The Old Ram-Australia
Herd Master
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- Jan 18, 2011
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G'day I recently heard about this from a friend ,so what are the added difficulty's in farming in these "acid" regions?...T.O.R.
G'day,thank you for your replies,in our case no amount of Lime would ever solve our acidity as it goes down forever and if your aim is a perennial base for your pasture aren't you working against Nature? So maybe your aim is to plough your farm each year to raise an annual crop of whatever?
Nature has for time immemorial set about evolving plants that flourish in this acid environment and on our place has done quite a good job with a long list of plants both annual and perennial which has fed the local wildlife over the century's,so along comes farmers who want to raise sheep,cattle, goats and the like in this unsuitable land.When we obtained this farm is was a "wreck" with the main pasture being weeds as far as the eye could see.The main reason for our success on the farm was to introduce the mineral mix(based on Pat Colby's advice) "fed to the sheep" and not to try and change the underlying structure of the soils.
In the time we have been on farms I have found that the "simplistic and most profitable" solution is the one that supports the landscape,soils and the underlying biology rather than challenging it and trying to bend it into a shape that suits us.
Anyway I hope the topic has caused you to stop and consider just what it is you want to achieve and how you will accomplish it and are your current actions achieving the desired outcome....T.O.R.