What a gorgeous day to start a new season. New hopes, new dreams … the planting of food for the animals in winter. Starting the process of “storing our nuts” for winter. And how planting has changed over the years ….
A long long time ago …. planting meant preparing the perfect seed bed so that each and every seed could develop and grow to be a strong plant (in our case a maize plant). This meant 3 or 4 passes over the soil by machine (which mean diesel, repairs and Maintenance and labour) to turn and mix the soil. Mix in any fertilizer applied, mix in any weeds that have grown ….
But in hindsight … with lots of research, trials and progressive farming methods, many of the farmers are turning to regenerative farming and no-till or at least minimal -till. Till is short for tillage which is the working over of the soil …
No-till has many benefits but like all good things takes a little time. The basic benefit is that with no till, there is no changing of the soil structure on a molecular level … meaning less soil erosion, less carbon release, more water retention and …. no chopping up of earthworms .
This method has been used by various civilisations dating back well over 10 000 years and was only challenged by the agricultural revolution in Europe during the 18th and early19th century.
A lovely day to start planting … Gatting doing an inspections …
No-till planting so straight into the crop residue from last season (in our case a green feed mix of oats and rye grass)…. with lovely thunderstorm clouds building up in the background.
Pink Farm Chick 