We all know Australia is the land of droughts and flooding rains. True to form, for the last three years most of the country has been wet, following a few dry years in a row. So, no one should be surprised (it had to happen) that it looks like we are heading back into a dry spell this year, hopefully not an extended one.
With an expected El Nino to form in the 2023 Winter/ Spring period, we could be looking at a poor finish to our cropping season. When crops don’t finish well there is the potential loss of income and unneeded stress, and it these factors drive Re-Gen Farming to help farmers and gardeners improve their soil health.
Improving soil health creates a greater buffer in your farming system during times of stress (eg low rainfall). Time and time again we come across examples of when improved soil health results in significantly increased probability of harvesting a crop or growing pastures to feed your livestock.
Case Study A (Soil Health Saves the Day!)
In 2019 a dairy farmer in the Riverina who had been working on his soil health for many years, got away with only irrigating his multispecies forage crops once in Autumn and once in Spring, but still had fodder to graze all year. If he had not improved his soil health, he would have certainly needed another irrigation, which at that time water had reached $1000 / megalitre. Using 1 to 2 megs a hectare over 200 ha, his a potential saving of $200,000 – $400,000 definitely helps alleviate some drought stress.
Case Study B (Soil Health Saves the Day!)
A young farming family in northern NSW sowed 70% of their farm into what was judged marginal moisture at best, and didn’t want to take the risk of sowing the remainder. After sowing they received just 23 – 25 mm of rain in the growing season, yet they were able to harvest around 1 to 1.2 tons to the Ha of grain when others in the region didn’t even bother getting their headers out of the shed. Even though the yields weren’t fantastic the quality was great and they were paid a higher premium for it. Additionally, they were also able to help out their neighbours by providing seed for the next season. Not only did soil health save the young family back in drought, but in the 2022 wet season soil health came to the rescue again. Despite crops being flooded for 6 weeks they harvested a 3.5 ton per Ha crop, where others in the region failed to harvest. Soil health comes up trumps again.
Now that you have seen just a few of the benefits of working on your soil health (and believe me there are a lot more), you might be wondering – how can I start to build resilience into my farming system?
Building resilience in your farming system isn’t as hard as you’d imagine. The key is to stimulate your IMO (Indigenous Micro Organisms), these are the guys that do all the hard work.
One of the first jobs IMO’s attend to is improving soil structure, which is one of the greatest limiting factors in Australian agriculture. Without good soil structure you cannot have an effective gas exchange, inhibiting the ability of your biology and plants to breathe.
Good soil structure improves water infiltration, and significant improvements can be seen in just one growing season. Recently I visited a paddock we have been working on for three years. Three years ago our water infiltration test for an inch was just over an hour. Three years later it was 5 – 8 seconds, that’s right 5 – 8 seconds (we did it a few times just to be sure!.)
How did we get this to happen? Knowing there is no magic bullet to improving soil health, well we took a multi-pronged approach to this paddock. We stimulated the IMO, which occurred twice a year and can be done in a herbicide spray or in a foliar application of nutrition. The Biostimulant used to supply the IMOs was TM Agriculture from Best Farming Systems, a multi-species forage crop planted and grown, and grazed using good grazing management. Last but not least, we moved away from using damaging products where possible, for example instead of using high rates of urea to top-dress we used 2kg of Best Folia and NutriSoil.
Before you say “Great but that is not anything like my system”, it doesn’t matter, if you follow these simple rules for stimulating your IMOs, you will be well on your way to improving soil health and building resilience for tough times, regardless of your farming system:
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- Feed it in some way whether it is with a growing plant or another application of a biostimulant
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- Wean yourself off damaging fertilisers and other products like insecticides and fungicides
These principles work in all systems from no-till through to intensive dairy.
If you would like to know more get in touch and we can have a chat.
