What better way to spend the first day of spring than with your hands in the soil at Carcoar!
Scott Hickmnan invited a group of ‘Growing The Grazing Revolution’ members out to Sam Cook’s place for a morning discussing biological inputs for soil health in mixed farming systems.
Are main question for the day being ‘Why are we using or interested in biological products?”
That was followed by a discussion on the benefits we’ve seen and the challenges we experience in using biologicals in our farm management actions.
Sam has been exploring the world of worm wee, compost teas and fermented brews for some time and has seen it do wonders for stock health – the stock having access to better quality feed as a consequence.
Out in the paddocks, Andrew Wooldridge talked us through how the soils around here were formed and their general characteristics and vulnerabilities. Then Annie and Isabelle conducted a panel of soil tests including pH, dispersibility and composition (making a soil sausage or ribbon).
In addition, we measured soil compaction and plant BRIX levels, both of which helped us understand the current status of the paddock while gaining insights to its future potential.
While digging holes we noted just how many earth worms were around – a great sign of health and likely a consequence of all the root veggies and perenial grasses
There was time to check out the spray equipment needed to dispense slurries and suspensions and of course it’s always interesting to see what other toys people have lying around!
The soil aerator looked pretty interesting.
As usual, we finished with a bit of a book/ resource list:
For the love of Soil – Nicole Masters
Dirt to Soil – Gabe Brown
Soil – Matthew Evans
Growing a Revolution – David R Montgomery
Carbon, the book of life – Paul Hawken.
Plus we brainstormed what we’d like to do next, the result being have someone come in and help us understand how to interpret our soils tests a bit more thoroughly with a biological management perspective in mind.
There’s always something new to learn and it was great spending the morning comparing notes and working out where we’d like to focus our attention next.
