PASTURE-BASED DAIRY: THE PERFECT OPPORTUNITY TO BECOME REGENERATIVE
Lately I have become increasingly frustrated with landowners and growers who are making no effort to improve their farming practices. In my naivety I have been surprised and appalled to have seen many tilled fields recently – have these people not heard of no-till or regenerative agriculture?!
But I need to bring myself back down to earth, especially since dogmatism will not get us anywhere, and that works both ways. The truth is that there are many farmers who are hesitant to make any changes to their operation; they are too scared to take risks, they have a lot of debt, perhaps there is no succession plan for the business, there are little to no incentives, not to mention the red tape that involves becoming a certified regenerative or organic enterprise.
It cannot be left to farmers alone to make more environmentally friendly and healthier choices regarding their businesses when the companies they supply, and consumers are not willing to reward growers for these changes by paying a higher price for a superior product. Farmers face many challenges daily, and I understand that taking round-up off the table may not be an option right now. There is so much that needs to change in the industry - a story for another day.
However, there are some operations that are already at an advantage to making better choices; enter pasture-based dairy. To succeed in a pasture-based system, forage use must be optimised, the animals need to be eating a diet predominantly made up of grass, supplemented with feed. So, the point of these operations is to feed animals mostly grass – yay to people feeding ruminants the food they were born to eat!
Now, there are many pasture-based dairy farmers that have made some of these changes already – mixed pasture is becoming increasingly popular, however, making one change over five years is not enough, and there are still many pasture-based dairies that are completely conventional and favour high yields at any cost.
Here are four minor changes pasture-based dairy farms should look at making:
Diversity is Key.
Instead of only planting a single grass variety (ryegrass) or various grass-only species, plant a mixture containing varied species as well as different plant families or functional groups. For example, one could plant a mix consisting of the following five plant families:
· Chicory – Asteraceae
· Plantain – Plantaginaceae
· Rye grass – Poaceae
· Clover/lucerne/vetch - Fabaceae
· Forage radish/turnip - Brassicaceae.
Keeping soil covered with plants and increasing plant diversity increases the microbial diversity and activity in the soil, the more diverse the microbial community is, the better it can support the needs of plants, thus, increasing diversity also increases plant biomass and photosynthesis. Whilst providing animals with a more diverse and healthy diet which is important for their microbiomes and overall health too.
Less Fert is More.
This point goes hand-in-hand with the first one - decrease the use of synthetic fertiliser, especially nitrogen, after increasing plant diversity. Use an organic form of nitrogen applied as a foliar spray rather than applying a synthetic form of nitrogen (urea) directly to the soil, or with the seed, which can inhibit healthy root formation.
Dr Christine Jones’ work on The Nitrogen Solution has found that simply by increasing plant diversity to as little as four different functional groups, one can decrease nitrogen and phosphorus applications – weaning off the nitrogen gradually over a three-year period. Jones recommends decreasing N by 20% in the first year, followed by a further decrease of 30% in the second year and 50% in year three.
Why does this work? As mentioned above, plant cover and plant diversity support soil microbial life, restoring the interactions between plants and soil microorganisms is principal to producing healthy plants, building soil, and sequestering carbon. One does not need to plant legumes to fix nitrogen in the soil! Free-living nitrogen-fixing bacteria form relationships with all plants. Decreasing synthetic fertiliser applications leads to an increase in the number of free-living nitrogen-fixing bacteria in the soil; when a plant needs nitrogen it sends signals to nitrogen-fixing bacteria to produce nitrogen, this nitrogen is provided in an organic form as and when the plant needs it. When plants receive synthetic nitrogen, they do not send these signals to the bacteria and as a result the bacteria die, destroying this natural cycle.
Listen to your weeds.
Do you have a weed issue? Have you paid attention to what weeds are growing, when, and in which areas? What has changed in that area, has the ground been disturbed lately? How regularly are you spraying herbicide and is this an annual recurring problem? What is your nutrition like – when last did you do a sap analysis or leaf tissue test? Weeds grow for a reason, they are nature’s way of keeping the soil covered and amending a problem. Spraying weeds does not fix this problem and the following year the same weeds will be back. Weeds are extraordinary plants, they are adapters and survivors – herbicide resistance is one of the biggest issues facing agriculture today and it is a problem we have created.
Mowing is a great weed management tool that is underutilised, allowing the weeds to grow, and mowing them before they go to seed means that they could sort out the problem they are trying to fix, and after a while they will no longer come back.
Before you dismiss this, have you tried it? If you’ve tried it, how long did you try it for? Weeds will seldom disappear after one season, commit an area to mowing and not spraying for at least 3 years. It may cost more to mow in the short term but spraying annually is costing you much more overall especially when it comes to soil health.
Experiment.
That piece of land in the corner no one ever notices could be your laboratory, start small but just start. You need to be testing and trialling, do not just take another’s word for it, if something piques your interest and if everyone says it just won’t work, why not try it out anyway. Your operation is unique, what does not work for others may well work for your farm so go against the status quo and remember to record your observations. It is not going to cost a lot to run a trial, and the results will surprise you and may end up saving you in the long run; anecdotal evidence is still evidence!
I understand that every operation is different, the cows are different, the conditions are different. However, the changes mentioned above could easily be applied to any operation. The main thing is that farmers need to be experimenting, even if it is half a hectare of your least productive land - trial it!
* The views expressed in these blog posts are my own, they are my opinion, and my opinion does and may change, discussion and opposing views are welcome. The point of this is to start a conversation about issues facing regenerative agriculture in our country and to hopefully educate those who do not know about regenerative agriculture.
