Diving Deeper
A Watchman
Then one hot dry July afternoon I used my wife’s cooking thermometer. I had read some information about soil temperature variation in relation to ground cover and decided to check it out. In good vegetative ground cover; think grass/prairies verses bare farmland, wheat stubble/fallowed ground the difference in temperature in the top 4 inches was 18 degrees Fahrenheit. I repeated this (highly scientific) measurement several times over the next few weeks, the results, were give or take 1 degree, the same. I looked closer under the ground cover; life was visible, bugs, worm castings, holes in the soil; dig a bit and you find the soil teaming with life. In the bare stubble ground, no signs of life. Why the difference?…
Charcoal
The Use of Biochar in Cattle Farming
90% of the biochar produced in Europe is used in livestock farming. Whether mixed with feed, added to litter or used in the treatment of slurry, the positive effect of biochar very quickly becomes apparent. The health – and consequently the well-being – of the livestock improve within just a short space of time. As regards nasty smells and nutrient losses, the use of biochar could even herald a new age of livestock farming, closing agricultural cycles of organic matter…
Charcoal Therapy
Many old-fashioned remedies are going out of fashion, not because they are ineffective, but because an art is required for their management, and a sufficient degree of labor required that most people are unwilling to provide. Orally administered charcoal is effective in preventing many intestinal infections. All studies show that charcoal is harmless when ingested, when inhaled and when it comes in contact with the skin…
Whole-farm Biochar System
The cattle and avocado producer started feeding his cows biochar five years ago to see if he could store carbon in the ground using the natural system of dung beetles. He thought if researchers were burying biochar in the ground with machines in an attempt to store carbon and increase fertility, why couldn’t the dung beetles do it at no cost? He already had the cows, and knew the beetles would bury their dung within a day or so, to around 600mm deep. He thought he would be onto something magnificent if he could feed biochar to the cows and have the beetles actually bury it. Not only was he right, but it had unintentional side effects that had far greater importance than he ever imagined. He has boosted productivity, reduced inputs and methane emissions, and so much more…
Articles
Time II
Time as how it relates to the grazing of livestock is the most important discovery ever made about the cause and cure of desertification and global warming. It is time we wake up, read, study, learn, understand and apply the knowledge we possess…
Connecting the Dots
Daily we hear or read about how our interstate, the grid, internet and so on are all deteriorating and in need of repair and/or protection. Our soils are in much worse condition. The mycorrhizal fungi which are the highway, the railway, and the internet systems of the soil has been sliced and diced by tillage, poisoned by the cides and overuse of synthetic fertilizers. Worst of all, we starve it to death by our overwinter fallow farming system…
Soil, The Infrastructure & CO2 Problem
Daily we hear or read about how our interstate, the grid, internet and so on are all deteriorating and in need of repair and/or protection. Our soils are in much worse condition. The mycorrhizal fungi which are the highway, the railway, and the internet systems of the soil has been sliced and diced by tillage, poisoned by the cides and overuse of synthetic fertilizers. Worst of all, we starve it to death by our overwinter fallow farming system…
Presentations
TED Talks
How to Fight the Desertification and Reverse Climate Change By Allan Savory at TED2013
“Desertification is a fancy word for land that is turning to desert,” begins Allan Savory in this quietly powerful talk. And it’s happening to about two-thirds of the world’s grasslands, accelerating climate change and causing traditional grazing societies to descend into social chaos. Savory has devoted his life to stopping it. He now believes — and his work may show — that a surprising factor can protect grasslands and even reclaim degraded land that was once desert. Statements in this talk have been challenged by other scientists working in this field.
Rational grazing is what we do, come to our one-day school and we will show you how we do it. Why you do it, is up to you.