The keyline system of design and the original property of P.A. Yeomans was just featured on ABC television during the “7:30 Report”.

Keyline is a land design system that offers genuine solutions to tackling many of the converging issues we’re now facing - especially water management and carbon soil sequestration.

This short program provides a good introduction to the history of keyline and its development while discussing the heritage value of “Yobarnie”; P.A. Yeomans’s original keyline farm.

For those who missed it, download the segment below.
Mp4 Format
WMV Format

The Land Is Your Guide

By putting thought into the layout of elements and by considering the ’scale of permanence’, we’re able to produce a land management approach that improves the farm year after year. And we arrive here by allowing the land to guide our decision making process.

Adapting to Change

Anyone who has ever farmed knows the importance of water. Over the past ten years, Taranaki Farm, (situated in Central Victoria, Australia) has shouldered a dramatic climate shift which has rendered historical rainfall expectations worthless.

In response we’ve fusing an assortment of innovative farming and land management methods so this place may develop resilience in the face of converging challenges. Through this process the farm becomes a ‘laboratory’ and by extension - an education space.

Designing for Permanence

With respect to climate change, those familiar with P.A. Yeomans’s system of land design might recall his ‘Keyline Scale of Permanence‘ with a measure of irony. For those unfamiliar with Keyline Design, this scale provides a means of identifying elements in the landscape that are more or less permanent according to their place on the list.

Climate
Land Shape
Water Supply
Farm Roads
Trees
Buildings
Fences
Soil

With carefully consideration to the positioning of farm infrastructure such as dams, roads, forestry and so forth, we’re able to greatly influence the movement (and retention) of water as it interacts with our land.

Situating Elements

Realising how existing infrastructure and historical decisions might effective water is an important first step towards making the necessary changes to maximise available moisture.

Fences, for example, are relatively impermanent structures but are still often poorly situated which in turn creates numerous problems ranging from livestock pressure points to compacted dead zones through water misdirection and non-beneficial tractor patterning. By simply improving fence location and orientation, acres of productive land can be recovered while other fertility building activities become possible like rotational grazing which leads us away from the fertility depleting grazing method of set stocking.

Self-Reinforcing

Mechanical work such as hay baling becomes more efficient as tractors operate closer to the contour using considerably less fuel. Earlier de-compaction / aeration activities like keyline ploughing are also preserved because the baling tractors tires move parallel to the keyline work instead of perpendicular - that which typically occurs in conventional square or rectangular paddocks fenced to area calculations instead of land form.

Elements in Concert by Design

When the broad picture (or design) is established, activities and elements inside the system reinforce the designs overall objectives. Inversely, when a farm lacks sensible design, activities and elements inside the ’system’ interactive chaotically; usually with negative consequences to moisture, fertility and productivity. So farm with the land, never against it.

Being solutions oriented, it is no surprise that we’re supporters of ana Sophia joanes’s recent film FRESH. Much like Food Inc, Fresh examines the shortfalls of industrial food production both ethically and nutritionally, while dedicating more time to exploring genuine alternatives.

The uplifting themes present in this film motivated us to stage home screenings which have been a real hit! So far we’ve run two of these with forty people attending - a testament to the concern people feel regarding these issues.

For those interested in the film, you can find out more here.

This article forms part of a series concerning the development of methods of compost tea application via the keyline plow which are being published on taranakifarm.com

Part 1 : Introduction
Part 2 : Designing the Keyline Plow Frame Extension
Part 3 : 1:1 Scale Wooden Model
Part 4 : Re-Inventing the Herbicide Tank
Part 5 : Farm Like a Gardener
Part 6 : The Final Prototype

Part 1 : Introduction

Employing the methods developed by P.A. Yeomans, keyline pattern plowing is a proven component in the job of revitalizing degraded soils. The plow performs deep ripping with minimal plant disturbance. At its most basic this offers many benefits, including opening compacted soils (without destructive tillage), breaking up the hard pan, allowing moisture and oxygen to re-activate soil life, thus restoring fertility.  When used in concert with controlled grazing or mowing through a managed cycle, top soil is built rapidly. 

In the related field of soil biology, Dr Elaine Ingham (the eminent biologist) has made breakthrough discoveries studying soil life and developing methods of brewing compost tea. Her work promotes the pressing need to re-populate our damaged soils with the necessary microbial biota. Without the essential micro organisms our soils cannot develop balance. A balanced soil offers fertility, that builds through the exchange for nutrients that is the tireless work of soil life. A multitude of symbiotic connections evolved in harmony.

With the generous support of the well respected compost tea educator and biological farming consultant, Paul Taylor (Trust Nature), I am developing a means to both inject compost tea into the root zone of pasture plants driectly, and perform a foliar (plant leaf) application while keyline plowing. The potential for this method to restore health and balance to soils is explosive.

I will therefore post a series of articles on taranakifarm.com detailing my development of this system so that others may be inspired to explore this exciting system (and perhaps make improvements).

Next : Designing the Keyline Plow Frame Extension.

This article forms part of a series concerning the development of methods of compost tea application via the keyline plow which are being published on taranakifarm.com

Part 1 : Introduction
Part 2 : Designing the Keyline Plow Frame Extension
Part 3 : 1:1 Wooden Scale Model
Part 4 : Re-Inventing the Herbicide Tank
Part 5 : Farm Like a Gardener
Part 6 : The Final Prototype

Making Progress

I believe I’ve solved the tank (and equipment) frame extension question. The photos below mostly speak for themselves, although I’ll elaborate for the enthusiastic.

We made up a simple frame extension of welded steel box section that will form a platform for mounting the compost tea tank. In the photo below, you’ll notice I’m supporting the frame extension with timber, which obviously won’t do. So, next I’ll weld plate steel “L” brackets onto the extension where it meets the upper beam of the original keyline plow frame (positions A & B below). Then drill bolt holes so I can employ “L” shaped bolts. The same kind those used on the plow. I like standards and it makes everything multi-use, opening the door for more creative ideas.

Bolting onto the upper beam will support the extension, although it will not hold any significant weight. To solve this problem I will do the following.

Because the keyline frame is essentially a tool bar allowing great variation, it is essential to consider this variation when designing additions. To create a decent sized platform, my frame extension extends beyond the depth of the original frame, so it will require diagonal plate steel supports to bare weight. These will bolt to both the lower keyline beam and the new extension. This will give the extension support from below, as I intend to apply considerable weight to the platform above. As such I’ll need to make up at least two, maybe three supports.

A profile illustration of these supports is pictured left. To maintain a thin profile and not consume too much space on the rear keyline tool bar, I’ll most likely opt for plate steel. I must cut triangles out of each end of the plate piece to match the new frame extension and also the keyline plow. To sure this up, again, “L” constructs to bolt on.

These supports are then completely adjustable, which allows me to relocated the shanks and coulter beams without worrying about ‘permanent’ frame extension supports being in a fixed position. If they are in the way, I can just shift them, left for right. Total freedom. The general position is shown as dotted lines in the image below.

This extension also allows ample clearance beneath the tank platform should I need to access the shanks during plowing to change over a shear pin etc.

Next : 1:1 Woodend Scale Model