Soil Management Thread

BG2.0

Mod Note- Copied posts from Dairy Thread as not requested.

Brown Podzol

BG2.0 wrote: »

Might get a little more traffic in here, very much so worth while having a look.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=10&v=sdFev2UifmE&ebc=ANyPxKqHc0J6dexuGAqpOcVEimOTmJALAVaWn2OjhJIhavHPYaqfoO-qICLR6QKngJLLmremRtRZtzjl2-xTIcHBD1if6kiHyQ

Pretty much the same as Allan Savory's message in his Ted talk.


http://youtu.be/vpTHi7O66pI

Kovu

TA-DA, Your very own thread BG2.0.

Milked out

Kovu wrote: »

TA-DA, Your very own thread BG2.0.

Could you add the YouTube link BG posted in the dairy thread as well kovu

Kovu

Milked out wrote: »

Could you add the YouTube link BG posted in the dairy thread as well kovu

No probs- Copied that, another & B. Podzol's as well. It sorts itself from time posted so looks a little odd until I edit the top post.

Mad4simmental

Dawg was it you that done a trial last year spreading molasses to feed micro organisms in the soil? Did is do anything?

Is the idea to multiply the micro organisms that brake down the OM in the soil?

patsy_mccabe

Brown Podzol wrote: »

Pretty much the same as Allan Savory's message in his Ted talk.


http://youtu.be/vpTHi7O66pI

So Teagasc's model for rotational garzing could end Global Warming.
No deserts forming here in the emerald isle.:D

cjpm

From another thread.... but soil related non the less...


BG handing out some pwnage to those less informed....

BG2.0 wrote: »

Due to rain fall levels and soils deemed able to hold nutrients especially on clays where most non nvz's are and less livestock on roughly the eastern side of the country. Area deemed susceptible operate under similar conditions. Of course there's always some less responsible like Irleand that are vigorously pursued or are they not for breaking rules?
On topic from your deviation.
What model of suds should the Ifa have pursued with the Dept, how did they fail compared to our European competition? If you have no opinions on any Ifa matters regarding suds would you feel it correct to retract a previous statement?
Regards Bg2.0

Welcome back BG, great thread.

I personally learn more from some of your posts than what I learned on some lazy days doing the Green Cert!:D

kowtow

Was very taken with Savory - particularly as expounded in Judith Schwarz's detailed & readable book "Cows Save the Planet"...

What confuses me is the relationship between the various greenhouse gases we are all supposed to be preventing. One minute we are trying to put the CO2 back in the soil (cows will do this) but the next minute the methane & nitrous oxide they produce will cause even more damage .. unless (thanks Teagasc) the nitrous oxide is actually N2, but what about the methane???

What I can say without doubt is that the mechanisms we have so far come up with to limit climate change are political and economic, created for the benefit of those that enforce them and not for sound ecological reasons. Trading of carbon credits in particular is outrageous - economically speaking you can solve an employment crisis by sending children up chimneys and into factories, but it doesn't mean you should.

It seems a tragedy that Ireland - which is structurally well suited to a holistic approach - seems so intent on hitching it's wagon to efficiency at any price, and commodity exports, without first examining whether we aren't actually in a unique position to lead the way in farming which may well be in tune with consumers much closer to home.

Like family farms & happy cows, really good produce which fixes the environment really does seem to strike a chord with the values of tomorrows consumers - but it rings a bit hollow when it's a message stamped by a quango on container sized shipments of dessicated milk powder bound for China.

patsy_mccabe

Mama Nature knows best. I think a lot of it has to do with how urbanised the general population have become. Most people have this belief that humans, by their existence, are bad for nature. That we should somehow withdraw into the cities and return the land to mother nature. There's no aspiration for us living in harmony with it, like previous generations did.

Look at what happened in the Burren in County Clare. Farmers were encouraged to remove the cattle. What happened, the place became overgrown and all those rare flowers and plants started to disappear. Now they are encouraged to put them back and return the land to the way it was for thousands of years. At the end of the day we are part of the ecosystem too. We just have to learn to manage things a bit better.

George Lee was saying during the week that Methane lasts for 10 years in the atmosphere, but is 8 times more 'Global Warming' than Carbon Dioxide.

I've always believed that we should plant as many trees as possible around the edges of fields. The roots go deep into the ground and act as pumps drawing up the minerals and then depositing them on the surface as decaying leaves.

Farmer Ed

https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?ui=2&ik=943f781cbc&view=fimg&th=14ebef0c79eb3eb0&attid=0.1.1&disp=emb&attbid=ANGjdJ8lFN1J-Bt1HWLm0EOx0O5PYDywbI8awLhROY05vYiuyxQ3w4p8xbkvWmaGSC9XqDLf-oo0jGDaWq0dNlMH78SBZwRS6OlkdbvVMKublpubLexlbYgOU7y-trg&sz=w1456-h1940&ats=1449336847369&rm=14ebef0c79eb3eb0&zw&atsh=1

I was at this farm walk this spring. Take a look at the difference between the two different soils at the bottom. If the theory is correct. Then a lot of carbon is being stored where the product was used. I would love to see some more research being done in this area.

https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?ui=2&ik=943f781cbc&view=fimg&th=14ebef0c79eb3eb0&attid=0.1.3&disp=emb&attbid=ANGjdJ-aV2Q9CnOjk_7CvZOEqy-OpUmSYb5V9SV4scoEiEqK2hvSMjzYhbvCEfLsltu5gIzndgn56UTRuTSditNGs-y7VrT6rOUNgjh5iijyRpgvsVCFGper06eAcK0&sz=w1456-h1940&ats=1449338311655&rm=14ebef0c79eb3eb0&zw&atsh=1

https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?ui=2&ik=943f781cbc&view=fimg&th=14ebef0c79eb3eb0&attid=0.1.4&disp=emb&attbid=ANGjdJ-ryXxHSA2pj_TxNBLyFKskyjUromAm_XwPGqkvu8JHtQ4tgQa-E8rMdKFN37PWObgoaagAj2FqA0DUOpnoUn8BSE-2BYhHCc8yehFj47Trul-e6nML38yz6Gk&sz=w1456-h1940&ats=1449338311655&rm=14ebef0c79eb3eb0&zw&atsh=1

keep going

just an aside but related,in recent years i have a good few problems with slugs in establishing crops and i dont like using insectacides but how can it be avoided

blue5000

cjpm wrote: »

From another thread.... but soil related non the less...


BG handing out some pwnage to those less informed....






Welcome back BG, great thread.

I personally learn more from some of your posts than what I learned on some lazy days doing the Green Cert!:D

........And he's gone again, I think things got hot and heavy in the ifa thread. Welcome back BG, 99% of us on here missed you, but there's always a few keyboard warriors on every forum, don't take them too seriously.

Farmer Ed

blue5000 wrote: »

........And he's gone again, I think things got hot and heavy in the ifa thread. Welcome back BG, 99% of us on here missed you, but there's always a few keyboard warriors on every forum, don't take them too seriously.

Hey I hope your not calling Kova a keyboard warrior.:) I never complained As a matter of fact I think myself and Bg have a lot of similar views on soils ability to store carbon,

keep going

blue5000 wrote: »

........And he's gone again, I think things got hot and heavy in the ifa thread. Welcome back BG, 99% of us on here missed you, but there's always a few keyboard warriors on every forum, don't take them too seriously.

ah feck it i was lookin g foward to this thread

darragh_haven

keep going wrote: »

ah feck it i was lookin g foward to this thread

Not trying to derail thw thread but I think he was having problems with his computer being infected with virus. Hopefully this is why he's closed his account

Farmer Ed

Interesting article from Bloomberg on what Frances offical approach is.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-07-28/france-backs-soil-carbon-plan-ahead-of-climate-summit-le-foll

keep going

in normal grazing conditions,whats the average og levell

Farmer Ed

Interesting concept

http://carbonfarminghandbook.blogspot.ie/

kevthegaff

I was always wondering about trapping silt in the rivers and spreading on the land, help with flooding also

visatorro

kevthegaff wrote:

I was always wondering about trapping silt in the rivers and spreading on the land, help with flooding also

isn't that why ancient eygptians loved to sea the nile flooding. all the plains would grow savage crops after a flood. combination of moisture and silt I'd imagine

Farmer Ed

Dairy Grazing Management Can Restore Soils, Reduce Carbon Footprint

May 26th, 2015
Dairy Herd Management
by Merritt Melancon


Source: Dalusa Organic Ranch, Point, TX
Well-maintained pastures prevent erosion, protect water and, as it turns out, can restore the soil’s organic matter much more quickly than previously thought, according to a team of researchers from the University of Georgia and the University of Florida.

Soil contains the largest terrestrial reservoir of carbon. Tilling fields every year to plant crops releases soil carbon into the atmosphere. It’s been known for a long time that transitioning cropland to pastureland where livestock grazes replenishes the soil’s carbon, but their study showed that the process can be much more rapid than scientists previously thought.

“What is really striking is just how fast these farms gain soil organic matter,” said Aaron Thompson, associate professor of environmental soil chemistry at UGA and senior author on the study. “In less than a decade, management-intensive grazing restores these soils to levels of organic matter they had as native forests. These farms accumulate soil carbon at rates as fast as ever measured globally.”

The rate of carbon increase was so high in the first six years that by capturing the carbon in the soil, this could help offset the planet’s rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide. Converting to pastures managed using intensive grazing principles can capture up to 8 metric tons of carbon per hectare, or 3.6 tons per acre, per year in the soil. This makes the soils more nutrient-rich and allows them to hold more water.

The study, funded by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture and published in the May edition of the journal Nature Communications, tracked changes in soil organic matter on Georgia farms that had changed within the last six years from growing row crops to producing milk as grass-fed dairies.

On most North American dairies, hay and silage crops are cultivated in fields separated from the cows’ pasture and then fed to the herd as needed. But in management-intensive grazing, the cows spend 90 percent of their time out on pasture.

“We found that converting cropland to rotational grazing systems can increase soil organic matter and improve soil quality at rates much faster than previously thought possible in a system that sustains food production,” said the study’s lead author, Megan Machmuller, who worked on the three-year project as a doctoral student in UGA’s Odum School of Ecology. She is now a postdoctoral fellow at Colorado State University.

Management-intensive grazing, a practice growing in popularity among Southeastern dairy farmers and pasture-based beef cattle farmers, allows producers to efficiently use the nutrition provided in their pastures. In addition to emphasizing pasture quality and quantity for the cattle, these management-intensive grazing practices also feed the biological activity within the soil. This fosters the development of organic matter, thus capturing larger quantities of carbon that would be otherwise released into the atmosphere.

“These systems are proliferating throughout sub-tropical regions that allow year-round grazing—which increases their profitability. They could offer a rare win-win in land management—providing profitable food production with rapid soil restoration and short-term climate mitigation,” said study co-author Nick Hill, a professor of crop physiology at UGA.

“In Georgia, the number of pasture-based dairies has expanded rapidly since 2005. Many of these farmers are using pastureland that was once devoted to row crops,” said study co-author Dennis Hancock, an associate professor and UGA Extension forage specialist. “Once their pasture-based operations were up and running, they began reporting that they were seeing less need for fertilizer and irrigation in order to maintain their forage crops.

“The carbon accumulation in soils under pasture-based dairy production in Georgia has major implications in the Southeast, as it shows the ‘carbon footprint’ of these dairy systems is far more positive than previously thought.”

The team made additional soil quality measurements after hearing the farmers’ anecdotal evidence. They also found that after six years of management intensive grazing, the soil could retain 95 percent more nutrients and 34 percent more water. The impacts of this system on soil fertility and quality is potentially greatest for heavily degraded soils, like those in the Southeast.

Dairymen who farm sandy soils like we have in the coastal plain of the southeastern U.S. need all the help that they can get with these soil properties, according to Hancock. Often, having good soil organic matter and the benefits that come from it can be the difference between losing and making money.

Most future land use change is expected to take place in existing agricultural and pastoral lands, said study co-author Marc Kramer, an associate professor in the soil and water science department at the University of Florida.

“Emerging land use activities such as intensive grazing show what is achievable in terms of profitable farming with clear carbon cycle and soil fertility benefits,” he said. “It is the tip of the iceberg really.”

The study is available online at t.co/e0p4XUKw1e. Taylor Cyle, a master’s student in crop and soil science at UGA, was also a co-author.

To learn more about sustainable agriculture research at UGA, visit www.caes.uga.edu/topics/sustainag. For more on the Odum School of Ecology, visit ecology.uga.edu.

(Merritt Melancon is a news editor with the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.)

Farmer Ed

http://organicveganearth.stfi.re/the-great-denmark-to-become-a-100-organic-country/?sf=ojvewl