Transcript Regenerative Pasture Management at Winona

Why and How I
Changed
Colin Seis.
Winona
Myself and son Nick
• Granite soil, Ph 5.5-6.0
2000 acres (840 Ha)
• 650 mm annual Rainfall
Gulgong Central Tablelands NSW
Winona Enterprises
500 acres of Crops
Wheat, oats, rye.
Working
Kelpie Dogs
Cattle trading
Merino Stud (Ram Sales)
Native Grass Seed
4000 Merino Sheep wool &
meat production.
In 1930 my father
(Harry Seis) did not
require any pesticides
and only a small
amount of fertiliser to
grow good wheat
crops.
• Why cant we do
that now?
If our farms have healthy, carbon - rich
soil instead of dysfunctional soil.
• Better water holding capacity.
• More available nutrients.
• Less fertiliser.
• Produce nutrient dense food
If our farms had diverse grasslands
or pastures that functioned like
grasslands?
• Our farms would have
healthy, functioning,
carbon - rich soil.
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Less fertiliser
No insecticides
No fungicides.
Produce nutrient dense food
Instead of good soil and grassland we
got the ‘Green Revolution’ and
Industrialised Agriculture
For the last 60 years, around the world,
agriculture has been influenced by the use of:
monoculture crops supported by high rates of
fertilizer and pesticides
This has been an ecological disaster
Agriculture is crashing all over the world
because it does not function in an
ecologically sound way.
• Reduced soil carbon levels (Reduced soil moisture)
• Reduced soil fertility
• Increasing insect attack.
• Increasing crop disease.
(More artificial fertilizer)
(More insecticide)
(More Fungicide)
Modern Agriculture lacks resilience and
ecological function
Agriculture is about
FOOD
But there is something
fundamentally wrong
Mineral depletion in meat
1940 - 1991
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Iron reduced by
Copper reduced by
Calcium reduced by
Magnesium reduced by
Potassium reduced by
Phosphorus reduced by
54%
24%
41%
10%
16%
28%
Source: UK Ministry of Agriculture
Australian fruit and vegetables
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Potatoes
Broccoli
Carrots
Apples
1948
Calcium
27 mg
Magnesium 160 mg
Vit. A
25,000 IU
Vit. C
25 mg
1991
3 mg 89%
29 mg 82%
91 IU
99.6%
5 mg 80%
It is possible to buy an orange today
that contains ZERO vitamin C.
Most of this decline in nutrients
is related to a serious decline in
Soil health and Soil Carbon
Poor quality food is
caused by poor quality
soil
Why do I do things
differently?
1932
Unsuitable grazing and
cropping practices caused
major grassland and soil
damage to ‘Winona’ from
1930 to 1950
1932
Industrialized, high input, farming methods
From 1950 to 1978 on ‘Winona’
• Sown to introduced pasture .
(clover ryegrass, etc and regularly re-sown)
• Annually fertilized with 125kg/ha.
• Ploughing and cultivating soil to sow crops
(high rates of fertilizer & pesticides)
• Set stock grazing.
This high input system was very
productive during this era.
• These high input
methods were costing
us over $80,000
annually (2013 values)
And over time,
doing
serious
ecological
damage to
Winona.
High input, Industrialized Agriculture
started to crash on “Winona” during the
1970s
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Fertilizer costs became too high.
Cost of sowing pasture became too high.
Rainfall no longer infiltrated.
Soil lost structure.
Soil became acid.
Salinity problems.
Trees dying.
We were going broke.
How and why did I change??
During the 1970s the cost of production was becoming too
high and it was more difficult to be profitable
BUT !
Major bushfire destroyed Winona 1979
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3000 sheep killed
All buildings destroyed
50 km of fencing burned
No money
How did I change
• Looked for low input agriculture methods.(1980s)
• Stopped using pasture fertilizer and pesticides (1980)
• Focused on 100% ground cover. (crops and pasture)
• Started ‘time control grazing’ in 1990
• Developed ‘Pasture Cropping’ in 1993
• Combined ‘Pasture Cropping’ and ‘time control
grazing’ in 1995
• Focused on restoring Winona to grassland.
How do we stop killing plants
and restore grasslands?
Grazing Management
Animals are blamed for creating deserts around
the planet
• It is not the animal that is the
problem
• It is the human managing the
animal that is the problem.
• Nearly a third of the world's
farmland has been abandoned in
the past 40 years because
inappropriate management has
made it unproductive
“Pasture Cropping” was invented and
developed in 1993 by Colin Seis & Daryl Cluff
“Pasture Cropping”
is a land management
technique where
annual crops are
zero - tilled into
dormant perennial
grass or grassland.
We have farmed the same way for 5000 years.
Why haven't crops been planted into grass before?
• It was known that annual plants will
compete with each other.
(wheat & annual grass)
• Crop disease
• It was assumed that perennial plants
would also be incompatible with
cereal crops.
• No one had looked at how nature
worked in a grassland (Warm season
and cool season plants are compatible)
Pasture Cropping
Grazing and cropping are
combined and managed in a way
where each one benefits the other.
‘Pasture Cropping’
• Zero till sowing of crops into
perennial pasture.
• Never Plough.
• Never kill perennial
grassland species.
• Weeds are managed by
creating large quantities of
thick litter by using good
grazing management
• Very careful use of
herbicides, if necessary.
Pasture Cropping
Perennial grassland
February 2010
Pasture Cropping
After mulching with sheep and/or Cattle, zero-till
plant the crop into litter and mulch of dormant warm
season perennial grass.
Sowing Oats May 2010
Pasture Cropping
No herbicide is required with this much litter
Sow crop into litter
Pasture Cropping
Emerging Crop
Pasture Cropping
The crop can be grazed by animals
10th September 2010
Pasture Cropping
14th October 2010
Pasture Cropping.
Harvest the crop with emerging
perennial grass beneath.
Graze grassland after the crop is harvested
Native grass seed can be harvested after the
cereal crop is harvested
Seed is sold for re-vegetation, and in the
future, sold for human consumption
Pasture Cropping will:
• Produce crops for grain and/or grazing.
• Will improve pastures by stimulating
perennial grass species and species
diversity.
• Will improve soil health and increase soil
organic carbon.
• Will improve ecological function.
Vertical Stacking of Farming and
Grazing Enterprises
Over a 12 month period the paddock
has produced
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
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Grazing of grassland pre sowing the crop
Grazing of the crop (sheep & cattle)
Grain from the crop
Grazing of grassland after harvest (sheep & cattle)
Native grass seed
Reduced fertilizer (reduced by 70%)
No insecticide
No fungicide
No ploughing
Vertical stacking of different
enterprises on the same area can give
far more production and profit per Ha.
Grain (wheat, oats, rye, barley)
Sheep meat
Cattle
Wool
Native grass seed
Native grass seed human
consumption
Carbon sequestration
Agriculture, and sound ecological
practices should function together
On Winona no insecticide has been
used for over 20 years.
We have no insect attack in crops and
pasture.
How??
Insects
1. Insect attack of crops
and pastures can be
controlled by having
more insects.
2. Insecticides are not selective,
they also kill predators like
spiders and wasps that will
control insects naturally.
3. Insecticides will ultimately
lead to more insects and
more insecticides.
Crop Fertilizer reduced by 70%
No fertiliser used on pasture for
over 30 years
How??
• Winona’s soil now has 204%
more organic carbon.
• Has sequestered 46.7 t /Ha
of carbon (172 ton/Ha of CO2.)
• Holds almost 200% more water.
(360,000 lt /Ha)
• All of the soil nutrients
including trace elements have
increased by an average of 172%
• Ph has increased from 5.2 - 6.01.
Winona Soil
Neighbour soil
No fungicide used on ‘Winona’
for over 20 years
No crop or pasture disease
How??
Soil microbe tests on Winona have
shown:
Total fungi increase
Total bacteria increase
Total protozoa increase
Total nematode increase
862%
350%
640%
over 1000%
Having healthy soil with large numbers and large
diversity of soil microbes will control plant
disease.
Is it profitable and
productive?
Compared to previous high input
agriculture.
• Annual income is higher.
• ‘Winona’ is running more sheep.
• Crop yields are similar.
• Harvest and sell over 1000 Kg of native
grass seed.
• Soil organic carbon levels are increasing.
• Soil Phosphorus, calcium, ph,
magnesium and trace elements are
increasing (available and total)
By managing agriculture and sound
ecological principals together, we can :
• Restore Grasslands
• Improve Soil Carbon
• Improve water holding capacity.
• Increase plant and animal diversity.
• Reduce plant and animal disease.
• Improve soil health.
• Increase profit.
Agriculture can be more profitable
and environmentally regenerative
But:
Agricultural practices
need to function closer to
how Nature had it
originally designed.