cattle – ReStory

Meijer’s Rust Restoration

April 7, 2021October 11, 2021 admin cattle, dead soil, depleted soil, irrigation, Oudtshoorn, pasture

In 2010, Barry Meijer returned from the United States where he had lived for the last 35 years. He’d had great memories of his time in the army at Oudtshoorn so he decided to buy a farm there. Barry had grown up on a farm near Eshowe and, while running his garden services business in California, he had done some sideline farming of oats and barley, so he knew a little about farming. When he started farming at Meijer’s Rust in Meiringspoort near the town of De Rust he continued what had been done there before and if he needed any advice, he asked the neighbours.

General Land and food

Cranburn Farm – Regenerative Sugar Farming

December 13, 2019January 15, 2021 admin cattle, cover crops, KwaZulu-Natal, soil health, sugar cane, tillage

After more than 100 years of tillage, the sugarcane fields of Cranburn Farm’s soil organic carbon is at healthy levels. Ever since the ground was first turned the soil carbon levels of KwaZulu-Natal’s sugar cane fields have plummeted. Despite the fact that sugarcane is a perennial crop and the fields don’t have to be ploughed every year, the extensive tilling work done every ten or so years when then crop is replanted results in considerable carbon oxidation into the atmosphere. Other management practices that contribute to further carbon oxidation from the soils include burning of the trash (dead leaves) before a field is cut and the application of synthetic fertilisers.

General

Wisdom of the Ages

December 1, 2022December 1, 2022 admin

Two weeks ago the man who some describe as a founding father of Regenerative Agriculture was in South Africa giving a number of Master Classes. It was a privilege to sit for two days and listen to a man who has a global following but doesn’t want to be guru; who has enormous experience but admits he doesn’t know all the answers; who doesn’t believe that his way is the only way, but who does want to share his experience; who shared his belief of how farming should be a marriage with nature, approached as one approaches a responsive lover, not as a warrior engages with an enemy.

General