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The Farmers Are At It Again

There they go again, making liars out of us, undermining our critique that their industry is contributing to the wholesale destruction of water, soil, air and biodiversity.

You know what the farmers have done, don’t you? They’ve only gone and realised that a diverse range of endemic, perennial, drought-proof fodder crops are better for their farm animals, their soil, the atmosphere and their bank balance than introduced, annual, copyrighted fodder crops. Not only that, but there is a symbiosis occurring between the annual pasture crops and perennial natives which is causing both sets of plants to grow better than they would normally otherwise. I happened upon this information via the Landline show on TV last week. I am constantly amazed by how much farmers are warming to the benefits and joys of permaculture elements without even realising it. They’ve been trialling alternative fodder crops, starting with the admittedly non endemic tagasaste “to repair the land and provide feed and shelter for [their] sheep”, and farmers in rural Australia have also long been planting Old Man Saltbush, both as a stock fodder and a way of helping combat soil salinity. This was also reported on Landline in 2008. Recently, they’ve begun trying out other crops, especially native perennial shrubs and have been crash grazing the test paddocks with sheep and experimenting with plant and crop row spacings in order to maximise yield.

So who taught the farmers how to fix the environment by introducing sustainable Permaculture principles to their farms? The CSIRO of course, what with all their laboratories and science degrees n’ all. (1) They have also been lab testing the plant matter for nutritional levels and methane production. Since the natives make the animals fart less (2) than standard introduced species, it means less greenhouse gasses produced, with the energy being used for growth instead. Certain naturally occurring chemicals in the perennials also reduce the incidence of parasitic worms in the rumen gut, which could lead to a lower usage of chemical purchases and dosages needed by the farmer in order to maintain a healthy flock.

Whilst the Permaculture movement probably influenced the experimental use of crops, either directly or indirectly, I believe it’s important that the farmers and scientists maintain ownership of these ideas, lest they be forced to admit that a bunch of hippies are in some way responsible for them being financially and environmentally sustainable. They know they are applying scientific principles to their lands and so long as we don’t tell them that the scientist probably had dreadlocks, a tie dyed shirt and a PDC, then everything will be just fine.

Notes:

  1. Let’s hope their funding doesn’t get pulled by that mysterious hand that may or may not own most of the worlds copyright fodder crops.
  2. Hey, pull my hoof!

7 Comments

  1. Yep, i watched a recent Landline report on this and the only thing i could think was, What? its taken farmers this long to see the obvious, if its already growing there, and the animals eat it, might be a good idea to incorporate it into the farm system.
    Better late then never, hopefully the process will be sped up Australia wide.

  2. This sort of thing has been going on for decades, it’s not that farmers are just realising it now , it’s that some of us are only just looking at this side of farming. I studied Agricultural Science in the early nineties and this way of thinking was well and truly entrenched then.
    If you haven’t noticed it, don’t blame the farmers.

  3. Richard,

    I’ve been around hundreds of farmers over the last few decades and I’ve never seen any of them practice anything remotely similar to this. Just because “this way of thinking is well and truly entrenched” in your agricultural studies does not mean it is common farming practice.
    I appreciate that many farmers are getting great qualifications and are becoming what Joel Salatin calls “agrarian intellectuals”, but I don’t belive they are the majority yet. I think in the next decade or so, these sorts of farming techniques with be the new paradigm and then we will truly have a system of PERMAnent agriCULTURE.

    Paul

  4. I dont want to sound as if im blaming ALL farmers for not implementing certain techniques into thier own farms, since yes you are right Richard, in that certain farming techniques have been actively encouraged through offical academic and agricultural channels for a very long time, i have traveled pretty extensively throughout Australia and have seen many farmers on many farms growing many different crops or livestock, some seem to have more common sense then others. A quick drive out west from Brisbane shows this, in the past there have been excuses for not doing certain things on farm, but with even the most simple technology or farm practice theres little excuse for any farmer to be doing some things, for example allowing stock to drink directly from river banks or dams, thats if you dont want to keep pulling them out of the mud when things start drying up.

  5. well thats exactly why i dont have dreads or a tie dyed shirt then things may have moved a bit quicker, permaculture also should have nothing to do with religion or belief but more and more articles i see contain this. i think farmers are put off, nobody would listen to me when i did have long hair and no fixed abode but when i did finally meet farmers (all of whom are nice people but a little misinformed) they took to the ideas described to them and recollected old styles of farming to me that were naturally permaculture techniques.

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