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Thread: Holistic Farming

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    New Zealand Avalon Member Carmen's Avatar
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    Default Re: Holistic Farming

    Had a bad drought this summer past. My stock were looking great though, shiny fat cows feeding their beautiful calves. I ran out of tucker start of Janurary so took the opportunity to truck them south to grazing. Big mistake!! This conventional farmer starved my animals! I ended up selling all my calves at weaning down south at a reduced price because they weren't great calves anymore and sold some of the cows also! I was soo disappointed, gutted by the experience. Brought the rest back here and have put the weight back on them.

    The only positive from the whole experience was to give my land some recovery time. I will never do that again. I've decided to have a smaller breeding mob and raise all my animals to maturity. It seems much more natural to me to leave calves on their mothers till the next calf is born this they wean them themselves. The family members stick together though, I've noticed. Our cattle are extremely quiet and with the trust established, communication with the human farmers is quite accurate.

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  3. Link to Post #62
    United States Avalon Member RunningDeer's Avatar
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    Default Re: Holistic Farming

    Quote Posted by silverfish (here)
    thanks for the interesting thread .I yearn for a bit of land to forest garden . I make do with a small suburban garden which I try and do my best with .
    Wondered if you had seen this Carmen if you cant watch all then go to 20min mark find this really interesting also the evidence for no tilling, very visual !
    Quote ...if you cant watch all then go to 20 min mark find this really interesting also the evidence for no tilling, very visual!
    quick link @ 19:35

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  5. Link to Post #63
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    Default Re: Holistic Farming

    Thank you, Paula, for putting up the "quick link" above. I was surprised to see an old friend of mine from our Toronto days speaking on it around the 26-minute mark and later. I note a book title "Mycelium Running" in the last scene of the video. I understand about no plowing, and expected there might be reference to the Keyline System, which when used properly, can tremendously improve soil. I looked into this years ago and recommend it to any who own land they wish to improve.

    http://www.yeomansplow.com.au/basis-of-keyline.htm

    "A full exposition is available in Yeomans's own book, The Challenge of Landscape , subtitled “The Development and Practice of Keyline”.

    "It is surprisingly difficult to break through the solid wall of prejudice that surrounds conventional agricultural practices and those whose business it is to maintain them, yet, despite severe apathy, Yeomans has anxiously and pragmatically offered to permit any scientific and economic investigation of his principles and practices of Keyline. Moreover, he would actively support such tasks. In short, he claims, and I believe rightly, that he can show rational proof of all aspects of Keyline planning and complete landscape development, but that full scientific proof is outside his field. ...

    "Yeomans claims to have made deep, dark, fertile soil over hundreds of acres which were originally, at best, poor, grey, very shaley solids, and at worst, yellow sub-soil, or yellow shales and even blue hard shales of the Wianamatta series, all exposed by previous soil erosion."

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    Canada Avalon Member spacejack's Avatar
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    Default Re: Holistic Farming

    You cant talk about Holistic organic farming without mentioning Eliot Coleman. Seems to be one of the most beautiful people alive. Youtube him.

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    Canada Avalon Member spacejack's Avatar
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    Default Re: Holistic Farming

    Ill just throw in the video because its just too damn good.

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    New Zealand Avalon Member Carmen's Avatar
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    Default Re: Holistic Farming

    Bumped my thread. There is such a crazy idea about that the world would be better off without farmed animals! There is a huge difference between factory farming and sound practical farming. If people would just read or listen to the long researched experiences of Allan Savory they would realise how doomed our planet is without animal impact the way nature intended it to be! The more we mimic nature in our farming of animals the more nurtured and revitalised the land is. The evidence of the effectiveness of Holistic Management is out there for anyone to study. I particularly recommend the utube video "carbon Cowboys". This is a experiences of several farmers who were going broke on there farms and switched to Holistic Management in desperation! One of them, his wife went to a Wholistic Management course and he was so fed up with her rabbiting on about it, he turned to Wholistic Management to prove her wrong!! Guess what, she proved him wrong.

    People can philosiphie all they want, there is no substitute for direct experience!

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    Avalon Member MaidenMoonshineGrace's Avatar
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    Default Re: Holistic Farming

    Hallelujah!!

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  14. Link to Post #68
    New Zealand Avalon Member Carmen's Avatar
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    Default Re: Holistic Farming

    ?.
    Quote Posted by nomadguy (here)
    Quote Posted by Carmen (here)
    The reason why this holistic method works is that these farmers mimic how nature worked on the great plains of America and also the savannahs of Africa. Back in the days when vast herds of animals occupied the great grasslands of the world, the animals (often several thousand at a time consisting of many types of animals) would move as a herd into a grassed area. They would graze, trample, poo and pee, then the predators would appear and start picking off the weak and the old. The herd would then move on to the next area of standing mature grassland. They would not return to the first site for several weeks or months. Not until the grasses had completely recovered. this is how the deserts and dry lands of the planet can be brought back to useful production and waterways can be replenished and cleaned. Many area that are now shut off from grazing animals are degenerating to desert.

    I refer you to the work of Alan Savory, Ian Mitchell-Inness and many others. The before and after pictures of this managed grazing is astounding and very inspiring. Just google the names to see the evidence.

    I am about to start using this method on my own farm and I'm really excited about the possibilities.
    I recently witnessed a mere accident that was working itself out in the high deserts of Nevada.
    One lone house had a corral with a few horses, the environment is terribly hot, particularly this year... I was taking a short walk on this hot day and I was stopped in my tracks by a pack of wild horses. The corral of horses had attracted more horses, enough that the owner left a few water troughs outside the fence...
    After looking around I realized these horses had been going back n forth for months-weeks, who knows! They had completely transformed the landscape, when I took a closer look I saw how the horses hooves stomped deeper ruts for more water and their pooping fertilized the desert plants. The horses constant nibbling had caused some of the perennial desert shrubs to re-grow more rapid.
    Even on this horribly dry year, many types of native perennials were setting up for an august bloom. The hot soil was no longer hard as concrete I could push my hand right in.(which would almost burn you in the day heat)
    Within a a few weeks with a bit of luck we had thunderstorms that brought some rain. ~The process continues~Nature knows best.

    So after seeing this I must say that I back what has been said here, in the western US the horses are rehabilitating seemingly uninhabitable lands. Perhaps I will help them.
    If you've ever seen remote yards where animals are herded into for various reasons, then released, the yard that was trampled and fertilised with the mob grows an incredible sward of grass. This can be replicated all over a farm with electric fencing. This is how the Great Plains of the world stayed healthy and incredibly fertile. Grazing animals lived in herds, many species together. The predators were very necessary as they kept them herded. This meant that grasslands were not overgrazed. They were grazed quickly and then left to recover. Land (especially dry land) that is constantly grazed by grazing animals has no hope of recovery. Nature knew what she was doing! All animals had a role to play! Pity man thought he knew better!

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  16. Link to Post #69
    New Zealand Avalon Member Carmen's Avatar
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    Default Re: Holistic Farming

    I get quite fed up at times of the disinformation of those that think the world can do without grazing animals being farmed in anyway! Modern factory farming is a curse and a terrible polluter. Proper farming is a regenerator. Most of the people spouting on about the harm cattle are to the earth (in my opinion) have no direct experience of farming to understand the difference between good farmers and corporate polluters. They lump them all together. Great farmers do not have much of a voice because he corporate owned media make sure they don't!

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