Ag science versus regen ag
Let’s work together to understand how and where regenerative agriculture works, identify possible problems, and work out the economic benefits.
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Long-haired rat story enchanting
Learning about the biology of the long-haired rat is the key to this book’s intrigue, because the long-haired rat took decades to scientifically identify as the unique Australian rodent, Mus villosissius.
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Soil carbon – US research points to plant diversity and soil pore size as keys to storage
Soils from restored prairie ecosystems, with many different plant species, had many more pores of the right size for stable carbon storage than did a pure stand of switchgrass.
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Can dingoes contribute to ecological restoration of the WA rangelands?
David Pollock contends there is an argument in some pastoral areas such as where Wooleen station is, for using dingoes as a means to reduce uncontrolled grazing pressure of kangaroos and feral goats because the station livestock carrying capacities are so low due to land degradation that the pastoral businesses cannot afford to contribute to the costs of dog control.
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Book review The Wooleen Way
Pollock’s insights into the connections between ecosystem functions, pastures and grazing management, put him into a rare group of outstanding farm/station ecosystem managers, observers, and influencers in the industry.
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Sustainable Intensification of agriculture – for food and nutritional security
According to 2019 Farrer Medalist, Professor Tim Reeves, agricultural sustainability successes have resulted from the combined efforts of scientists and farmers working together to identify, develop and adapt new technologies and systems to both address continuing challenges to productivity and profitability, and to also seize the new opportunities that continually arise.
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Controlling kangaroos is essential for rangeland resilience
Kangaroos do the most damage to the environment during extended dry periods when perennial grasses are forced to go into dormancy. Australia would probably be better off financially and environmentally if properties were fenced to protect them from kangaroos. Alan Lauder explains why.
Read moreLive sheep export Independent Observers reports inadequate for trade to continue
Live export participants who treat sheep as widgets that must endure a level of suffering and deaths on voyages undermine community trust in the trade. The community won’t accept avoidable sheep deaths on boats as a cost of doing business, its members know that these unavoidable outcomes will end once the sheep live trade from Australia ends.
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Served with a side of science — building community trust in food production
The people that we trust adhere to rules and standards and act with integrity. How people have acted in the past also becomes part of our judgement about whether to trust them.
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Dry summer and chain of ponds
All mixed species perennial pasture paddocks on Moffitts Farm carry a high load of pasture dry matter which when combined with high soil organic carbon (4 – 5% soil organic carbon) means all rainfall (except in extreme rainfall events – over 50mm in 24 hours) is absorbed by the soil sponge. When enough rainfall is absorbed it takes days or weeks to move by sub-surface drainage to replenish the creek ponds (springs).
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Organic versus inorganic fertilisers’ impacts on soil health
In a US comparison after 12 years applying organic or inorganic fertiliser to a continuous crop rotation manure is the fertiliser that supports better soil quality by improving almost all soil properties.
Read moreDreaming of a more equitable Australia via a culture of compassion
Hugh McKay – Do you dream as I dream of a kinder, more compassionate, more generous, more equitable Australia?
Read moreWA on-farm trial with perennial grasses to boost soil carbon
The potential opportunity for carbon storage in WA sandy soil on the research trail farm near Wagin is more likely to be below 10cm because of the perennial grasses deeper root systems compared to annual grasses.
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Sweden’s largest single source of consumed energy is biomass
Sweden achieved its EU renewable energy obligation for 2020 way ahead of time in 2012. It is already well on the way in 2019 to meeting its 2030 renewable energy share and GHG emission reduction target.
Read moreMurray Elliott chronicles Merino breeding’s enlightenment
“Merino Sheep Breeding” by Murray Elliott is a story that had to be told and few if any other players could write it as well as Elliott who was involved for more than 50 years and had the knowledge and passion to influence change in an industry bogged down by tradition and protectionism.
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Fairy ring fungi boost pasture growth and palatability
For pasture enthusiasts fairy rings present an insight into the power of soil biology to influence pasture plant growth.
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Pasture story – sowing multiple perennial species
Multi-species perennial grasses, herbs and legumes are being planted on Moffitts Farm to produce year round green, high quality, and persistent pastures.
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Producing more food from less land
On current trends, the area of land under conservation or protected from commercial uses will exceed that allocated to grazing by the year 2045. By then, both grazing and conservation will each command around 35% of the Australian land area.
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2018 Lambing Images
The 2018 lambing season ended with 143% lambs marked. This result is similar to our experience over the last three years. Our emphasis is on providing ewes with optimum nutrition and lambs with wind chill protection using bulky perennial pastures.
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Seasonal update August 2018
A late autumn break had implications for pasture growth and subsequently the lamb numbers available for Meat Smith. Despite the late break ewe condition was maintained on pastures through mating and pregnancy without supplementary feeding.
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Live sheep exports – Where is evidence WA sheep farmers rely on it for business survival?
The history of sheep farming in WA since 1990 demonstrates farmers have the capacity to find alternative enterprises to live sheep trading.
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Beef cattle farming supporting small holder livelihoods – a case study
In Indonesia the successful GGL/small holder farmer model feeding pineapple and other food processing wastes with multiple livestock options to allow full participation at all levels within the community is simply miraculous.
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Agroforestry systems may play vital role in mitigating climate change
There is a tendency to treat agriculture and forestry separately when addressing natural-resource concerns, but agroforestry offers a set of conservation and production technologies that can help to integrate forestry and agriculture efforts beyond carbon cycles, such as water quality and biological diversity.
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Recognizing the soil carbon sponge to counter global warming
In the soil, the decomposition of living things forms the soil carbon sponge, which can resiliently sustain plant life, affect the earth’s hydrology and heat balance, and may give humans the near-term leverage we need to avert catastrophic climate change, restore hydrologic function, maintain our economies and civilizations, and maintain and enhance human health.
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The history of farm land management in Australia – there are two different versions
In this essay David Smith contends that the message that agricultural scientists have promoted for decades and the core of the courses in land management they have taught, is acceptable, and a recognition of the work of the agricultural science/natural resource management profession.
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World livestock an asset not a threat to human food availability
A world analysis of the feed consumption of all livestock classes shows that the bulk of their diets are supplied by pasture, browse, food processing wastes and bi-products. Just 13% is supplied by grains that could be used for human food production.
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Agroforestry delivers holistic outcomes for Kenyan farmers
The Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) program trains farmers in agroforestry techniques that increase their resilience and food security in the face of hotter, drier growing conditions.
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Tapping the ‘plant microbiome’ to improve farming and plant health
Study of the mostly microscopic soil food web has been going on for decades but is now attracting more interest from researchers looking for environmentally benign methods to improve agriculture.
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Call of the Reed Warbler book review
I would not recommend this book to most farmers, they have many other more balanced publications and knowledge sources to help them understand and adopt a holistic approach to decision making.
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Spring 2017 update: Prolific pasture key to new born lamb welfare
By working with nature farm productivity is rewarded with optimum lamb and ewe welfare, optimum lambing percentage, and optimum pasture growth to support ewe milk production and lamb growth rate. Applying some simple pasture management techniques supports natural sheep reproduction cycles, pasture growth and paddock ecosystem functions.
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Working with nature for sustainable beef farming – has application across all livestock grazing enterprises
Michael Lyons’ Nuffield report recommendations provide an excellent blue print for any livestock business to operate under or at the very least consider seriously.
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There is more to farming than yields, and more to forests than trees
In balancing conservation concerns and agricultural aims, there are other factors to consider, including what farmers want and what happens to crops growing near forests.
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Optimism needed – let’s study climate resilience
The latest CSIRO Biodiversity Knowledge Project seems premised on agriculture being a negative force. In reality farmers have some really positive stories of land use and climate resilience, which we should be sharing and learning from.
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Brassica makes lamb finishing difference
Brassica has been demonstrated as the most cost effective pasture species for finishing heavy trade lambs over summer, autumn and winter on Moffitts Farm. The alternatives such as supplementary feeding lambs with pasture silage, lucerne silage or pellets are in our experience more expensive per kg dry matter fed, more labour time consuming and result in more variable lamb growth rate performance.
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Yellowheaded pasture cockchafers – ally or enemy?
Vigorous pastures species managed for resilience to variable rainfall will be able to accommodate a range of insects such as Yellowheaded cockchafer larvae, field crickets and red legged earth mites. They become part of the soil food web rather than a problem.
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Livestock farming tips for beginners
Small and absentee landowners need to consider a wide range of animal welfare, environmental, infrastructure, technology, cost and time issues when deciding on which type of livestock to buy for their farms.
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Environment improving but some scientists reluctant to admit it
Many Australian farmers have dramatically improved the state of the environment over the past decade, however, while these improvements are noted in the State of the Environment report released in March 2017, the authors persisted in painting a gloomy picture of the future.,
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Natural 1080 protecting plants and wildlife from predators
Many people are unaware that poison 1080 is the most environmentally sensitive and target-specific poison available to protect Australia’s vulnerable wildlife and ecosystems from feral animals, because it occurs naturally in over 30 species of native plants.
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Exclusion fencing brings multiple outcomes to landcare farming
After 30 years of landcare farming practice change, greater emphasis should be put on protecting the enhanced environments built up across participating farms. It’s time for more dollars being allocated to exclusion fencing for its long-term benefits in protecting farm ecosystem functions and livelihoods.
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Livestock farming review may help put brakes on “maverick” grazing businesses
Given the Animal Industries Advisory Committee failed to understand what constitutes best practice grazing management which protects ecosystem functions, and the Victorian state government supported virtually all its recommendations it is unlikely that the changes to be made to planning procedures for livestock enterprises will make a significant difference.
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