 One year since minimum till and sowing, the turnips have been eaten and the mixed pasture is flourishing.preview.JPG "One year since minimum till and sowing, the turnips have been eaten and the mixed pasture is flourishing.")
 Ungrazed mixed sward behind the fence line.preview.JPG "Ungrazed mixed sward behind the fence line.")
 Two years since sowing with minimum till.preview.JPG "Two years since sowing with minimum till.")
 Spring time minimum till in action.preview.JPG "Spring time minimum till in action.")
 - Germination ten days after sowing.preview.JPG "Germination ten days after sowing.")
Mike Long and Kathleen Hughes-Long (owners), Nick and Gerrie Cole (sharemilkers), Eketahuna, longfarm [at] inspire [dot] net [dot] nz
Mike and Kathleen, and sharemilkers Nick and Gerrie, farm 160 cows on 80 ha in the high rainfall headwaters of the Mangatainoka river. They have just achieved organic certification and their story about less milk fever and fewer metabolic problems thanks to the changes in soil health and feed diversity echo the experience of other organic dairy farmers (see Moss, Collins, Harris).
The reason for my visit was to check out their solution to the issue of minimum soil cultivation (see Ward and Reynolds/McGill), but in the absence of herbicides. They have pioneered a minimum till system on the advice of Bill Quinn, organics consultant from Paeroa. (Bill's name pops up frequently among the farmers I have met as a source of good advice on organics.)
The Longs need to grow turnips for supplementary feed and renew pastures with a wider range of species. They have found that cows break fed on pure turnips "put a lot of milk in the vat, but get very thin themselves." In November the turnips are sown in a mix of plantain, chicory, rocket, lotus, and clover, over a different 4-5 hectares each year. The existing pasture is not destroyed, but ripped with a spring tine cultivator in 4-5 passes. The soil is not inverted, but the turf is cut off from its roots and shaken somewhat free of soil, disturbing only the top 50-100mm. Sunny weather is ideal, and reduces the number of passes needed as the grass dries out quite quickly, leaving a mulch that protects the soil.
The seed is sown with 1 tonne lime/ha a few days later. Some of the old sward remains and grows, but less quickly than the new plants which dominate. The paddocks are break fed from March, and after the cows leave there is no need to go back to cultivate again or reseed. The turnips grow taller and are eaten first, the other plants come away again quickly and are ready for grazing again after the 40 day rotation.
One advantage is that there are no springtails, a pest in pure turnip paddocks - Mike assumes they can't find the turnips easily among the range of other scents.
We looked at ground just ripped, ground sown ten days ago, and paddocks sown a year and two years earlier, which have been rotationally grazed since. The results are obvious in the photos.
Nick is very enthusiastic about the effects on the health of the cows and the sheer quantity of feed this system produces, compared to the plain ryegrass pasture in the other paddocks. Eventually every paddock will be resown this way.
This seems a good alternative to ploughing for renewal of pastures in an organic system. I commented that it probably wouldn't be adequate to establish a field of wheat, but Mike is adamant that if he was growing wheat he would do it this way and adapt the system as he went. It will be up to others to try that!
Listen to a conversation between this farmer and Jeanette
