On the farm – Beware green drought

Well, it’s with some relief that we’ve seen a smidgeon of moisture this past week, and the temperatures have blessedly fallen to a more autumnal feel. Enough to see signs of life in our grey paddocks as a green buzz-cut appears and seeds germinate in anticipation of more. The past two months have delivered scarcely 12mm into the rain gauge, as we’ve managed to miss out on most of the fleeting showers that fell across the region. However, it never ceases to amaze me how well stock do on the highly-concentrated feed left in the paddocks, so we are entering the autumn ‘tup’ in not too bad shape.

Unfortunately, it can often be early autumn that is hardest to manage as we enter a “green drought”. It can look okay, but there’s not much to eat out there. This is when stored feed-stocks come into their own, if you have any left. Otherwise, it’s buy in feed or sell more stock – which is hard in a market depressed by a pandemic. Folk are going into even more debt just to get through.

So the rams went out this week for their annual ‘hurrah’, or tupping season. Eagerly anticipated, as attested by the loud clunks in the ram paddocks as they butt heads to see who takes the honours. Some of my chaps have large horns and so put on particularly spectacular displays of masculine virility, backing up and then coming together with the force of two steam trains, much like the bighorn sheep of the Rocky Mountains. We can only hope more autumn rains allow them to maintain some of their magnificence over the coming gruelling weeks.

In the meantime, down in our regenerated soils, fungal hyphae tangle through 25,000km per square metre of soil, doing their damnedest to deliver not only water but concentrated minerals and trace elements to the plants still feeding the livestock in our depleted paddocks. I kid you not, I have this on authority from esteemed soil microbiologist Walter Jehne. This is what is keeping plants healthy through our more frequent droughts, and what will bring recovery so much quicker to our rain-starved paddocks when it does finally arrive. Walter had many other fascinating insights into how to rehydrate our soils, which you can listen to here:
anchor.fm/tangled/episodes/9-Walter-Jehne–Rebuilding-the-Earths-Soil-Sponge-e4majh

Bev Trowbridge