NSF in SA

[duane]

Natural sequence farming to be trialled in SA
By Luke Fitzgerald

Thursday, 06/07/2006 from http://www.abc.net.au/rural/sa/content/ ... 680514.htm

More than 300 people converged onto Baldina Station east of Burra to hear the ideas of land management expert Peter Andrews. Mr Andrews has become well known across the country for his concept of Natural sequence farming which looks at how to retain water and nutrients in the landscape to help revegetate land back to its natural state.

Peter Dunn, cropping and livestock farmer from Tarlee was one of many who travelled from all over the state to hear Peter Andrews's ideas. "Well I think there're new ideas in it. I think the real benefit is it's making people think. There's a lot to be learnt, there's a lot to we can do I think, and for some of us it's reinforcing things that we're already doing ourselves; making us think we're doing things right ".

Mr Andrews was once cast as a radical because his ideas can include encouraging weed growth in the rehabilitation process. The Natural Sequence Farming now has wide appeal among many scientists and land managers.

Owner of Baldina Station Tony Barker, says Mr Andrews was invited to see if he could help improve the property. "Well over recent years we've been getting more and more concerned that the land is not regenerating. We have reports of it carrying a lot more stock in the past and being in a lot better health so we're wondering if we could restore that".

However Baldina Station is just east of the famous Goyder Line, in the 200 millimetre rainfall zone. Many people questioned whether this area has ever had fertile soil and regular water supplies.

Mr Barker's son David says until the 1950's Baldina Creek ran regularly and believes Peter Andrews ideas can work on the station." I don't believe it was always dry and lacking nutrients, and Peter assures me that his theories will work anywhere in Australia it's just a matter of time, it's all about the water an retaining that water and getting it into plant matter where it will create fertility in your soil".

But what is Natural Sequence Farming and where did its theory originate? Peter Andrews says it's simple. "Very simply, plants ran this continent. There were no hard footed animals and so nothing interfered with the ability of plants to alter the flow of water. So we've changed the way the vegetation and the water flows through our landscape. We actually don't get the return for the volume of water; too much of it is wasted".

Former sheep farmer and now Catholic parish priest Father Laurie Quinn agrees with the concept. He says wasted water is exactly the reason the landscape is now in such poor condition. "I think with sheep, rabbits and farming, we have taken the surface off the land and compared with pre-white man days, when there would have been a thick mat of vegetation on the country-side, the kangaroos couldn't eat it all, so all the rain that fell soaked in and stayed there because this mat of vegetation didn't allow it to evaporate away and eventually it become like a saturated sponge.

"Now with the best of intentions on the part of everybody trying to make a living, that's all been turned around and too much water runs off, and we've drained a lot of water out of the soil and the underground for the best of reasons; and we're paying the price for that now".

However like any rehabilitation project, Peter Andrews says the changes will take time, patience and the all important factor, rain.

In this report: Peter Andrews, the developer of Natural Sequence Farming; Peter Dunn, cropping and livestock farmer from Tarlee; Tony and David Barker, Baldina Station.

[Ian James]

I want to set up a NSF chapter in WA. More specifically on the Mortlock catchment. This drains into the Avon catchment and from there into the Swan and through Perth.
I have begun my own project on my farm and this farm catchment flows into the nearby Mortlock river.
The Mortlock is not a river by usual standards. It more accurately resembles those descriptions given in Peter's book. To the average observer it is just a salty vally full of salt bush and no good for anything apart from the odd flood when it actually spreads over the plane.
This river, catchment is just begging for help. So too are those farmers that live with in the catchment, something in the order of 1000's through 7 shire boundries. The scale is huge and not something to be tackled without substantial aid.
I propose that every farmer begin working in his own backyard as I am to learn and to trial and to share the knowlege gained and in that way we would togerther affect the health of this great catchment to such a point that when ever work did begin on the main floodplain the health of the system may already be on the improve and as such make our success of such a huge undertaking much more possible

[duane]

People out there who want to start a Local Chapter of the Natural Sequence Association can contact me for all the details and a starter kit.

Contact duane@nsfarming.com
and visit the website www.naturalsequenceassociation.org.au