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Fires of spring
In article , "Farm1"
wrote: "David Hare-Scott" wrote in message ... Farm1 wrote: "songbird" wrote in message David Hare-Scott wrote: Farm1 wrote: David Hare-Scott wrote: After two years of La Nina and plenty of rain we haven't had significant rain in three months. But clever people still want to burn their pasture ????? Is that how it started or was it a farm burnoff? The only people who I've heard of seen who still burn stubble are the odd wheat farmers out west. I am in a beef cattle area where there are many landholders who still do things the way that Grandpa did. Every Spring just before the expiry of the burn-without-permit season they burn their paddocks. They overstock and use set stocking in big paddocks and don't mind if their bulls cover their own offspring. It's a time warp. if the genes are weak then the inbreeding will make it obvious. i don't understand the burning thing though, as it puts nutrients into the air instead of into the cow. Actually burning is quite beneficial to the soil because it adds (if I recall correctly) phoshorus to the soil (although it may be another, or even a number of other nutrients). Australian Aboriginals and many other native peoples did it as a 'farming' technique as after the burning, grass grew strongly and brought in grazing animals that they then killed for food. It's not a good technique though in fire prone areas and quite antisocial these days because of pollution. Burning only adds phosphorus to the soil if it is present in what you burn. Well as I mentioned, I don't recall what it sis that is added so perhaps it wasn't phosphorus. This is the basis of slash and burn agriculture where the nutrients in trees are released allowing a crop to grow in the ashes. In Oz which tends to have phosphorus impoverished soil the P is held mainly in the trees, burning the forest releases this. So our white forebears used fire to clear forest and increase fertility at the same time but then found that the great crops they got in the first year or two couldn't be sustained. S&B only works if you have plenty of forest to move on to when the current patch becomes exhausted, which was fine for the aboriginals who lived at a low population density and were ready to move as required. But you mentioned your grazier neighbours who were burning pasture. That is not slash and burn agriculture. Burning pasture doesn't achieve anything like that, you are much better slashing with a mulcher which retains nutrients and carbon in the soil. The perpetrators are seduced by the apparent reduction of weeds and the nice flush of new growth you can get if there is rain afterwards but in the long run it's a loser as volatile nitrogen compounds are lost and so is soil carbon. Of course it's a loser in the long run, but as I said, it does add nutrients. Anyone who does it annually is a total nong and anyone who does do it, but doesn't ensure they do a low heat burn is also a nong. It would add potassium, as does wood ashes, but as mentioned, S&B is a quick fix, and isn't sustainable. You may get some charcoal, but there are better ways to do it. -- Welcome to the New America. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hA736oK9FPg or E Pluribus Unum Next time vote Green Party |
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