Farmers may be faced by drought – but the outlook, soil and nutrition expert Peter Norwood said, has never been better.
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“This is a really exciting time to be farming – no better time, in my view. There’s no time to be despondent; we haven’t got the time for negativity.”
The agronomist was speaking at Rafters Restaurant on Thursday, explaining how farmers could grow better quality food and make more money, by understanding the interaction between soil, plants, animals, and ourselves.
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“We’ve got a world that’s demanding food,” Mr Norwood said. “We’re struggling to produce more, and we know if we can produce more, then we’ve got the potential to make a greater profit off the business.
“If we can improve productivity, and improve efficiency of inputs, then we create greater profit margins, and we provide better quality food for a population that is now starting to demand it.
“Consumers are actually driving the opportunities for farmers. That’s so exciting; it’s never been the case. We have people who are desperate to buy our products. There’s the opportunity! Let’s grab it with both hands!”
Farmers and ecologists from around the region – Armidale, Guyra, Ben Lomond, and Glen Innes – had come to hear Mr Norwood speak.
“It’s a sign of the times,” Mr Norwood said. “They don’t want to be the forlorn farmer anymore; they want to be the exultant, passionate farmer.”
Mr Norwood himself farms down in Maffra, Victoria, where he grows hay and fodder, and sells it to dairy farmers. This year, he managed to grow crops on only 35 mm of rain. The secret lay in putting into soil the right nutrients, such as limestone.
Limestone is made of calcium carbonate – and calcium is the nutrient our body most needs for healthy bones and good digestion.
Calcium levels in soil, however, are often too low, so that plants and animals – including us – suffer.
Plants’ leaves will be too small if there isn’t enough calcium in soil.
Livestock that eat those plants won’t be productive; they can’t push insulin into their blood and draw glucose out of the blood into the cells, because that takes calcium.
And people lack the amino acids and proteins they need to grow bones and muscle, and for a well-functioning brain.
Result: an epidemic of disease and indigestion.
Putting limestone in soil will help to fix these problems. And calcium is cheap, only $90 compared to $300 or $400 for phosphorus fertiliser.
Mr Norwood also had good advice for drought-stricken farmers.
“People can still possibly grow things, even in very dry times, as long as they have the right macrobiological population in the soil,” he said.
Mycorrhizal fungi can access water in between the tightest of soil particles that roots can’t get to.
“That can be the difference between having some green growth and nothing, even in very low rainfall,” Mr Norwood said. “They, like us, need nutrition – and it’s all the same stuff.”
Farmers can also prepare for drought by storing hay and putting it away in the shed for tougher times.
“People think it's a cost to harvest this surplus food - but at the time when you harvest this surplus food, that's when it's at its absolute best quality possible,” Mr Norwood said.
“Not only can you harvest the surplus to feed back later, but it'll be absolutely the best quality feed you could have given the animals at that stage.”
Mr Norwood advised that farmers become citizen-scientists.
“Make observations on farms,” he said. Test why some paddocks grow better than others.”
From that testing, farmers can make some changes.
“They only need to do a little bit at a time, so that as their experience builds, they get more and more confident, but the outcomes from that are very powerful.”
The event was organised by Southern New England Landcare, a not-for-profit community network which helps communities to be sustainable. The project is supported by New England North West Landcare Network Chairs Inc. and Northern Tablelands Local Land Services, through funding from the Australian Government’s National Landcare Program.