With the cattle, it is slightly different. They can be made to eat slightly more of the stalky material, and trample what they don’t want onto the soil surface. This does go against convention, but there are two main reasons why it is a good idea.
Firstly, if we leave a cover of grass behind, trampled on to the soil, or not, it helps to slow the raindrops down and keep them on the land, so the water can infiltrate down into the soil. As we are in summer, where moisture can be limiting, that is where I want it.
Secondly, if it doesn’t rain, the cover of grass helps to keep the soil covered, maintaining a microclimate near the soil surface, keeping the moisture down in or near the soil. I do not want it evaporating away.
Our weather patterns seem to be more extreme in all ways. Hotter and when the wet comes, it is often heavy downpours. In both these instances, more cover on the soil is a good thing. Not to mention the flowers, seeds and habitat it provides for the other organisms that live on our farm. Worms, beetles, invertebrates, small mammals, birds and everything else that lives here.
I write about agriculture and the tag line of this column is regenerative agriculture. It is a much misused and occasionally lambasted phrase, so probably the best word for what we're trying to do is agricology. We're trying to improve our soil, our land, and our farm ecosystem by growing more roots and putting more carbon into the soil. And the only way we can do that is by growing taller plants above the ground.
From the photos you may well see the amount of grass I am leaving behind. Sometimes I try to leave a bit more and sometimes
a bit less. There is no right answer, everyday is different, so I am hoping that experimenting with different residual amounts left behind will help me decide what works best here.
In other news I had a good couple of days helping with the shearing at the Royal Three Counties Show and Herefordshire Young Farmers narrowly won the YFC section of the show, beating Gloucestershire and Worcestershire. It is a really fun few days and so rewarding to see how well all the members do, especially the ones from my county and my club.
After all the talk of leaving residuals, we are making silage today, so I am heading out to get ready for that. The catchy weather is proving tricky to navigate. We can snatch silage between the showers, but we need some more settled weather to make some hay. Just as long as it doesn’t clash with my holiday!
Go well. Rich
rich@risburycourt.com
83
Regenerative Farming
LIVE24-SEVEN.COM
BUSINESS ON THE FARM
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