[Karliboy]

Has anyone played around with this ?

The Farm Carbon Calculator

The most comprehensive, accurate and user friendly carbon calculator available to farmers and growers. Run by farmers for farmers.

calculator.farmcarbontoolkit.org.uk

I’m struggling with the sequestration part as grassland is not give as any sort of option.
So I’m trying to use the soil bulk density but for the life in me I can’t get it to give me any sort off results even using a average value of say 2.6 grams per cubic centimetre

 

[holwellcourtfarm]

Yara say they emit near enough 3.5 kg of CO2 for every kg of AN or urea fertiliser they produce. https://www.yara.com/siteassets/inv...lizer-industry-handbook_2017_slides_only.pdf/
A litre of LPG emits 1.5 kg of CO2 per litre burnt, so 2.3 litres LPG/ kg fertiliser or 2.3 tonnes/ tonne fertiliser.

Is that before or after the recent paper finding that fertiliser plants in the US under reported their emissions by 90%! I'll look for the link and add it to this post later (off to ameeting now).

 

[CornishTone]

Is that before or after the recent paper finding that fertiliser plants in the US under reported their emissions by 90%! I'll look for the link and add it to this post later (off to ameeting now).

90%?!?!?! That’s a little more than a clerical error me thinks?

 

[ShooTa]

http://instagr.am/p/B7obVA1ghAJ/ a few photos of a field thats had 5 weeks of rest..
plants are recovered - which is great !
still bale unrolling 1 bale every 3 days which is working - water intake went up sharply - whcih id forgotten to take into account ... not great due to having to drive water to them.

Im curious though to what sort of ammount of area i should be leaving for spring at minimum - as i can just keep bale moving to specific bale pods but id much prefer the ewes to be moving more.. Im thinking that once springs sprung ill plan ona 35 day rotation moving down quickly towards 18-21 depending on growth as i was very slow to get around spring last year.

 

[Kiwi Pete]

If it helps, we'll do our first rotation at around the 60-70 day mark and then one or two quick light rounds at 15-25 days, then out to 35-50 days for summer.

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Seed's here!
Drilling rate 73.11kg/ha (plus whatever I put in on top)

 

[Henarar]

View attachment 854681
Seed's here!
Drilling rate 73.11kg/ha (plus whatever I put in on top)

that's what you have for breakfast is it ?

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Yes, with almond milk

 

[holwellcourtfarm]

90%?!?!?! That’s a little more than a clerical error me thinks?

I was wrong.......

"the researchers discovered that methane emissions from ammonia fertilizer plants were 100 times higher than the fertilizer industry’s self-reported estimate."

Industrial methane emissions are underreported, study finds | Cornell Chronicle

A Cornell-Environmental Defense Fund research team has found there is more methane being emitted from the ammonia fertilizer industry than the EPA had estimated for all industrial processes in the U.S.

news.cornell.edu

 

[Farmer Roy]

Some interesting parallels here with our own individual efforts in regen Ag
I’ll let you read it & make the connections

We can't tackle the climate crisis by ignoring the root cause of our problems

When I arrived in Niger in 1981, I was confronted by an environment on the cusp of ecological collapse and barely able to support life. But we realised we were in the midst of a crisis — and it's a lesson Australia can learn from, writes Tony Rinaudo.

mobile.abc.net.au

 

[Farmer Roy]

Greener Pastures Ranching - The light bulb did not get invented by incrementally improving the candle. -Oren Harari An interesting concept when you look at it within Agriculture. Our farmers are not going to dramatically start making a profit by inc

The light bulb did not get invented by incrementally improving the candle. -Oren Harari An interesting concept when you look at it within Agriculture. Our farmers are not going to dramatically start...

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Greener Pastures Ranching

· 2 hrs ·



The light bulb did not get invented by incrementally improving the candle. -Oren Harari

An interesting concept when you look at it within Agriculture. Our farmers are not going to dramatically start making a profit by incrementally improving yields by buying the latest and greatest variety or by buying the most expensive bull at the sale. These are minor improvements to your bottom line. But we... spend so much time on variety trials and bull sales. What we need is a radically different direction. A breakthrough that is completely different than our current production practices. What about completely eliminating your fertilizer bill? Or your chemical bill? How about repairing your water cycle and doubling the amount of effective rainfall your crops use? Regenerative Agriculture just might be the farmers new light bulb! ??
Thanks and God Bless.
Steve Kenyon.

 

[Farmer Roy]

PS - the above pic is what I want to see, not all the short manicured sh!t . . .

 

[ShooTa]

Just inform my grass will you!