The Old Ram-Australia
Herd Master
- Joined
- Jan 18, 2011
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G'day folks,i posted this topic elsewhere and received some interesting reactions,so i thought you may enjoy.It was shared as far away as Argentina,and the USA amongst others.
Initially there was some "negative" responses from cattle people who i think failed to understand it was about my farm in our district.The whole idea was to initiate some thinking on there own circumstances and wether the decisions they had/ were making actually favored the landscape they were farming on.
Anyway here it is and i hope you all enjoy ..comments welcome.
G’day, this post was prompted by a comment I got lately with regard to utilizing Native grass species in a grazing operation.
The evolution of grazing in our district since the demise of the dinosaurs has been of livestock like the Eastern grey Kangaroo and the Wombat and up until the ‘crash” of the wool floor price scheme was predominantly a wool production area. After the “crash”, many farmers turned to Cattle as their source of income going forward and these days the sheep are pretty “thin on the ground”.
The introduction of both Cattle and industrial farming methods has had a severe impact on the ability of the landscape and environment to cope with a system it did not evolve for. Over clearing and over grazing has led to the degradation of both pasture and soils and a common sight of paddocks which have the appearance of a “coat of green paint “instead of forage.
If as a farmer you stop and think about it for a minute or so, you soon realize that the weight of cattle grazing is going to adversely impact the landscape and local soils. To me the return to sheep production now we have “low input breeds “like the Dorper, Wiltshire and others mean that it is quite easy to return to “good health” over time of the land and breed Meat Sheep to an increasingly profitable marketplace.
On our farm for the last 20 + years we have not used any Super, ploughed or seeded any of our 300 ac sheep block but instead over time have allowed Native species and Naturalized Exotic’s to establish on out highly acidic soils many with high Aluminum and subsequent mineral “lockup” .Our year round species respond to even a “heavy dew” to produce growth along with sufficient sub-soil moisture and cooling days mean that our Clovers and Cocksfoot are making growth going forward.
We have recently started a new program using all of the available breeds to produce in a few years time a breeder ewe which will “fit” our farm perfectly without adversely effecting the landscape and return a 50/50 split of cost over returns.
P.S.I hope the next post on the "new direction" will be an update on Jenny along with some thoughts of my own on how things are going,as some of you have experienced it before you may be able to offer advice.I do consider the group as part of my wider support base....T.O.R.
Initially there was some "negative" responses from cattle people who i think failed to understand it was about my farm in our district.The whole idea was to initiate some thinking on there own circumstances and wether the decisions they had/ were making actually favored the landscape they were farming on.
Anyway here it is and i hope you all enjoy ..comments welcome.
G’day, this post was prompted by a comment I got lately with regard to utilizing Native grass species in a grazing operation.
The evolution of grazing in our district since the demise of the dinosaurs has been of livestock like the Eastern grey Kangaroo and the Wombat and up until the ‘crash” of the wool floor price scheme was predominantly a wool production area. After the “crash”, many farmers turned to Cattle as their source of income going forward and these days the sheep are pretty “thin on the ground”.
The introduction of both Cattle and industrial farming methods has had a severe impact on the ability of the landscape and environment to cope with a system it did not evolve for. Over clearing and over grazing has led to the degradation of both pasture and soils and a common sight of paddocks which have the appearance of a “coat of green paint “instead of forage.
If as a farmer you stop and think about it for a minute or so, you soon realize that the weight of cattle grazing is going to adversely impact the landscape and local soils. To me the return to sheep production now we have “low input breeds “like the Dorper, Wiltshire and others mean that it is quite easy to return to “good health” over time of the land and breed Meat Sheep to an increasingly profitable marketplace.
On our farm for the last 20 + years we have not used any Super, ploughed or seeded any of our 300 ac sheep block but instead over time have allowed Native species and Naturalized Exotic’s to establish on out highly acidic soils many with high Aluminum and subsequent mineral “lockup” .Our year round species respond to even a “heavy dew” to produce growth along with sufficient sub-soil moisture and cooling days mean that our Clovers and Cocksfoot are making growth going forward.
We have recently started a new program using all of the available breeds to produce in a few years time a breeder ewe which will “fit” our farm perfectly without adversely effecting the landscape and return a 50/50 split of cost over returns.
P.S.I hope the next post on the "new direction" will be an update on Jenny along with some thoughts of my own on how things are going,as some of you have experienced it before you may be able to offer advice.I do consider the group as part of my wider support base....T.O.R.