My pasture cocktail and fire

I am using a new formula for my pasture recovery and beef fattening. One third grasses, one third legumes and one third brassicas. Plus sunflowers and pinto beans and turnips,   I think that cows and pigs (like humans) need a more diverse range of  foods – they are healthier and fatter. Plus we need deep rooted and nitrogen fixing plants for soil health.  Many of the pasture mixes that are available seem to carry only two or three different species, theya re designed for animal growth not pasture balance  – I am sowing fifteen  different species of plant into the fields this year.

So today the salad bar paddock was sown in my new cocktail, plus Daisy’s paddock was top sown in it as well.And all the little pig fields too.  Daisy’s paddock was one of the first sown when I began to farm and is worn out.

These fields were in a rotation of corn and beans and constant tilling for almost eighty years before I took them back to pasture.  I try to resow each pasture every six years at the most and  I have brought two more acres from monoculture monster machine cropping back  into the farm each year.

Yo can see where the seed drill cuts a shallow slice into the ground and sows a collection of different seeds. These were mixed by my patient seed rep who I have had to encourage to let go of all his conventions and education in typical modern pasture management, stop trying to sell me pre mixes and  use his knowledge of the actual plants and soil recovery to help me design these fields. I will take a shot of this section of Daisy’s paddock once a week (if I remember) so we can see any changes.  So you and I can watch the grass grow.

The health of my fields is as important as the health of my animals. In fact they need to be in balance to enhance each other so I was thrilled to find worms in the ground yesterday morning. When I began to recover these fields from years and years of intensive industrial horticulture I found that the earth smelled like it had been buried under tarmac and there were no worms at all, no insects or little animals, no micro-organisms, nothing. It was inert.Dust. Even rain crusts the top like sun on sand.  The constant tilling and introduction of some pretty strong and damaging chemicals has taken a terrible toll on these huge plains. Thousands of years of fertility and soil structure has been plundered from the earth. At this time of year when they begin burning the fields and tilling the ground we are surrounded in dust and smoke. The monster machines that roll over the earth tilling the little bit on the top compact the soils, creating a hard pan a few feet below that becomes like a sheet of iron, drainage is interrupted and the grounds flood in the smallest of rains. Then they bring in bigger machines to dig trenches and lay pipe to drain the earth and so the rain immediately flows into all the ditches and creeks and the land is sodden and backed up and flooded anyway.  The trees have been pulled out and burnt so there are no deep roots to help drain the fields, and bind the top soil to the earth. Neither corn nor beans go deep enough to help.

I wish they could find a way to grow field corn and soy beans without using soil. It seems such a shame to literally destroy our soils in such a grim and dogged manner. I would like to see these crops grown in high rise car parks or something. Off the ground.

I have yet to see a farmer or owner of these lands get out of her tractor or his truck and kneel in the soil and pick up a handful of soil and smell it. Or dig into it and examine the structure. Or even plant a tree. Or just sit in the middle of this waste land they and their fathers and grandfathers created and think about what they are doing.

This is not my land. I will never own more than what surrounds our house. But I weep for it and long to have the ability to save more than the acres we rent.  To protect it. One of the field fires got out of hand last night and whipped right down the length of the bank across the creek. John fought it at one end so it did not burn our hay fields. But it ran straight across the far fellowship forest right through where the poles for the zip line are.  My little path is gone. The nesting birds flew away.  I have not had the heart to check and see if the beaver dam caught alight. This morning I will  know.  The ground is now all black, scorched. I went into one of my furies.  I will have to wait and see if the trees recover, these grass fires move very fast so there is a chance they will be ok and fire often activates new seeds.  And with a big breath  I will go back to my seed man tomorrow and taking advantage of the empty ground I will sow wild flowers into the blackened ground. Not a lot, as the seed is expensive, but a little.

When I was at school we were taught that a field should be rotationaly  cropped for three years then rested in a cover crop in the fourth year. No-one rests the soil anymore. No-one even uses a cover crop for the winter. They would lose too much money.  They even burn off the corn husks. But I cannot fix these things, I can only look after the areas I rent  from John’s family for the lifetime of my stewardship. My choice is to use  pasture as a means of recovering the soil and feeding my family. We have to work together with the soil. It is a delicate balance.  It is also an act of faith in the earth. The wild flowers are an act of faith.

And at last after maybe six years of management the worms are returning. This is good. 

The peahens are laying again.

Check out the family resemblance between mother and daughter.

Still waiting of any  real sign that Poppy is pregnant. Though I sense a wee belly here. It could be my wishful imagination. I have every reason to believe that she may go another month to her third date.

Which is fine. Though I am going to have an awful lot of piglets here at one time if Molly and Tahiti breed as well.

Another beautiful day is unfolding in the gardens.  I must gird my loins and go out to inspect the damage in the daylight – that fire was still burning until late in the night.

I hope you have a lovely day.

celi