Lifting pH without lime?

Guleesh

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Isle of Skye
How does grazing promote peat growth?

Because animals will graze everything that isn't moss. The moss becomes dominant, once the moss is holding enough water, anaerobic conditions cause the peat to be formed and most soil life to die, the soil gets progressively worse as less plants can tolerate the wet acidic conditions.

If anything does manage to grow, the grazers eat it, without grazing animals heather and also tree seeds germinate very easily in wet moss, they grow well without grass competing for nutrients and will start to aerate the ground again through root action, but also drop leaves, thus feeding the soil and surely balancing the PH.

Moss grows on everything in our humid climate, it doesn't need much. If the moss didn't grow so easily (which it doesn't in drier hotter or colder climates) then the soil would just erode in the absence of ground cover and plant roots.

Well that's my perception of it anyway.
 

Guleesh

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Isle of Skye
Enclosing fields and continuous grazing will lead to a form of desertification yes. But mob, rotational or occasional grazing will actually increase biodiversity and root mass by maintaining land in a vegetative state. The best thing that could happen to hill land is if the powers that be allows mass subdivision and stock are high density grazed for short periods with a very long (poss 12 month) rest period. The trouble we've had is its gone from high stocking rate lower density to low stocking rate low density continuous grazing. What's needed is low to medium stocking rate but high density.

The lovely earth beneath the peat will be filled with trace elements and nutrients. The key is generating a very deep root mass to access it and bring those nutrients to the surface. Thus creating a continual cycle. Thus reducing the effects of nutrient leaching.

Completely agree, the hills could be very productive, healthy soil is something that can be built on top of any soil conditions, just a case of not letting it get washed away in the rain or eaten up by grazing animals to be distributed to their favourite sleeping spot.
 
Location
East Mids
And prior to that? Lands been here longer than we have. Will have changed more than once.

I'm not saying we shouldn't lime or improve land. Only are there ways to maintain production without reliance on continual inputs.
but we're taking nutrients off, aren't we? Production, as you say. So we have to put stuff back on again. In a'natural' state, nothing is removed, it just dies and is recycled in situ.
 

Kiwi Pete

Member
Livestock Farmer
If a burst drain can turn the ground sour, you’d think that drainage/aeration would have the opposite effect?
That's like the fluid comes out the back ends of half the animals fed "by the book" pasture.

If you feed them properly their manure and urinary pH will be neutral-slightly alkaline, but brown grass is apparently scary as heck, and taboo
Makes you wonder how soil balanced itself prior to humans.
Natural predator/ mob movements were a whole lot slower

even though a cheetah can go fast, they certainly wouldn't have done a lap of Africa in 21 days unless they were just plain stupid
 

Macsky

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Highland
Completely agree, the hills could be very productive, healthy soil is something that can be built on top of any soil conditions, just a case of not letting it get washed away in the rain or eaten up by grazing animals to be distributed to their favourite sleeping spot.
So in reality....impossible?🤣
 

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

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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/
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