Skip to main content

Land

When we only had Eight Acres we had to make the most of it, and even though 258 Acres seems like a huge amount of land, it can currently only carry about 30 cattle, so we have to work hard to improve the carrying capacity if we are to make any money.  Apart from a general aversion to chemicals, we also don't want to spend huge amounts on herbicides and fertilisers, when we believe that fertility can be increased for free with appropriate management of land and water.



We base our system on Peter Andrews' "natural sequence farming",  Joel Salatin's Polyface farm methods, and Holistic Management.  Permaculture is also a big influence, particularly David Holmgren.

Our system at Eight Acres has been as follows, and this will be the basis for what we do on the larger property:
  • Fence the block into smaller paddocks (1-2 acres)
  • Remove weeds from the paddock that may harm the cattle (i.e. lantana), but leave everything else
  • Let the cattle into the paddock for a few months to clean up (eat and trample everything)
  • When it looks like they've eaten everything they're interested in, slash the paddock (and clean up all rocks and fallen trees) and let it rest for several months, obviously the tractor has been very important for this process!
  • Keep rotating the cattle to move around the fertility (dung and slashed weeds)
  • Also move the chicken tractors around when the land is clear enough
We've had a soil test done at each property, which has helped us to understand our soil and what is lacking from the diets of our livestock.





At Cheslyn Rise we have five dams for cattle water, and have set up a solar bore system, and lots of plans for more tanks and dams around the house yard.  We are working on a system to use that water to improve our pasture.  In the meantime, the dogs love to swim in the dams!






Joel Salatin's books

Peter Andrew's books on Natural Sequence Farming

Permaculture Principles



     
   







Popular posts from this blog

Farm update - August 2017

Its been cold this month, and very nice to have the fire going every night.  Here's a photo of my boy in his cape, great for late night woofing at things.  Most of July we were either preparing for the butcher to come or putting meat away.  Its always a big job, but its only once a year, and its all done now.  My lovely neighbour came over to help, so it was fun to have the company and work together.  Taz was a champion once again as she helped us to move cattle in the yards ready to load for the market.  Gus is not at that level yet and had to stay home (he cries when he gets left behind, but he just gets in the way and scatters the cattle).  We have had a few sprinkles of rain here and there, but also plenty of cold nights, so the grass is mostly dead and dry, waiting for the warmer weather to revive our summer-active pasture. Gus in his cape Taz after she helped to move cattle Food and cooking It was all about beef in July and we are v...
2 comments
Read more

Cooking and eating beans

When I was growing up, my family never ate many dried beans, they just weren't something that was used much in NZ cuisine.  If I did eat beans, it was always from a can (and most likely baked beans).  And until recently I was still using beans from a can, but it can be difficult to get organic beans, and to find cans not lined with BPA.  Then I had an opportunity to buy some organic dry goods in bulk, so I bought 5kg of kidney beans, 5kg of adzuki beans and 5kg of chickpea (garbanzo beans).  I know, that is a lot of beans.  And then I didn't really know what to do with them!  Not just what dishes to put them in, but how to prepare them, I just didn't know what method to use. So I decided it was time to learn how to use all these beans that I bought, here's what I found out. I started with an excellent ebook called The Everything Beans Book , from Katie at Kitchen Stewardship, which has lots of bean recipes, but more importantly, an explanation of h...
12 comments
Read more

Guest post: Is there a place for power tools in the garden?

One of my regular readers and commenters offered to write a guest post about a horticulture course, its quite a funny read, with some serious insights into our technology obsession.  If you'd like to submit a guest post, email me at eight.acres.liz {at} gmail.com.  While I am always happy to share links back to your blog or website, this contributor preferred to remain anonymous.  I hope you enjoy their story.... -**-  -**-  -**-  -**-  -**-  -**-  -**-  -**-  -**-  -**-  -**-  -**-  -**-  -**- Just a few days ago our daily horticulture classes were interrupted by an invitation to review some new gardening gadgets. The idea was to open half a dozen of electric hand trimmers , test them and fill in some review about their goods and bads. As nothing is more dear to a student – even a “hort “ one - to escape routine and mess around till lunchtime, we opened the boxes and got down to business. What did we...
8 comments
Read more