Permaculture - a different kind of farming

Have you heard about permaculture?
Do you know what it is?
I will admit that when living in Griffith, NSW in the late 1980s - early ‘90s we converted the garden and lawn of our suburban block to a permaculture garden. It must have given the neighbours something different to talk about.

To help clear up any potential misunderstandings you have we are speaking with Lachlan Storrie, who runs a business around the lower Hunter Valley in NSW called Treefrog Permaculture.

Permaculture garden in foreground with ‘normal’ suburban block next door.



Lachlan proud of his bananas in Newcastle, NSW.

Wikipedia definition

Permaculture is an approach to land management and settlement design that adopts arrangements observed in flourishing natural ecosystems. It includes a set of design principles derived using whole-systems thinking. It applies these principles in fields such as regenerative agriculture, town planning, rewilding, and community resilience. Permaculture originally came from "permanent agriculture" but was later adjusted to mean "permanent culture", incorporating social aspects. The term was coined in 1978 by Bill Mollison and David Holmgren, who formulated the concept in opposition to modern industrialized methods instead adopting a more traditional or "natural" approach to agriculture.


Permaculture is also good for wildlife.

Are you edible? Feathered dinosaur looking for food.

Coffee berries

Blueberries almost ready for picking

Australian sandalwood - under threat but it could have a rosy future

Australian sandalwood fruit. Image: M.Fagg

What do you know about sandalwood?

Australian sandalwood (Santalum spicatum) has been exploited since the 1850s and now there are major concerns that the wild stocks of this once widespread small tree are in serious decline with next to no natural recruitment due to drought, grazing by feral and domestic animals and fires. Australian sandalwood is now considered to be vulnerable to extinction in the wild.

There is evidence that harvesting of wild stocks continues to be problematic.

Can plantation grown Australian sandalwood be the answer?

Listen to this interview with Dr Geoff Woodall, one of the founders of farmed sandalwood to learn more.

 
 
 

Dr Geoff Woodall, Native Plant Agronomist, with one of his cultivated sandalwood trees.

Distribution of Australian sandalwood (S. spicatum). Source: Atlas of Living Australia

Geoff Woodall with a 20 year old ‘farmed’ sandalwood tree.

 

The Wilderness Society says the new annual sandalwood harvesting quota is six times higher then what is considered a sustainable level.(Supplied: Wilderness Society)

Sandalwood oil is used in soap, detergents, deodorant, perfume and cosmetics manufacture.

Gondwana Link, global carbon and restoring landscapes
Keith Bradby, Gondwana Link wants to restore landscapes and the carbon stored will be additional to other benefits.

Gondwana Link - sustainable landscapes boost carbon storage

The topic of carbon is getting more and more mainstream. Recently Clint Jasper from Radio National’s “A Country Breakfast” interviewed Professor Jacqueline McGlade, from Downforce Technologies about her company’s satellite technology for estimating soil carbon. The Professor even had a piece in ‘The Australian’.

Also Robin Williams’ ‘The Science Show’ had an extensive program on the best methods to remove carbon from the atmosphere.

This interview is with Keith Bradby a lifelong avid reader and curious prober at the mysteries of life.

He received an Order of Australia in 2015 and an Excellence in Natural Resource Management Award in 2005.

He has run a beekeeping and native seed business, consulted to the mining sector and worked in local enterprise development.  He even worked for three state cabinet ministers across both side of politics.

He has also consulted to emerging landscape efforts in New Zealand, southern Africa and Mexico, and is helping to establish EcoHealth programs in Australia and New Zealand and is the Chief Executive Officer, Gondwana Link Ltd as well as being involved in a heap of other organisations as well.

Gondwana Link has reconnected country across south-western Australia, from the wet forests in the southwest corner to the dry woodlands and mallee bordering the Nullarbor Plain, in which ecosystem function and biodiversity are restored and maintained.

For more information on Gondwana Link - https://gondwanalink.org/ Image: Ula Majewski



Yarrabee in 2006 prior to restoration works. The property purchase was made possible through an initial funding contribution from Wesfarmers, and is owned by Greening Australia. A different mix of funding enabled the restoration plantings. Yarrabee is a critical property adjoining Stirling Range National Park where this section of the completed Link will eventually connect with the park. Image: Amanda Keesing

Same view in 2019, 13 years after the start of the project. Image: Blair Parsons

Greenhouse gas reduction down on the farm - what farmers are doing now - Part III

This is number 3 in the series on carbon and farming.
Farmers are out there now implementing strategies to reduce greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxides, while continuing to make a profit.

Simon Wallwork and Cindy Stevens jointly run their 3,700 ha mixed cropping-sheep-cattle property at Corrigin in the central cropping belt of WA. They have been frustrated by the lack of will of politicians and administrators to develop and implement meaningful policies to minimise the impacts of human-induced climate change on the agricultural sector and the planet in general.

So after their youngest son asked what they were going to do about it, they got together with other keen growers and formed AgZero2030. Simon and Cindy are respectively Chair and Secretary.

AgZero2030 is a movement of WA farmers eager to influence climate action and to lead by example by making their own properties carbon neutral within the decade. They hope to encourage other growers to start managing their greenhouse gas production by promoting positive actions taken by fellow growers.

Simon & Cindy Image: The Guardian

Simon & Cindy Image: The Guardian

In this podcast Simon and Cindy explain what got them into AgZero2030 and what they are implementing on their own farm to meet their decarbonisation goals and meet the requirements of changing markets.

Soil Carbon Part 2 - A soil scientist's viewpoint - Dr Fran Hoyle

In the previous podcast about soil carbon we heard from Peter McInerney from Wagga Wagga in New South Wales about practicing agronomist’s point of view on increasing soil carbon levels. Peter sees soil carbon as an important part of improving soils and therefore plant production.

There is no doubt about the benefits of soil carbon to soil health and agriculture. Loss of soil organic carbon means lower nutrients and water holding capacity and the soil becomes harder. It has been estimated that since Europeans colonised Australia we have lost up to 75% of total soil organic carbon. A sad state of affairs.

However there is a lot of talk about how we can take carbon out of the atmosphere and into the soil and be paid for it. But just how easy is that going to be particularly for a grower in Western Australia?

In this podcast I’m speaking with Dr Fran Hoyle who’s had several decades as an agronomist and soil scientist and has put a lot of years into measuring and studying soil carbon and how it behaves under different situations.

Fran started as a wheat agronomist with the West Australian Department of agriculture (DAFWA), and had an increasing focus on soil quality and biological function. More recently she joined the University of Western Australia continuing work on management of soil organic carbon and as Director of SoilsWest.

In this Giving a RATS pod cast we get more detail about soil carbon and what we can realistically expect on how to build up our soil carbon levels.

Contact Fran - https://research-repository.uwa.edu.au/en/persons/frances-hoyle

 
SOIL WEST landscape narrow height email 10pc.png

Further Reading

SoilsWest acts to identify and connect soil scientists and partnering organisations to a range of different skills, opportunities and capability for the delivery of more integrated soil research in Western Australia.
https://soilswest.org.au

Soil Quality website - Fact sheets and data portal www.soilquality.org.au

Soil organic matter eBook - https://books.apple.com/au/book/soil-quality-3-soil-organic-matter/id1444338744

Fran Hoyle

Fran Hoyle

Hoyle residence guard dog and podcast cameo appearance - Rosie Violet Hoyle

Hoyle residence guard dog and podcast cameo appearance - Rosie Violet Hoyle

 
Soil carbon Part 1 of 3 - an agronomist's viewpoint

Soil Carbon. Everyone is talking about it. But what is it? While I always knew there was more to soil carbon than meets the eye these days of a warming planet soil carbon has taken on a whole new meaning with lots of different possibilities.

What is the role of soil carbon in Australian farming systems?

We all know that soil carbon is important for soil health, but what do growers need to do to increase soil carbon levels?

From: How Much Carbon Can Soil Store?

From: How Much Carbon Can Soil Store?

Peter McInerney, 3-D Agriculture

Peter McInerney, 3-D Agriculture

Can farmers make additional income by increasing their soil carbon levels?

Here I discuss with Peter McInerney, a whole farm agronomist from 3-D Agriculture, how he goes about encouraging his clients to improve their soil carbon levels and the range of benefits that accrue from doing so.

To find Peter’s contact details and the range of services he and Hazel can provide go to
https://www.3d-ag.com.au/

 
 
Travels with Dr Wal Anderson
Wal visiting a souk in the Syrian city of Aleppo.

Wal visiting a souk in the Syrian city of Aleppo.

‘Nightinggale’ milking mares to make the fermented Kazakh delicacy ‘coumis’.

‘Nightinggale’ milking mares to make the fermented Kazakh delicacy ‘coumis’.

In this interview Dr Wal Anderson shares some of his experiences working in overseas agricultural aid .

Wal was fortunate to work in Syria, Iraq, Kurdistan, Iran, Jordan, Morocco, Kazakstan and China.

He feels the greatest skill to possess when working overseas is to be able to listen to the local people to understand them and how you might best help improve their situation.

 
 
Vegetable field, Tibet.

Vegetable field, Tibet.

What is Tactical crop management and how can it lift yields?

In this interview I am speaking with Dr Wal Anderson, a stalwart of Australian crop agronomy, who has been a research agronomist for nearly sixty years. He has worked across Australia and had many stints working for various overseas entities such as the Food & Agriculture Organisation. He has written more than 70 papers published in peer-reviewed, scientific journals, ten invited chapters in books and numerous extension articles for popular press and rural journals. He has also been a mentor for many early career researchers.

Although he has been retired since 2010, like many dedicated scientists he has kept up an interest in agriculture and politics.

Here we discuss a recently published review paper “Tactical Crop Management for improved productivity in winter dominant rainfall regions: a review”. Crop & Pasture Science, 2020, 71, 621–644
https://doi.org/10.1071/CP19315

Wal_Anderson_11-20.jpg
The hard part of weed management - getting people and groups on-board

Today’s guest is a Senior Research Associate in the School of Geography and Sustainable Communities at the University of Wollongong.

  • She has been researching the social side of weeds for over 10 years

  • Her PhD research looked at the way that farmers and other private land managers work together and with government to manage serrated tussock (Nassella trichotoma)

  • Research on weeds since then has been investigating the ways in which community groups are set up and run to manage weeds collectively and cooperatively

  • in 2020 she began working on a five-year project to try and get more comprehensive data diverse weed management community groups across south-east NSW

  • The questions the project is investigating includes:

    • How do communities collectively manage weeds?

    • Are collective approaches more effective than individual approaches?

    • What enables, constrains and sustains collective weed management?

    • How can governments support effective collective initiatives?

  • She is also currently leading the social science component of a GRDC Rural R&D for Profit project that is exploring ‘Area-Wide Management of Weeds’ in cropping systems


Bevan Addison tells us how to best use some of the new developments in herbicides
Bevvo.JPG

As we get into the update season and as people think about the trials they have seen, we need to apply some critical thinking to the information. There are lots of good products and each of them have their niche but we need to understand how they all work to try and make the best decisions. There will be a lot of information thrown at advisers and farmers over the next few years as there are a suite of new products coming through from heaps of companies.
Don’t forget herbicide resistance. Bevan also talks about why what you see in your paddock may not match to test results.

If you want to see Bevan leaning on a field day sign checkout -

Bevan Addison Field Day Season Top Tips

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55xBA0vi-eU


How did Giving a RATS - The Podcast start

Back in 2012 I started a newsletter called “Giving a RATS” as part of the extension program for a GRDC-funded herbicide resistance project.

That ran for 3 years and was great fun to do and was well regarded by those who received it as it covered a diverse range of topics related back to managing herbicide resistance.

People have been saying to me “What ever happened to that newsletter “Giving a RATS”?

So here we are with the medium of the moment, podcasting.

Takes me back to my time as District Agronomist at Griffith, with NSW Department of Primary Industries, or whatever iteration it was called in the early 1990s. I managed to get my hands on a professional reel-to-reel recorder and I set up a small studio and every Friday I produced a 3 minute radio piece on whatever was topical around the agronomy districts of Griffith, Hillston and Coleambally. I was ably assisted by my fellow District Agronomists Don McCaffery and John Whiteley.

We then had to rush it up the hill to the 2RG studio to be played during their Friday lunchtime ag hour. Those were the days, before all this digital technology. Mind you, digital is a lot easier to edit!

Topics I will cover will be wide and varied, and will be informative and entertaining and I will source my interviewees from around Australia, and hopefully some from overseas as well.

RATS_mike2.jpg

Happy listening.


Andrew StorrieRATS-podcast, 1