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.
Designed for PermanenceClimate
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
Fence location causing compaction and loss of productive landRealising 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.
Without instruction, a contractor racks hay in a typical keyline pattern as an outcome of improved design.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.
Darren J. Doherty
Compost Tea Injection
The original keyline property, “Yobarnie”
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.