At this time of year, on the cusp of spring, much of the NSW Central West is grazed as closely as a bowling green. “Allendale”, though, is a landscape lumpy with green-shooting grass tussocks. Some of these paddocks host up to 59 species of plants in their pastures, including 15 natives. Fifteen years ago, many paddocks carried just one species: a cereal or oilseed crop.
Beneath the ground, over the same period, soil organic carbon levels have lifted from 1-1.6 per cent to more than 3.5pc. Above ground, at last count, 125 bird species inhabit the grasslands and the extensive patches of bushland which have been planted.
These statistics seldom feature in any regular estimate of farm productivity: most would prefer to calculate “Allendale’s” stocking rate ~ currently 620 breeding cows on 700 ha. Another 15% of the property has been planted to bushland.
Fertiliser and chemical haven’t been part of “Allendale’s” budget for 15 years. Instead, production efficiency has been sustained through longer recovery times for pastures to capture an increasing share of free sunlight, while better using rainfall. Instead of fertilising to maintain a stocking rate, they stock to the carrying capacity of each season.
These changes reflect the shifting responsibility for farm productivity from people to nature. As the owners put it: “Instead of trying to bend nature to our will, we’re trying to fit in with the way the world works”.
Natural systems are always in flux. Modern agriculture attempts to minimise nature’s changeability with technology to make production more reliable and consistent. Instead of technology, biodiversity is employed. In nature, the greater the level of biodiversity the more stable, productive and efficient the ecosystem.
Read more: Productivity: it’s only natural
Source: The Land
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