Posts

Healthy soils

Minimise soil disturbance and build soil health.

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Physical soil disturbances are a well-documented and well-understood concept; however, we underestimate the disturbances that result from chemical and biological processes.

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Understanding the black gold of the earth – humus.

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Humus is a stabilized fraction of organic matter and is a general term referring to a heterogeneous mixture of different humic substances.

Cattle grazing in field

We need livestock to increase soil carbon

Reading Time: 3 minutes

We need livestock to create one of the few viable solutions available to mitigate climate change. Good agricultural practices can move carbon dioxide from the atmosphere into the soil.

Contrasting fields

The carbon balance on dairy farms

Reading Time: 5 minutes

There are seven farms which have negative net carbon emissions for the duration of this study. That is amazing! It completely changes the narrative of the negative impact of dairy farming.

Paying back the carbon debt

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Rebecca Burgess, founder of the Fibershed project says that, “our soils have a carbon debt; the atmosphere is gushing with carbon. The carbon over our heads is literally in the wrong place” and this couldn’t be truer.

Biodiversity soil

Video – How do you build carbon in the soil?

Reading Time: < 1 minutes

I would hope that by now most farmers have heard that building soil carbon has huge advantages. Both from a productivity and an environmental perspective. How do you go about building soil carbon?

Cows, pasture and sunlight

Carbon neutral cows

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Did you know that dairy cows can be carbon neutral? Yes, I am talking about greenhouse gas emissions neutral. I know it seems crazy.

Five benefits of multi-species pastures

Reading Time: 3 minutes

The benefits of multispecies pasture are not only limited to the benefits mentioned in this blog, they are far greater. I have isolated these ones because they are the most pertinent and directly relate to farm profitability.

Examining soil

Do you ever examine your soil?

Reading Time: 3 minutes

These two very simple visual assessments can give farmers an idea of how good the structure of the soil is on their farms. They are also a good demonstration of the benefits of soil carbon and how carbon contributes to well aggregated soil.

Feed your soil

A healthy soil works for you

Reading Time: < 1 minutes

Learn the truth about tilled soil on this video