Soil Organic Matter

[Graham]

This research (above) was also covered in the Farming pages of the Waikato Times this week.

[Graham]

A very interesting article from the Element Magazine, inside the NZ Herald this week.

http://www.elementmagazine.co.nz/bus...ies-beneath-2/

One excerpt:

Mineral balance, inexpensive microbial inoculums and compost are three keys to improving profitability, plant resilience, stock health and our health.
The microbe most missing in most soils around the world is actually the most important creature of them all at this point in time.

Mycorrhizal fungi burrow into the plant roots and then create a massive root extension that effectively provides ten times more root surface area. These symbiotic fungi allow the plant greater access to key minerals like phosphorus, potassium and calcium and they produce immune supporting bio-chemicals for their host. They also produce a sticky substance called glomalin that is now known to be the triggering mechanism for 30% of the humus in the soil.

Extractive agriculture has done more than increase our likelihood of growing substandard, chemically contaminated food, it has also knocked out 90% of the all-important mycorrhizal fungi in our soils. These creatures can be reintroduced for as little as ten dollars per hectare and we need to initiate this repopulation exercise, yesterday.

[Graham]

Roger Martyn from GrazeTech in Australia sent me this fascinating video today. Cell grazing, holistic grazing, and the basic thought processes behind it, could literally help save the planet. Allan Savory has been working in this area since the 60s.

http://www.ted.com/talks/allan_savor...te_change.html

[Graham]

I'm working on preparing a test plot in the paddock beside our workplace. It's only 5m x5m, but is taking a while to dig over by hand. I am not going to use herbicide to kill off the existing grasses and weeds, because I want to encourage worms and fungi etc, and I don't want to increase any local toxicity. This article on glyphosate is interesting.

http://www.organicconsumers.org/artm...2011_Huber.pdf

All around the Waikato at the moment, some paddocks are being sprayed off to the tell-tale brown colour, ready for new tilled grass seed. What if Prof Don Huber is right, and the glyphosate sticks around to semi-damage the new grasses in future? And what about the newly discovered pathogen associated with glyphosate-ready crops?

[Graham]

The plot has been prepared for the fert application, with half of the 5mtr x 5mtr space having the sods and contained worms and topsoil overturned on top of the subsoil layer, with remaining topsoil placed on top. The other half had the topsoil removed to the subsoil layer, two bales of hay and 10x 40litre bags of compost placed on top of the subsoil, then the overturned sods and topsoil as before.

We have picked up some of the fertilizer from farm and garden supply stores, and today the difficult small quantity trace minerals like Borate and Selenium from Ballance in Morrinsville. Many thanks for that - they were very obliging.

As far as the original plot is concerned, this was in generally a poor part of the paddock, and it's low in a few trace elements, the pH is low, there are not many worms per spadeful (about 1 perhaps) and the topsoil is compacted, but still friable when pushed. The topsoil layer appears to differ in depth from about 70mm to 300mm, and the subsoil is pumice ash, very light and free draining in nature.

[Graham]

The test plot had the prescribed fertiliser dug in three weeks ago (worms still present in small numbers) and was seeded about two weeks ago, and now some of the seed is germinating. Since we've planted seed in late spring instead of early autumn, we'll give the plot some watering to ensure it establishes.

Meanwhile, a new paper is out on the likely damage to our waterways from more dairy farming in particular. Allowing animals to get too close to waterways is a bad idea, but it's a complex issue. Outflows from dairy sheds are one thing, but there are point sources all over a farm. Every urine patch, for example.


http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/agribusiness/9423887/Farming-risk-to-water-probed

That's part of what our test plot hopes to achieve: high growth rates, a variety of highly palatable feed on offer, drought resistance from more humus than average, and more biological activity helping to capture nitrogen and phosphorus etc.