The unthinkable.

[glasshouse]

82/83/84 up here , followed by the alltime Biblical deluge of '85 when we easily made up what the three previous years had withheld in rainfall.

82,83,84 i was at college, it was great.
Back home via nz in spring 85
Should have stayed away. 86 was horendous too, so was 87.
88 was just like this

 

[Kiwi Pete]

82,83,84 i was at college, it was great.
Back home via nz in spring 85
Should have stayed away. 86 was horendous too, so was 87.
88 was just like this

Was similar here too, the late 80's broke many farmers hearts locally.
88 was the year of milk and honey for us as it was the first summer we had grass and money in a long time - Dad picked the best out of the neighbours flocks as they sold up, he paid the equivalent of twenty quid for some great ewes - and the neighbours were grateful.
That was about the time of the local deer/dairy takeover, after 15 years of struggle they were glad to be out.

 

[glasshouse]

Was similar here too, the late 80's broke many farmers hearts locally.
88 was the year of milk and honey for us as it was the first summer we had grass and money in a long time - Dad picked the best out of the neighbours flocks as they sold up, he paid the equivalent of twenty quid for some great ewes - and the neighbours were grateful.
That was about the time of the local deer/dairy takeover, after 15 years of struggle they were glad to be out.

How come you had money and they didnt?

 

[CharcoalWally]

82,83,84 i was at college, it was great.
Back home via nz in spring 85
Should have stayed away. 86 was horendous too, so was 87.
88 was just like this

86 was a poor Summer and Autumn here on the West too. Bad year for grass growth after a cold, wet Spring . Turned the cows out on May 26th and worried about them continually as there was no grass . There was an old Whitebred cross cow who was so empty every day that her sides never filled out to look full of grass. She had an eagle eye kept on her but she was fine and survived that Spring.

87 and 88 both much better. Temperate, no extremes , plenty grass if I remember right.

 

[7610 super q]

85, 86, 87, 88 were pish poor summers for us. 89, 90 dry again. Reasonable summers in the 90's, apart from 1997. We had to buy spud harvester, because hand picking wasn't getting us anywhere.

 

[CharcoalWally]

85, 86, 87, 88 were pish poor summers for us. 89, 90 dry again. Reasonable summers in the 90's, apart from 1997. We had to buy spud harvester, because hand picking wasn't getting us anywhere.

'97 was a cracking hot Summer here. One of the silage fields was burning up I remember, so we went in early to salvage it.

 

[roscoe erf]

Ohh that looks short. how long have the sheep been on there?

looks like he is off to bury some

 

[Kiwi Pete]

How come you had money and they didnt?

Dad and his brother had a similar system/mindset to me:
"if you don't spend it, you don't have to claw it back" they had a freehold farm,
and actually ran long covers which was not the done thing - you know how kiwi sheep farms used to look?
Plus, they had been sucked in by SMP to believe they were making serious progress, and spending up large to avoid taxation
New tractors, boats, house renovations... all off 400 acre blocks (we had 700 that was more challenging land) and where they would plough and disc and cultivate, Dad had made a direct drill and simply outgrew the grass with ryecorn - the beginnings of modern day "covercropping"

Basically: abandonment of the grass-greedy approach that helps turn "dry" into "drought"...

Dad had seen the flaws in that model and we had been propping up the neighbours shortages with our hay for a bit - in effect using their capital as an extensive grazing operation, as were the economics of the time - then when they inevitably saw the writing on the wall.....
(A Howard bigbale of hay bought 6 inlamb ewes.)

Our neighbour spent huge amounts on deer fencing, sheds, lanes, bought weaner hinds for $1300 and sold them a few months later for $775 so he went tits up.
Another neighbour shot himself, one went AWOL, 3 divorced and had to sell up to settle...
We could have scooped the land too, but they were quite happy with their lot.

That's why I don't farm with my head in the clouds:
I learnt the lessons without having to make the mistakes - the first one being, have a LOT of reserve in some way, shape, or form.
The best way to store water and carbon is in the soil because it was designed for it.

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Unthinkable......

 

[had e nuff]

View attachment 690678
Unthinkable......

We have a long way to go before we reach that level of dryness here. Be a lot out of business before then.

 

[Top Tip.]

86 was a poor Summer and Autumn here on the West too. Bad year for grass growth after a cold, wet Spring . Turned the cows out on May 26th and worried about them continually as there was no grass . There was an old Whitebred cross cow who was so empty every day that her sides never filled out to look full of grass. She had an eagle eye kept on her but she was fine and survived that Spring.

87 and 88 both much better. Temperate, no extremes , plenty grass if I remember right.

I do remember the spring of 86,going of to feed the last bale of hay to the cows on the 10th of June and there was still no grass,told them they would just have to chew heather,didn’t dare go near them for a few days or they would have followed me home ,it was surprising how well they summered after it.

 

[Northeastfarmer]

I wasn’t born in 76 but I remember one year in the 90’s was an utter scorcher...I remember coming home from school and having to feed the cattle hay as we were burnt off

 

[Kiwi Pete]

We have a long way to go before we reach that level of dryness here. Be a lot out of business before then.

Yes it looks terrible over there - near Tamworth, at the moment: this is winter

I saw it on Facebook and immediately thought of this thread, it's unthinkable yet very very real.
This could be us in a century!!

Bare soil at its very worst - note the erosion banks cut across the slopes, decades ago, because the signs of landscape management were misunderstood, but money wasn't!!
That landscape is in dire need of some cattle after the rain comes, IMO.

Amazing in so many ways that this is all the work of mankind's arrogance, yet "the weather" is only to blame

 

[Farmer Roy]

err, the above pic of Petes - that areas " usual" average annual rainfall is 670 mm. Which is similar to Birmingham, Oxford, Newcastle & higher than Cambridge, London or Grimsby . . .

just because the "average" is 670 mm, doesn't necessarily mean they are ever going to get it again . . .
weather doesn't " have " to do anything, to please us. We don't matter in the grand scheme of wind, water, temperatures or ocean currents. Except in a negative impact way . . .

 

[Farmer Roy]

Yes it looks terrible over there - near Tamworth, at the moment: this is winter

I saw it on Facebook and immediately thought of this thread, it's unthinkable yet very very real.
This could be us in a century!!

Bare soil at its very worst - note the erosion banks cut across the slopes, decades ago, because the signs of landscape management were misunderstood, but money wasn't!!
That landscape is in dire need of some cattle after the rain comes, IMO.

Amazing in so many ways that this is all the work of mankind's arrogance, yet "the weather" is only to blame

dry weather is dry weather
but droughts are man made . . .



Grassroots Grazier
Like This PagePage Liked · July 5 ·

Drought

❗️WARNING - unpopular opinion ahead

❗️

A discussion with some good mates the other day got me thinking about human intervention and treating the symptoms vs treating the cause. ...
This photo was taken over Tamworth NSW last week and shows the current devastation they are experiencing with the current drought, only about 2 hours from my place.

The first thing that hits you is the colour.
That’s the colour of lost dreams, broken families, rumbling bellies, poking bones and withering roots.
Look past the red dust.
What else do you see?
See those repeating lines like wrinkles on an old face?
They are contour banks.
They are man made and were put in using heavy machinery beginning about the 50s to combat the problem of soil erosion.
Problem - bare soil.
Solution - put in contour banks that stop rainfall from running fast over the bare, compacted soil after cropping or sometimes grazing that often resulted in topsoil loss. It captures the water and channels it into larger table drains that safely take water away from the paddock.
Result - lots of crops, less crop and seed loss or land damage from damaging, heavy, running rain.

But could we have been treating the symptom = (soil erosion)
And not the cause? = (Poor water infiltration due to industrial farming practices, loss of soil biodiversity due to chemical usage increasing compaction/poor soil structure etc etc etc)
And now, in our short term thinking have exacerbated a long term problem?
Now, when it rains, all of our much needed water will be channeled right off the place it is most needed - our dry, parched earth.

 

[Farmer Roy]

PS - the general area where that pic of Petes is from, is called the " New England ". . .

 

[glasshouse]

dry weather is dry weather
but droughts are man made . . .



Grassroots Grazier
Like This PagePage Liked · July 5 ·

Drought

❗️WARNING - unpopular opinion ahead

❗️

A discussion with some good mates the other day got me thinking about human intervention and treating the symptoms vs treating the cause. ...
This photo was taken over Tamworth NSW last week and shows the current devastation they are experiencing with the current drought, only about 2 hours from my place.

The first thing that hits you is the colour.
That’s the colour of lost dreams, broken families, rumbling bellies, poking bones and withering roots.
Look past the red dust.
What else do you see?
See those repeating lines like wrinkles on an old face?
They are contour banks.
They are man made and were put in using heavy machinery beginning about the 50s to combat the problem of soil erosion.
Problem - bare soil.
Solution - put in contour banks that stop rainfall from running fast over the bare, compacted soil after cropping or sometimes grazing that often resulted in topsoil loss. It captures the water and channels it into larger table drains that safely take water away from the paddock.
Result - lots of crops, less crop and seed loss or land damage from damaging, heavy, running rain.

But could we have been treating the symptom = (soil erosion)
And not the cause? = (Poor water infiltration due to industrial farming practices, loss of soil biodiversity due to chemical usage increasing compaction/poor soil structure etc etc etc)
And now, in our short term thinking have exacerbated a long term problem?
Now, when it rains, all of our much needed water will be channeled right off the place it is most needed - our dry, parched earth.

i thought the plan was to cultivate now so the rain will go in when it comes?

 

[Farmer Roy]

No, the plan is to retain as much stubble / vegetation / ground cover as possible, to protect the soil from rain drop impact & to maximise infiltration

I have one bare cultivated field. In a storm event of 25 mm in Feb, the impact of the rain just capped the surface, sealing it off & the water ponded without infiltrating ( it's dead flat land ). In contrast, fields with groundcover had no visible water lying on the surface.
Partly to counteract this & partly to protect from wind erosion, I did cultivate this bare ground to leave a very rough surface, to break up the wind speed & to leave hollows & troughs that water could soak in through. My plan with this field was to plant ANYTHING into it as soon as I had any surface moisture - purely for the purpose of gaining some groundcover - so as I could then start capturing, conserving & storing soil moisture for a commercial cash crop. Around 80 mm for the year so far ( average rainfall is 640 mm ) means this hasn't happened yet . . .

 

[glasshouse]

Dad and his brother had a similar system/mindset to me:
"if you don't spend it, you don't have to claw it back" they had a freehold farm,
and actually ran long covers which was not the done thing - you know how kiwi sheep farms used to look?
Plus, they had been sucked in by SMP to believe they were making serious progress, and spending up large to avoid taxation
New tractors, boats, house renovations... all off 400 acre blocks (we had 700 that was more challenging land) and where they would plough and disc and cultivate, Dad had made a direct drill and simply outgrew the grass with ryecorn - the beginnings of modern day "covercropping"

Basically: abandonment of the grass-greedy approach that helps turn "dry" into "drought"...

Dad had seen the flaws in that model and we had been propping up the neighbours shortages with our hay for a bit - in effect using their capital as an extensive grazing operation, as were the economics of the time - then when they inevitably saw the writing on the wall.....
(A Howard bigbale of hay bought 6 inlamb ewes.)

Our neighbour spent huge amounts on deer fencing, sheds, lanes, bought weaner hinds for $1300 and sold them a few months later for $775 so he went tits up.
Another neighbour shot himself, one went AWOL, 3 divorced and had to sell up to settle...
We could have scooped the land too, but they were quite happy with their lot.

That's why I don't farm with my head in the clouds:
I learnt the lessons without having to make the mistakes - the first one being, have a LOT of reserve in some way, shape, or form.
The best way to store water and carbon is in the soil because it was designed for it.

Its easy to sit on your hands when you have a freehold farm.
Those with landlords and bank managers to keep have to pedal a bit harder.

 

[glasshouse]

No, the plan is to retain as much stubble / vegetation / ground cover as possible, to protect the soil from rain drop impact & to maximise infiltration

I have one bare cultivated field. In a storm event of 25 mm in Feb, the impact of the rain just capped the surface, sealing it off & the water ponded without infiltrating ( it's dead flat land ). In contrast, fields with groundcover had no visible water lying on the surface.
Partly to counteract this & partly to protect from wind erosion, I did cultivate this bare ground to leave a very rough surface, to break up the wind speed & to leave hollows & troughs that water could soak in through. My plan with this field was to plant ANYTHING into it as soon as I had any surface moisture - purely for the purpose of gaining some groundcover - so as I could then start capturing, conserving & storing soil moisture for a commercial cash crop. Around 80 mm for the year so far ( average rainfall is 640 mm ) means this hasn't happened yet . . .

I am guessing there are large area s now bare of veg