Innovations - Crop Rotations and No-Till Farming

Crop Rotations:

Crop rotation, as stated by the Merriam Webster dictionary, is the practise of growing different crops in succession on the same land, chiefly to preserve the productive capacity of the soil. This works by planting crops in a regular sequence so that the leaching of the soil by a crop of one kind of nutrient is followed by a crop that returned that nutrient to the soil.  A typical scheme selects rotation crops from three main classifications: cultivated row crops (such as corn and potatoes), close growing grains (oats or wheat) and sod forming or resting crops, which are crops used to prevent erosion during the years in between (for example clovers). 

Working hard to make some designs for Missy Moo

When crops are planted in the same field year after year, the field's soil will become depleted of nutrients. For example,  a field of carrots will deplete from the soil 1.3 – 2% of its weight in nitrogen, 0.13 – 0.3% in phosphorous and 1 – 2% in potassium and other needed minerals.

When the crop is removed, the balance of soil nutrients is disturbed. To restore the soil’s fertility after it has been cropped for any length of time, the missing nutrients have to be replaced with either plant rotations or chemical fertilisers. Crop rotation is used on organic farms, preventing farmers from having to use conventional pesticides and chemicals on their crops.

Crop rotation was practised in Ancient Roman, African and Asian cultures. During the Middle Ages in Europe, a three-year crop rotation was practised by farmers. In the 18th century, British agriculturalist, Charles Townsend aided the European agricultural revolution by popularising a four year crop rotation. Crop rotation has been used for many years and organic farming practises are on the rise. 

No-Till Farming:
No-till farming, also known as zero tillage, direct planting or pasture cropping, is a way of growing crops each year without unsettling the soil through tillage. It is an agricultural technique where the amount of water and nutrients in the soil are increased. It also reduces erosion which offers many benefits to the farmers.

Tilling was mainly used through the earlier years of farming and was used to remove weeds, shape the soil into rows for crop plants and furrows for irrigation.

The process of no-tillage farming is a more recent innovation in the farming industry.By using this method, crop residues and other natural services are preserved on the soil's surface and sowing or fertilising is done with the least amount of soil disturbance.

For the no-tillage farming process to be successful, it needs to be acted in a different way each time, depending on the ever-changing environment. Residue, equipment, crop rotations, water, weeds, disease, pests and fertiliser management are just a few of the many aspects of farming that change when using the method of no-till farming.

No-tillage raises the amount of life in and on the soil; however it may need the use of herbicide. Yet some farmers, who prefer to use a chemical-free management practise, frequently use normal, non-dyed ridged cardboard for use on seed-beds and vegetable areas.

No-tillage farming has had a significant impact on the modern world. It can be more cost-effective as it reduces the number of employees and bigger profits can be made. It reduces fuel and machinery costs which help to reduce pollution and also the cost of irrigation. It can increase the end result and quantity, because of higher water infiltration and storage capacity and can reduce erosion.

New equipment such as seed drills can be costly but farmers can sell their ploughs to cover the expense. With no tillage farming there is a need to cover crops in order to control the growth of weeds and to increase nutrients. Rollers, crimpers and choppers can be used to cover crops so that the newly planted crops can get enough water, light and nutrients.

Please see the below video for a demonstration of Crop Rotations and No-till Farming, courtesy of SUNUP TV:

We love our Aussie Farmers!

Complusory Blog Post 1 - Conclusion

Compulsory Blog Post 1 requires us to research and discuss agricultural innovations such as NILS, crop rotations and biotechnology. Instead of having all of the entries as one long blog post, we decided to spilt them into separate blog entries. We also included many different You tube videos that provided further explanation on the innovation. However, in this blog entry we would like to summarise everything that our class has learnt about agricultural innovations during this study.

Our class has learnt a lot about innovations in the agricultural industry and has also learnt about some different types of innovations. We have also discussed and justified which innovations are the most important for the Australian agriculture industry. Our students believe that the topic for a blog post for other students that do not associate farming with innovation or research could be: “Why Farmers Are Important To YOU!”, “The Changes That Farmers Have Made In YOUR Life”, and finally “A Changing Industry- How YOU Can Change The World”.

In conclusion, the key points that we have discussed include:

•  Innovations developed by farmers that have changed their lives (i.e. the toaster). 
• How the agriculture industry is always changing and developing new innovations. 
• That failure is important because it teaches us to persist in the face of adversity.
• Why things such as GPS systems and fabric innovations are important on a global scale.

We love our Aussie Farmers!

Compulsory Blog Post 2

Compulsory Blog Post 2:

Are agricultural innovation, efficiency gains and intensification important for our quality of life?

In our classes we separated into different groups and discussed the following issues facing Australian farmers.

 1: Why agricultural innovation, efficiency gains and intensification are important for our quality of  life.

One discussion group recommended that farmers utilise new technology.

Such technology could involve:

a)      GPS Technology: This would allow farmers to plant fertilise or spray exactly where required.

b)      Telemetry systems: This would allow farmers to remotely control watering systems and even allow individual animals to receive their exact food requirements at a certain time.

c)       Hormone Growth Promotants: (HGPS) These chemicals would increase growth and size which would in turn increase productivity and financial returns.

2 .Give students an insight into the challenges that farmers face to produce affordable, nutritious, ethically produced food and fibre that provides a reasonable return for them.

Cattle farmer, Kylie Stretton made the following statement:

‘Australia is very lucky that lots of us have never known extremely hard times or poverty, so we really take our food for granted. I think that supermarkets selling fresh food at cheap prices make people value it less. And if they value our beautiful fresh food less and take it for granted, then they take for granted the people that produce it.’

The groups discussed Mrs Stretton statement and the following key thoughts were the results:

a)      Lack of support and understanding of farming from the wider community.  For example, consumers want to pay $1 a litre for milk when the farmers can’t survive on such a small profit margin. While $1 per litre milk may seem like a great deal to most consumers, milk being sold for so little is causing great harm to the nation’s dairy farmers. Because of milk price wars, many Australian farmers are only receiving 11 cents per litre for their milk. If this injustice continues to happen, Australia will not have any dairy farmers left. We will be forced to import milk from overseas.

b)      Lack of new innovations in the farming industry, as farmers are bound by expensive testing procedures and regulations which make the introduction of new practises are lengthy and costly.

c)       There is a massive shortage of the next generation of farmers.

d)      Challenges from urban interfaces with new subdivisions taking over farmland.

e)      Isolation in rural areas with no incentives for new farmers to move so far from urban areas.

Thus, the challenge for future generations is to produce more food from less land or to increase the value of the goods they produce.

3. Ethical food production that is good for people, animals and the planet.

Our discussion groups looked at the idea of- “Being Eco-Friendly- what does that mean in today’s society?”

 Being eco-friendly allows producers to mark their products with eco-friendly labels, which in turn enables consumers to be more aware and conscious of what they are buying, even if the product ultimately costs them more money. This can give the producer an edge over their competition, particularly in the age of global warming and the trendy notion of ‘going green’.  As education and awareness increases, consumers are becoming more conscious of animal rights and welfare, and health and environmental issues. If agricultural practises and products are more and more ‘eco-friendly’, long term sustainability will become a reality.

A dwarf (short) variety of wheat was developed that was high yielding and had good disease resistance. This meant that in one unit area there was more wheat being produced. This links in with efficiency, as it takes less land to produce a greater volume of wheat. Efficiency gains can also relate to efficiencies in production. Agriculture can be labour intensive (require lots of people), this can be expensive especially when labour is expensive, as it is in Australia. Automation of process with machinery can help in these efficiencies. In conclusion, the "green revolution" was an outstanding agricultural breeding innovation.

As the population grows and there is less fertile land to farm on agricultural inefficiencies, or another "green revolution" will be important in ensuring food safety, and a quality standard of living.

4. Scenario: Feedback from Year 8 and Year 10 Students

The following scenario was discussed by year 8 and 10 students.

‘What opportunities and threats do Bill and Bess face to realise their dream while continuing to feed 600+ people? ‘     

OPPORTUNITIES

·         Learning new, innovative farming practises

·         Increased profit possibilities to further develop their farm

·         Growth potential and more exposure

·         Being able to export animals/ plants more easily- highway next door!

·         Easier access to infrastructure - closer to large urban centers

THREATS

·         Environmental regulations + restrictions whilst trying new farming practises

·         Pollution from developing  infrastructure , detrimental to crops e.g. Highways

·         Housing development, affecting animals through big construction- noise. Still births and breeding + productivity problems for animals- especially sheep and goats

·         Time of unproductivity due to upgrading farming practises and rezoning land.

·         Increase of pests + domesticated/wild animals from houses invading  the farm, ruining crops and harming farm animals

Bill and Bess face many opportunities and threats that they will have to overcome in their situation. In order to realise their dream, whilst continuing to feed 600+ people, they will have to overcome several potential political, social and environmental problems. We would first suggest to Bill and Bess to appeal to the department of main roads to reconsider and re-evaluate the construction of this new highway on Bill and Bess’ land.  While the public may see this new highway as a great new opportunity for the economy, for transportation and for a better quality of life, the implications of destroying Y amount of land will be forever impact agricultural innovation and intensification for the entire world.

If Y amount of land is destroyed, Bill and Bess’ remaining farm land may become contaminated with oil, gases and rubbish. This could also cause problems with food/fibre production as Bill and Bess will have less land to farm on – meaning less food is produced. There may not be enough food produced to feed x amount of the population.

The second issue Bill and Bess are facing is whether to sell their remaining farm land for housing development. The strengths of this proposition for Bill and Bess include an easy and well-funded retirement, more high density houses being available to Australia’s population, and knowing their future is secure and they will not have to face financial uncertainty ever again.

The weaknesses of this proposition to sell x amount of land for housing development include a lack of understanding between Bill and Bess (our Australian farmers) and the rest of the population. While many people identify and understand that without farmers we would struggle to survive as they provide so many of our basic human needs, there is a huge lack of understanding between farmers and the rest of the population. This situation tells us that there already is a lack of understanding between:

1.      The department of main roads

2.      Housing development companies

3.      The general Australian population

5. Focus Questions: How can Bill and Bess continue farming and maintain a succession plan for their family of 1.8 children and allow their daughter to continue to run the business when they retire?

Year 10 brainstorming results were as follows:

Bill and Bess should-

a)       Use single shire mating groups assessed using single shire performance records and artificial insemination to secure and appraise the best genetics available. They will have a more efficient flock causing them to produce more products with less land.

b)       Maintain 90% ground cover using 50% perennial grass both native and exotic and 30% legumes. This increases land productivity. They should plant trees on the property because it will encourage native revegetation, which will in turn, overcome salinity and help the pastures to reach the full production potential as well as producing shade for their stock and decreasing their carbon footprint.

c)        Conduct regular soil testing to identify and address deficiencies by looking at regulating the soil. This will increase the quality of their wool.

d)      Regularly rotate sheep on their property around different grazing pastures, to avoid soil compaction and over-grazing.

e)      Invest in new technologies to increase agriculture innovation and productivity, such as GPS technology, NBN, etc.

f)       Become partners with their neighbours to ensure that their land is protected for future generations, to ensure sustainability of Australian produced agricultural products.

g)      Educate their neighbours and have a partnership to provide each other with mutual respect and possibly produce.

h)      For any industry to remain viable there must be continuous innovation and efficiency.  

Communities will face the problem of not just having enough food for a growing population, but there not being enough arable (land to successfully grow produce on) land. With urban sprawl areas close to the city that are being farmed and are being compromised. It makes more financial sense to develop the land than farm, looking at the inputs and outputs alone. 

(Many thanks go to Miss Joanne Young for her assistance in this blog entry)

We love our Aussie Farmers!

Compulsory Blog Post 3

Compulsory Blog Post 3:

Sustainable Food Consumption. How can we be a part of the solution?

What is hunger and how can we measure it?

Right now there are over ONE BILLION people suffering from chronic hunger.

One billion.

That’s hard to comprehend, right?

It's nearly 1 in 6 people worldwide. Imagine 1 in 6 people at school not having enough food. But our friends and teachers at school are OK, aren’t they? So, the hungry must be somewhere else…



Dom on the computer

There are two main ways of defining poverty. The World Bank considers a person to be in absolute poverty if his or her consumption or income level falls below a minimum level necessary to meet basic needs. Robert McNamara, the former President of the World Bank, described absolute or extreme poverty as "…a condition so limited by malnutrition, disease, and low life expectancy as to be beneath any reasonable definition of human decency." Poverty is defined as people whose income is less than a dollar a day.

So what does poverty have to do with hunger? Poverty is like a whirlpool- once you get stuck in it, it is very hard to get out of. And the faster and faster you spin, the more you start to hurt.

Poverty traps people in a downward spiral or cycle—a lack of food which leads to poor health, which leads to being unable to work, which leads to even greater poverty, and the cycle continues on and on, that is until someone steps in and starts to help, freeing the person from this dangerous and (life threatening) cycle.

There are two main ways of measuring poverty, all of which have been developed by geographers. The first is called the Human Development Index (HDI). The HDI  assesses three key areas of a person’s life, income (as measured by GDP per capita), life expectancy, and literacy and education levels.



Our whole school getting involved

The HDI takes into account so many different aspects of a person’s quality of life, so it is a very accurate measurement of a person’s standard of living. Therefore, it also measures a country's level of poverty.

The second way of measuring poverty is to collect data from all over the world and then compare it with poorer/richer countries. The statistics that geographer’s measure is called Development Indicators. Development Indicators measure things such as: access to fresh water, population per physician, seats in parliament held by women, internet use, type of government and the infant mortality rate. As I have identified previously, poverty = hunger so these development indicators show levels of poverty. Therefore, they also show which countries/areas are more prone to hunger.

Why are people hungry?

Every year hard-working, dedicated farmers work tirelessly to provide enough food for the entire world. There is enough food for every person in the world, no matter what age, sex, or race. So why isn’t this the case? Why do innocent children, not just in developing countries such as Africa, but here home in Australia, suffer every day from hunger and malnutrition? Why do rich countries wallow in wealth, yet developing countries struggle to feed even the rich?



Aimee and Mr Rea working hard

All of these questions can be answered with one answer: GLOBAL INEQUALITY. 

Food, funds, and resources are not spread evenly across the world with richer countries getting excess amounts, and poorer countries getting not enough.

In order to cure the world’s global inequality crisis we need to get to the base of the problem: WASTE. Waste by the wealthy, by the poor, by supermarkets, by production companies, by CONSUMERS. Over 4 million tonnes of food is wasted every single year in Australia. Research shows that over 1.2 million Australian’s do not have access to a safe and nutritious food supply.

While researching this topic, our class was astounded by the Art4Ag blog post, “A Culture of Waste”. Here Lynne Strong detailed the immense pressure our farmers are under to supply consumers' enormous amounts of food to cope with the amount of food that is wasted every day. The process of growing, processing, packing, transporting and finally delivering is an extremely difficult and long process. Not only does it take enormous amounts of energy to complete this process, because of consumers' rising standards, a lot of fresh produce is thrown away for commercial purposes. This means that if the fruit/vegetable is slightly dented or has a small spot on its skin, it has to be thrown away because it is not allowed to be sold for commercial purpose.

So when the produce is FINALLY delivered (or sold) to the consumer a considerable portion of the food usually isn’t even eaten and is instead thrown away.



Olivia, Sophia and Emma

So what does someone in Australia throwing away a bunch of bananas have to do with a child dying of malnutrition in Africa? Well as I mentioned before, there is enough food produced every year to feed the entire world yet not everyone gets enough to eat. The connection between the bananas being wasted in Australia to a child dying of malnutrition is that the bananas wasted here, may have saved the child in Africa from death. The issue is not that one bunch of bananas was wasted but is the fact this waste occurs every day, in many developed countries on an enormous scale.

But waste is simply one out of many factors that contributes to world hunger. Some other factors that contribute to this problem include: politics, war, drugs, violence, gangs, female and male inequality and finally, economics.

Connections between income, undernourishment, and food consumption

As mentioned previously, poverty is like a whirlpool and is directly related to a standard of living in a person’s life.

Using the above diagram as a guide, can you see the connection between incomes (money), undernourishment (hunger), food consumption (how much you can eat)?

What is the link between poverty and hunger?

Here is a connection between poverty, in the world we live in, and the hunger problems people are facing at this time. The link that connects these two together, revolve around the fact that when money is needed, but not available, there are consequences that are limiting people's ability to access food on a daily basis. 1.2 billion people live on less than a dollar a day, the absolute poverty level. Without money, there is a limited supply of food in these people's diet. Over 800 million people or one in every six, are malnourished, 200 million of whom are children. The facts are shocking but true, and it makes a lot of my friends, and myself, stop and think about what we are doing, as individuals.



"Yes! We got the wool bale on!"

What is the role of government in reducing hunger within a country?

The role of the government in reducing hunger within a country, is keeping track of the percentage of malnourished people, and organising something to be significant change to the statistics. The government has supported some organisations to reduce hunger and poverty, in developing countries. Over time, the percentage of malnourished people has dropped, significantly, but there is still an unacceptable percentage of people experiencing severe hunger. 

Although governments have kept with the Millennium Development Goals, there are Non-government organisations doing a great deal and making change. I wonder, why these NGOs are not being entirely supported by government, but I am focusing on what is the role of government in reducing hunger in a country. Things like reducing food waste, donating money to developing countries and endless works of organisations.

What is the role we can play in reducing food waste?

Food wastage is a problem we are facing around the world. Australia is such a lucky country! Each year farmers produce enough food to feed 60 million people. This is very good to hear, but with that, 4 million tonnes of food is wasted every year. This amount of food, could feed millions of Australians every day. This amount of food is wasted because we buy more than we consume.  The question is - what can we do about it? There are many ways we can play a role in reducing food wastage which will in turn reduce hunger problems including:

•             source reduction

•             feed malnourished people

•             feed animals

•             Industrial uses

•             composting

•             landfill / incineration

The simplest way of reducing food wastage, is simply by not buying unneeded supplies of food and to make sure we are not wasting the food we buy.

How can we as a country play a role in helping to reduce world hunger?

World hunger is a problem people are facing every day. The thought of people lying lifelessly on the ground, rivers of blood dripping down their feet and their stomachs growling like an earthquake is a very strong and heartbreaking thought, in which paralyses my mind in a state of sadness. We all live on food and water. Yes, there is exercise and all other factors, improving our health, but food and water is at the top of our list. I can’t imagine living without food and water, and thinking about the people facing hunger problems makes me think about what we as a country can do in helping to reduce world hunger.

Non-government organisations are out there, helping people build up strength to have those life opportunities that us Australians have. Donations have been and are being given throughout developing countries, but as these donations last for a while, there comes a point when there is a limited supply, again.

We love our Aussie Farmers!

Compulsory Blog Post 4

Compulsory Blog Post 4:

What Does It Take To Sustainably Feed And Clothe My Community For A Day?

Approximately 4,391,674 people live in Sydney alone! Shockingly, just in Sydney over 303, 726 kilos of pork is consumed every single day. In order to produce so much pork, over 10, 847 pigs are required every day to fulfil Sydney’s food consumption rate.  For more statistics please see below:

            






 

*This information was supplied to us by Art4Agriculture as apart of the Archibull Prize Program 2012. For more information please see: http://www.art4agriculture.com.au/

 According to the Australian Census in 2011, the Hills District had approximately 169,872 permanent residents and of this 169,872, there were around 83,986 males and 85,886 females. While researching this topic we were required to calculate how much produce/animals the Hills District consumes on a daily basis. According to the above information for the Hills District alone we consume approximately 22, 200 kilos of meat and livestock in one day. Of this 22, 200 kilos we require 347 beasts to fulfil our food consumption.  Please see below for more information on the different commodity groups.

Commodity Group	Kilograms consumed each day in Hills District	Produce/animals required
Pork	11,845 kgs	423 pigs
Horticulture	81,541 kgs	311,905 fruit & vegetables
Poultry	50,526 kgs	55,529 hens
Meat & Livestock	22,510 kgs	351 beasts
Dairy	70,875 kgs	15,215 dairy cows
Grains	27,032 kgs	1,230 loaves of bread
Bees	491 kgs honey	34,405,479 bees
Rice	6389 kgs	319,479,452 grains of rice
Cotton	72 bales = 16,413 kgs	1170 hectares of land
Aquaculture	0.66 kgs per person / per year

So… What Does Wool Have To Do With You?

Wool is such a diverse and amazing product. It has so many uses and is sustainable (which means it’s good for the planet) and is ethically produced (the animal is in no way harmed when sheared). It has a great ability to absorb moisture and is resistant to soiling. Wool is comfortable in a wide range of weather; cool in summer and warm in winter. Wool is soft, durable and safe, and is used for many different products besides clothing. This includes blankets, horse rugs, saddle cloths, carpeting, felt, wool insulation and upholstery, wool felt covers, piano hammers, and is also used to absorb odours and noise in heavy machinery and stereo speakers.

Without the wool industry, we wouldn’t have many important items, including beanies, socks, scarves, school jumpers (just imagine how cold it would be at school!), blankets, fire-fighter uniforms, carpet, lanolin and many other products which we generally take for granted!

The Wool Industry truly is the future of our world!

Before the Archibull Prize was launched at our small school, most of our students have never even heard of the Agriculture industry. Most of our students had NO idea how the Agriculture industry (and our Aussie Farmers) contribute so much to our quality of life today. To try and get the message out we tried a number of different methods. This included: weekly announcements at assembly about why wool (and other agriculture industries) are so important, one –on-one conversations with our younger students (particularly years 5-6) on what Agriculture is, where cotton comes from (a lot of our students had no idea that cotton comes from plants!) and why our Aussie Farmers are so important. We also put up posters around the school about the importance of the Wool industry in NSW. But even then, a lot of our students still weren’t convinced. So we decided to try another method.. class discussions. In both year 8 and year 10 geography classes we argued, reasoned, debated and discussed ALL of the reasons why Farmers are so important. And then, finally after many heated arguments, we had convinced the majority of our student body that farmers are important! From our class discussions, many more students became interested in participating in our Archibull group at school. We are also pleased to announce that many of our school’s families have begun using services such as Aussie Farmers Direct (or even our local farmers) to purchase lots of their produce and meat.

One of our younger students, Dominic recently told me that his perspective on Australian Agriculture has dramatically changed since becoming involved in the Archibull project.

“When Sammi came to our school, she taught us a lot about the different types of wool and how they coloured the wool. Sammi also taught us about what products can be made with wool such as headbands, booties, slippers, etc.  I love the Archibull program and I always look forward till the next Archibull meeting. I have learnt so much about Australian Agriculture. ”

We hope that after reading through our blog and experiencing everything that we have gone through to produce this amazing entry, that you to will be inspired to make a difference and support our Aussie Farmers! 

Australian Designers- Leading the Fashion Industry

Recently, many Australian designers have begun campaigns to help raise the profile of the Wool Industry in Australia. Miranda Kerr, who is one of the world’s most famous Australian supermodels, was recently spotted modelling wool! If there is more public awareness about the importance of wool and how many different ways it is used, many more people will begin to appreciate and value our Aussie Wool Farmers more. Lots of Australian designers recognise this and have begun using wool in lots of their designs. To see our interview with Mel B, a European designer who supports the Wool Industry in Australia, plese see "Compulsory Blog Post 4- Interview with a Designer".

We love our Aussie Farmers!