www.farmingsecretsblog.com
Actual Compost Tea Brewing! Bruce discusses compost tea making. Notice that he does not use a tea bag, so he gets more nutrients in the liquid. Bruce has made tea brewing simple!
www.farmingsecretsblog.com
Bruce Davison explains why he uses compost tea on his property . A great way to reduce cost.
This compost heap is approximately 4 TONS(4,000 KiloGrams), when this is made into compost tea, this is enough for thousands of hectares.
Vermi compost has 6 times the nutrients of compost.
www.farmingsecretsblog.com
Bruce show us an owl perch for rabbit control. Owls will sit on these post and look around for rabbit and when they see one, it will be a nice meal.
These owl perches are high enough to stop predators like fox and dogs harming the owls.
No poisonous rabbit bates has to be used.
www.farmingsecretsblog.com
Bruce Davison talks about the importance of building up nutrients in the soil.
Mineral plants take 95% of nutrients from the atmosphere and 5% from the soil. These plants are highly digestible, they do a very good job when the animals eat them. African lovegrass, a fuel plant, however takes 99% from the atmosphere and takes only 1% from the soil.
www.farmingsecretsblog.com
Heidi & Bruce Davison explain how they run their farm up rather than run it down.
You attract the animals up the landscape with water and feed so nutrients get left on the high ground.
That’s moving the farm on the right direction.
Australian Worm Growers Association member, Geoff Tually uses worms to compost his alpaca manure. He also invites you to join the Worm Grower Association for good networking.
Please visit: http://www.ausworm.com
Hamish tells of a farmer spraying his apples with chemicals who everyone knew to avoid when it was spraying time. Stress is commonly seen amongst conventional farming. There is a joy in Rod’s farming style.
Hugo: What I can speak over is a farm in England it wasn’t bionomic. And this was in Kent, and we have apples, we had a farm shop, we had apples, and he had plums. He had Australian wife, is why came to this sort of know list. They said that when he got out to spray gear, to spray his apples or his plums, everyone knew that it kill a cat and kids and their wife, he just became someone totally different for that period of time, that he was doing this. He knew it, the family knew it. And they all had to take a social strategy to deal with it. This guy was going to be while he was doing his work. And that is the common thing that people say.
Farm workers like in India, we have lots of workers or in Australia. The workers are much happier. They’re less stressed physiologically, it’s not a mindset, but physiologically they’re less stressed working once they get away from a chemical regimes.
Walk the Talk in Krinklewood Vineyard and Farm: The advantages of using biodynamics to deliver high quality produce Part 1 of 5
Walk the Talk in Krinklewood Vineyard and Farm: The benefits of biodynamic farming vs conventional farming Part 2 of 5
Walk the Talk in Krinklewood Vineyard and Farm: Using biodynamics to create healthy crops that get through harsh weather conditions and can fight off pests. Part 3 of 5
Walk the Talk in Krinklewood Vineyard and Farm: The mindset of biodynamic farming Part 4 of 5
Walk the Talk in Krinklewood Vineyard and Farm: Biodynamics reduces stress on the farm Part 5 of 5
Hamish:
I have a feeling that you can’t convince people about this way of going. It’s something as Rod said, something triggered in him, that stared his imagination, and his passion. And he took it on. I have yet to see anyone succeeded when you sort of plant, twist around and push them into it. It doesn’t work that way. So, I just travel a countryside holding workshops, so that when people are ready they can turn up and find out. It is actually very easy to do. Doing over is not complicated. It’s really the biggest thing in these people’s mindset.
Walk the Talk in Krinklewood Vineyard and Farm: The advantages of using biodynamics to deliver high quality produce Part 1 of 5
Walk the Talk in Krinklewood Vineyard and Farm: The benefits of biodynamic farming vs conventional farming Part 2 of 5
Walk the Talk in Krinklewood Vineyard and Farm: Using biodynamics to create healthy crops that get through harsh weather conditions and can fight off pests. Part 3 of 5
Walk the Talk in Krinklewood Vineyard and Farm: The mindset of biodynamic farming Part 4 of 5
Walk the Talk in Krinklewood Vineyard and Farm: Biodynamics reduces stress on the farm Part 5 of 5
Hamish:
As Rod said, come the stress seasons, the very dry years or very wet years, that’s way you start to notice that the vitality of the plants could sustained the vicissitudes of weather. When you got the chemical stuff, they’re so dependent on the chemical that any extreme in weather put some under extreme stress.
So it was 2008, you said it was very wet year. You are able to pull through, where lot of people didn’t. And that’s a really big thing. If you can have a crop when no one else does, that’s huge. And in wool, there is one guy in one of these seasonal changes when they had rain after draught, everyone in the district has broken wool, his wasn’t. So, these are major pluses that come along every now and again. But as Rod said, you don’t do it, you expect your cost will be less there will be about the same, but your output will be more regular, and of a higher quality.
And therefore you can actually establish stabile markets, because there is more and more markets out there looking for stability in quality, as well as production.
Rod:
I got one sort of thing to add to that, was in 2008, when we do get that extremely wet season. We watched for 3 weeks to the point where after 3 weeks seeing it next door, we did see it arrived in our vineyard. So, we did get Danny, that was 3 weeks, and 3 weeks in advantage could be a time needed to pick the fruit, and have it all into the flammating wets. But when it showed in our vineyard, it show on this wine, and that wine, and this wine over here, but when this has been managed with chemicals, what happens with Danny in vineyard, it actually takes off.
So, what was happening, was evident that was actually we got it, but it wasn’t spreading. And actually we managed to control it by making up a compost tea, that had a known species of fungus that actually on Danny’s farm. And it was really the bionomic head that sort of made us somehow work out a way of finding this resort. So, the thought of managing Danny with the fungus tea is pretty, you just don’t have that sort of head on, when you sort know you’re going by a drum of something that will sort of a new place to follow you.
Walk the Talk in Krinklewood Vineyard and Farm: The advantages of using biodynamics to deliver high quality produce Part 1 of 5
Walk the Talk in Krinklewood Vineyard and Farm: The benefits of biodynamic farming vs conventional farming Part 2 of 5
Walk the Talk in Krinklewood Vineyard and Farm: Using biodynamics to create healthy crops that get through harsh weather conditions and can fight off pests. Part 3 of 5
Walk the Talk in Krinklewood Vineyard and Farm: The mindset of biodynamic farming Part 4 of 5
Walk the Talk in Krinklewood Vineyard and Farm: Biodynamics reduces stress on the farm Part 5 of 5
Hamish:
Well, I did a workshop in West Australia, and there one participant laughed, he said, I can even employee someone full time to make compost tapes and put out the bionomic preparations. And he said, I’ll be spending half for I’m spending now on fertilizers. So, that’s the economics of it.
Rod:
Yeah, I agree with that totally. The cost of chemicals, I got a small enterprise in this, and it can be talking about spending 30 up to 60 thousand dollars to one of the project stores that no one has heard off. I mean, apart from the labor factor, we probably spend a bit more in labor but we get a lot of other benefits. I think the labor thing, what I was referring to in farm. Everyone is uplifted by the energy with working with other people, someone to talk to, doing the different activities, like working with the sheep or with working with the cattle. So, the extra labor there has the benefits from spin off from that, but their actually cost for buying things is negligible, we find it’s just a labor cost is up, and that’s off set against the savings on chemicals purchases.
Hugo:
The net difference is your head.
Rod:
The net difference is really in the end of the day, but this benefits say that, I see that just can’t be compared, like the value of the property and the land is getting better every year, we are all benefiting of having access to chemical free raised animals and vegetables and fruit. So, I think by cutting swear, we are really, really miles in front.
Walk the Talk in Krinklewood Vineyard and Farm: The advantages of using biodynamics to deliver high quality produce Part 1 of 5
Walk the Talk in Krinklewood Vineyard and Farm: The benefits of biodynamic farming vs conventional farming Part 2 of 5
Walk the Talk in Krinklewood Vineyard and Farm: Using biodynamics to create healthy crops that get through harsh weather conditions and can fight off pests. Part 3 of 5
Walk the Talk in Krinklewood Vineyard and Farm: The mindset of biodynamic farming Part 4 of 5
Walk the Talk in Krinklewood Vineyard and Farm: Biodynamics reduces stress on the farm Part 5 of 5