This video taken at 100 kph 2 hours west of Charleville shows first Mulga that has not been cleared. Note the understory plants! The other side of the road is cleared Mulga with regrowth & note the total lack of understorey! There's a lot of these areas being "locked up" for carbon sequestration!!! Much is as in the 2nd part of the video. No grass or any other understorey plants. The soil is washing away, & unless; (a) the water cycle is restored by effective actions to manage the water (aka Natural Sequence Farming contours). (b) Thinning of the Mulga regrowth. the land will continue to degrade further! When will the ACCU monster wake up to what's required in these landscapes??? Plants are urgently required on the ground surface..weeds, annual grasses, perennial grasses...& for this to happen water (from rainfall) needs to be managed effectively (aka Natural Sequence Farming contours) to begin the process of revegetating the soil surface. The plants will then manage water & fertility.
Interesting you decided to mow the stagnant top growth. I'm starting to wonder if it is possible to manage pastures for small permanent herds in our region given the variable climate. Only an incredibly dense and highly mobile herd of large herbivores can have the concentrated impact that large warm climate perennial grasses need to reset their growth fully. Thoughts? My strategy is to let those grasses stagnate until fodder trees and forbs take over from them, but that works fine for goats but not so well for cattle.
I maximised summer grazes here to see it regrow in autumn early winter..thought to hay the excess, then switched to mow & rake for tree planting to move toward more winter green in the area...browse trees & frost abatement & lifting fertility & water cycle to support more winter actives.
Excellent observations . I got the same SW here in Inglewood taranaki atm. Yes I agree trees are what's missing fron the dairy landscape here. And noted benefits of the mix of two trees. And beef be tasting the best . When ya euca gets big enough be able to hang a tractor Tyre off a branch for the bulls to headbutt
@@gregtweedie8396 your welcome anytime. Yes the further I dive into agriculture the more I realize I know nothing! Mother Earth & Nature holds the wisdom, we just are required to listen!
Thanks Shayne. I love seeing good examples of think global act local. Soil food web is so interesting. I wonder if the mineral content of the grass through the trees is now different?
Hi Adele yes the fertility associated with the trees has not as yet changed the pasture structure, however the fertility has lifted (cows know!) Trials show that Nitrogen creates much of the magic associated with soil biogy around trees. Interestingly in the monocultures N, Ca, & H2O cycles are locked up! Thanks for your input to the conversation.
Shade during the first few hours after dawn can reduce frost damage to just about zero. I found this out planting frost sensitive trees in locations that did or didnt have exposure to sunlight at dawn. The first rays of light evaporate water from leaves and push the temperature down for a few critical hours.
Thanks, & the compost heap is growing great cherry tomato bushes! Chooks are happy now they have a weather proof house! Your hard work on the compost heap is paying handsome dividends!
Mesh pannels I got on line out of Brisbane. www.superrack.com.au/mesh-panel/?gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjw0MexBhD3ARIsAEI3WHIhBwDsv10TNKjRllfRqgYTfnaaQCkrWXX4Y7B3SZrplQd3eH02EY4aArUoEALw_wcB
Yes they're an awesome tunnel. Been building these for 10 years with one failid lot of shade cloth that was not uv treated! This my first "cluster" with chook house. The energy of the chooks has really lifted...if you can imagine grinning chooks!😂
Thanks for the offer. Where are you? Do you know of any growing in this rainfall zone? Kilkivan has around 7 to 800 mm annual rainfall. I've seen lots growing in the wetter coastal areas, however not out here. I tried Mexican Daisy which very similar. It struggled n died in the dry.
Come grab a bundle of Tithonia diversifolia cuttings if you like. They have adventitious root buds on them after the rain and strike readily planted directly into weedy paddocks.
Hi Dave Yes this concept of orchestra comes from Hugh Lovel. It so gives us a fuller picture of what's going on. Ah the beautiful music of farming, of nature!
You'll have some crocs in those ponds soon mate and you'll be able to go wrestle the biggest croc in each pond and show them who the boss of the pond is...
Great Video Shane. I was just talking about what makes a "weed" with a class yesterday. I've never been out to Duke's Plains. Is the whole property up on its side like that?
Yes that was an incredible feat of engineering to get the water off when you get too much rain. I tried photo shop to correct it, however failed. As you know failing is not part of my repertoire! So I left it sideways so people could watch when lying down!
OK, I see now that you have trialed the chain of ponds earth works. You don't need that much elevation change to make this practice work. With a wide bucket, this should have been very easy work for your operator and his machine. Maybe he was the wrong guy for the job. Where you pointed out that you opened the sod below one of the ponds with I believe you said 3 chisel plows behind a 60 hp tractor. I'll suggest you try out a good quality subsoiler. You'll only be able to pull one behind a 60 hp tractor - and maybe not to full depth. But a subsoiler will get you through all of the compacted dirt. You will see a big difference when air, water, insects and soil bacteria can get 3' ( ~1m) into the soil. That is when the dirt really starts to come to life. 👍
Steve Re chain of ponds in old drains. I'm happy with my excavator operator, just need some fine tuning. A learning curve for self & operator. The work he did was very cost effective. Now the ripping. I'm not after depth. I am using C tyne subsoilers, however only looking to break the surface, allowing in water, & this will facilitate plant growth, & it's then the plants that will do the work of opening the soil to greater depth, while managing the water, & fertility. Ripping to 1 metre does not fit (a) the economics of beef cattle grazing (b) can cause more problems with mobilizing salts from in the sub soil (c) interrupt the water cycle. Yes many ways to skin a cat! Thanks for your feedback.
@@ShaneKumbartcho I didn't mean to offend regarding your excavator operator. I was responding to your comment that went something like at the end of the day he was done. If you are happy with him that is great. The university research from the 50+ Land Grant Universities (one in each state) in the US agree that deep ripping is the only quick impact for compaction - which I'm sure you have with beef cattle. I'm assuming you would like the rainwater to replenish your aquifer. That is what we are all about. Climate change has forced us to move toward irrigation during June, July, August, September drought. i agree, scarifying turf is beneficial in a pasture monoculture - but subsoiling produces completely different results. Now you may very well have geology/hydrology that are not familiar to me. So I'll wrap up with "All the best", and I'll tag along for a while. 😊
Steve I can't let the compaction thing go bye. You see I've had a lifetime in agriculture. Beef cattle & cereals. Compaction from beast & machine only became an issue when we ran our soil organic matter down. Then we blamed beast & machine! Compaction is a symptom of running down our soil organic matter. The cause is the way we farm & graze. We destroy the soil carbon sponge! Yes ripping gets a response, however is treating a symptom, & we're oh so good at that!!
@@ShaneKumbartcho I'm glad that you agree that compaction is an issue with farm dirt today. And I'm happy that you are working to add organic matter (carbon) back into your dirt so that some day your farm is one giant carbon sink of living soil. All the best 👍
Steve When you tell me of university or scientific trials, then I'm suspicious. So much science & university stuff out here in Australia has got us where we are with degraded soils, & broken water cycles!😃 Fortunately we've had a few renegades set us going in the right direction!
No better way to check your elevations than with a "water level". Now that you have proof of concept, if you can bring in an excavator to make your swale wider, your berm higher and correct for elevation you will have a very important piece of infrastructure on your property. You may consider adding small banana shaped ponds along the 700 meter run in areas other than the wetland. Small ponds that the swale can fill from one end and the water can leave through the continuation of the swale on the other end of the pond.
Thanks for your feedback. I've a couple of questions. 1. Why would the swale need to be wider? 2. Why would the berm need to be higher? These contours are designed from the Natural Sequence Farming methodology of Peter Andrews. The "berm" or bank is 30 cms high to facilitate capilary action to hydrate, & grow grass over the bank. The contour is V shaped to minimize erosion, & depth is dictated by whats required to create the 30 cm high bank. The bank is designed for UNLIMITED CAPACITY. That is it allows water to spill over the full length of the bank when we get big rain events.
@@ShaneKumbartcho Our experience in Andalusia Spain (the dehesa region) is that when you have monumental rain events like 7.5 inches within 24 hours the swale and berm requires additional carrying capacity for the surge. Our swales are built with a slope of about 1 inch in 10 feet and they are filled with cut brush for shade, to slow dehydration, shade the soil from the screaming hot summer sun add organic and biological life to the water and capture any erosion that may occur. We don't think in term of 1 cm because the height and width of the berm is often dependent on the slope of the land perpendicular to the swale. There will be more excavated material on a steep slope for instance. Our swales have a gentle rolled bottom. When excavated, the cut from grass into soil is gradual to prevent erosion and ends deep. We excavate our swales with a tiny excavator from below the berm with a landscape width bucket and the tracks running parallel to the berm. We like wide berms for planting. The excavated, non compacted soil give great pathways for quick development of deep roots. We do our best to listen to nature as our guide. We don't subscribe to any one permaculture preacher who believes they have the hotline to nature. 😉 We have devised (and are continuing to revise) our system through "try it fix it". I hope something here is useful 👍
Thanks Jan. I love what I'm doing, & it gets better every day. These past days I'm learning more & more on video editing , & voice overs. What fun, & keeps me occupied in the hot part of the days, & also into the nights!
thanks shane, i really enjoyed this video and the other one. watched them a few times and went to bed much happier and less stressed than if i hadn't, all the best
Here goes with a very late reply. Thanks for your feed back. I love what I'm doing here, & having a deep dive into technology as I learn video editing, & voice overs! That gives me something to keep me occupied during the heat of the day, & also into the night. The tools we have these days are so good for sharing images of what we're doing.
