Savory presentation

[grassfarmer]

I know I've posted similar before but thought this
presentation by Allan Savory was worth posting and
taking the time to watch.

http://vimeo.com/8239427

A central theme "Humanities future hangs on a
slender thread - learning how to manage livestock to
address biodiversity loss/desertification/climate
change"

An interesting little comment right at the start
challenged my thinking "If we had never discovered
fossil fuels we would still be facing climate change
brought about by humans"

[wd40]

If the polar ice caps are melting at such an alarming rate; why aren't our shore lines flooding inland and our harbors from 200 yrs ago flooded? da

[grassfarmer]

You haven't heard of places like London where the
rising water table is causing substantial problems?

[Happytrails]

We have been white for almost 5 months and could easily stay that way for another 40 days. If global warming could shorten this big sleep I have to be in favor of it. Unfortunately the big powers don't care what I or anyone else thinks.

[grassfarmer]

Reductionist thinking at its finest. Try watching the
video. More likely scenario is bigger rain
events/bigger snow events - but combined with more
severe droughts. Do you look forward to more severe
drought in your part of the world HT?
I sure don't and I'm starting off with way more
precipitation than your area.

[cpallett]

Excellent talk.

I had a long chat with the former president of the PEI Cattle Producers yesterday. She told me that the number of farms with cattle in PEI has fallen by about 35% since pre-BSE days, which is pretty much the national average.

A lot of potato producers used to keep cattle for the benefits the manure provided to the potato fields. Many of these potato producers have gotten out of cattle and moved to chemical fertilizers. These same growers are now finding that their soil structure is failing and their yields are dropping.

Ploughing in alfalfa is apparently not good enough. As she told me, her neighbours forgot about the importance of the microbiological biodiversity that manure brings to the soil.

Plus que ca change, plus que c'est la meme chose. In PEI no less!

[rkaiser]

Yes - an awesome presentation GF. One challenge seems to be that our friends at Monsanto and such are using the "don't bare the soil" speach to promote the use of herbicides and our wonderful glyphosate on crop land as well.

I almost wonder if this is not part of the problem in parts of Saskatchewan and Manitoba these days where too much moisture is not allowing seeding to occur. Killing off life in the soil with chemicals may actually be having a similar and dangerously opposite affect in these areas that can not abosorb moisture. Chem cropping in dry areas is an obvious problem where more and more rain or irrigation is needed to supply the moisture needs of cereal crops, but is it also causing problems in these overly moist areas?

Between Savory and Dr. Huber and his exposition of glyphosate, I think we have the chance to wake up.

As grassroots producers, we can not only save human life, but save the life of the planet as well. Just need to do a better job of marketing our products and stop leaving it in the hands of those who promote reductionist, "anti life" behaviour.

[Happytrails]

Sorry, can't do the cool-aid guys. Do I believe one stuffed shirt or the evidence of 20 failed civilizations?

Not to engage in this sort of puffery but at present we have over 7 BILLION people on this earth who (whom?) almost all are living better than their parents. But the sky is falling.

[grassfarmer]

Not sure I follow what you are saying Randy. The use
of zero-till technology has certainly increased
chemical use but it also conserves considerable
moisture and keeps more litter on the soil so relative
to the old conventional farming no-till and chemicals
are probably less harmful than plows and discs.
Of course it isn't sustainable without livestock on the
land. I really noticed that driving down through
northern Montana in August where it is all winter
wheat/barley and chem fallow. Mile after mile and
you never see an animal, no songbirds just sterile,
desolate landscape.
I think people are waking up though, even my
Hutterite neighbours are looking for ways to park
their sprayer after hearing Don Huber. Maybe a new
age of enlightenment is slowly spreading across the
land?

[gaucho]

Randy its the fact that continuous
cropping with annual only root so far
and if you do not have plants that root
deep there is no mechanism for the water
to infiltrate at deep levels...
perennial plants root deep and if you
ever look at overgrazed and well grazed
pastures after rain storm you will see
that overgrazed pool water and well
grazed pastures suck it up..Sask /
manitoba land has been continuously
cropped with nothing to break the
hardpan and allow after to infiltrate

[grassfarmer]

And they have had some exceptional moisture levels
in some cases, levels that only a few people managing
grass really well would be able to handle. Most of the
pasture in my area can't handle a 2 inch rain.
When you see the improvement Savory achieves in
Africa you realise just how bad our management is on
average in a much more forgiving environment.

[rkaiser]

deep roots yes. but how about the devastation caused on the surface by the good old liquid nitrogen micro organism genocide, or the pesticides and hebicides pumped on the land. the soil used to be alive. Savory is suggesting cow manure to replenish bugs. how are we going to replenish bugs on grain land? yes trash, but we may have to re introduce life as well.

[rkaiser]

We do have a chance to make things better than the predicted "shorter" life expedency of our childern Happy Trails. Sky is not falling but we do have a thing called responsibility.

[smcgrath76]

I would agree with Gaucho and GF. We
see heavy rains here disappear almost
immediately and our place "looks dry"
compared to others. In periods of
extended drought our place looks great,
and if you really go digging the soil is
more moderate temperature, moister
deeper longer and releases the moisture
more slowly. As well the colour is a
lot darker than the annual cropped
stuff. I think we need the livestock
aspect to generate
decomposition/nutrient cycling, but I
also know that we could easily double
our cattle numbers on the same land base
we have today if we used a bit of
management.

[Happytrails]

Randy I am all for responsibility and agree with a lot of the good land stewardship ideas put forward here. However in my view predictions are just hot air unless they are based on historical observations. Our life expectancy today is higher than it has ever been. Who is to say if or when it will go down and why?