Broadacre Farming is a term applied to large scale agricultural production, which in New Zealand is most commonly pastoral farming. This module explores the context of pastoral farming in New Zealand, possible developments of this farming type and how permaculture ideas of diversification and inter- connectedness can be applied to make these systems more robust and sustainable.
The main ideas covered are silver pasture farming (integrating tree crops in pastoral farming), using cell grazing techniques to move livestock to mimic natural grazing patterns, and development of a more diverse and nutritious range or grasses and herbs within a grazing system.
The main ideas covered are silver pasture farming (integrating tree crops in pastoral farming), using cell grazing techniques to move livestock to mimic natural grazing patterns, and development of a more diverse and nutritious range or grasses and herbs within a grazing system.
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EBook
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Silver pasture Farming and Alley Cropping
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One particular type of planting system that is emerging and being trialed by innovative farmers in America and Europe is silver pasture farming where mixed tree guild plantings on contour are interspersed by strips of pasture for grazing animals.
These systems provide a variety of animal and plant yields and have a mutually beneficial production. The animals provide weed control and increase soil fertility, while the trees provide shelter, avoid soil erosion and provide additional food resources. Alley cropping applies a similar principle, with crops grown between the rows of trees. |
Cell Grazing
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Cell grazing is a techniques used to move a high density of grazing animals onto a pasture for a short duration of time. Before the grazers are moved onto that pasture, it should be left for a period of time that has allowed the grasses and herbs to grow to an optimal forage height.
Once the grazers are moved onto the pasture, they quickly convert the plant matter to manure. This results in a high input of fertility into the soil and promotes better growth of grasses and herbs. This method of grazing imitates that of grazers in natural prairie ecosystems, which have examples of the most fertile soils in the world. |
Grazer Biology
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Grazing is a method of feeding in which a herbivore feeds on plants such as grasses, or other multicellular organisms such as algae. In agriculture, grazing is one method used whereby domestic livestock are used to convert grass and other forage into meat, milk and other products.
Many small selective herbivores follow larger grazers, who skim off the highest, tough growth of plants, exposing tender shoots. For terrestrial animals, grazing is normally distinguished from browsing in that grazing is eating grass or herbs and browsing is also eating woody twigs and leaves from trees and shrubs |
Healthy Pastures
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Healthy plants begin to grow earlier in the spring, become more productive through the summer, and continue to grow later into the autumn.
Healthy, properly managed pastures produce better quality and greater quantities of forage for your animals and lengthens the grazing season, producing healthier animals and reducing costs. Lush pastures also conserve water and filter out manure and nutrients, preventing them from entering nearby water bodies, protecting water quality, human health, and animal |
Thought Leaders
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Darren Doherty
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Matt Poore - Cell Grazing
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Geoff Lawton - Cell Grazing
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The practice of Holistic Management mentioned in the last chapter also helps to increase water retention in the soil and is an effective means of regenerating degraded dry lands and even deserts. Applied at the farm scale it is also an excellent strategy for creating resilient, regenerative and lucrative farm businesses.
Joel Salatin at Polyface Farm is a North American farmer who has built up a model farm attracting international attention. He created a highly productive and healthy agro-ecosystem by planting trees, digging ponds, building huge compost piles and raising grass-fed cows that he moves across the land with the help of portable electric fencing.
Mimicking the grazing patterns of ecosystems with diverse grazers, the cows are followed by chickens and pigs using innovative mobile animal shelters. Each species takes a specific role in fertilizing and enriching the diversity of the perennial prairie polyculture it feeds upon (Polyface, 2015a). The 500-acre farm employs 10 people and generates over US$1 million in sales through direct marketing to local families, restaurants and retail outlets. Joel Salatin describes his farming method as a “symbiotic, multi-speciated synergistic relationship-dense production model that yields far more per acre than industrial models” (Polyface, 2015b).
The Australian farmers Colin and Nicholas Seis have turned their 2,000-acre farm, Winona, in New South Wales into an internationally acclaimed example of a technique called ‘pasture cropping’. Cereal crops are sown directly into native perennial pastures, combining grazing and cropping into a single land-use method with synergistic economic and environmental benefits.
Colin Seis started to develop this technique in 1992 running a herd of 4,000 merino sheep and cropping oats, wheat and cereal rye on the same land. In recent years it has become increasingly popular, with more than 1,500 farmers in Australia converting to the method and farmers in the Northern hemisphere adopting the approach (Pasture Cropping, 2008).
Joel Salatin at Polyface Farm is a North American farmer who has built up a model farm attracting international attention. He created a highly productive and healthy agro-ecosystem by planting trees, digging ponds, building huge compost piles and raising grass-fed cows that he moves across the land with the help of portable electric fencing.
Mimicking the grazing patterns of ecosystems with diverse grazers, the cows are followed by chickens and pigs using innovative mobile animal shelters. Each species takes a specific role in fertilizing and enriching the diversity of the perennial prairie polyculture it feeds upon (Polyface, 2015a). The 500-acre farm employs 10 people and generates over US$1 million in sales through direct marketing to local families, restaurants and retail outlets. Joel Salatin describes his farming method as a “symbiotic, multi-speciated synergistic relationship-dense production model that yields far more per acre than industrial models” (Polyface, 2015b).
The Australian farmers Colin and Nicholas Seis have turned their 2,000-acre farm, Winona, in New South Wales into an internationally acclaimed example of a technique called ‘pasture cropping’. Cereal crops are sown directly into native perennial pastures, combining grazing and cropping into a single land-use method with synergistic economic and environmental benefits.
Colin Seis started to develop this technique in 1992 running a herd of 4,000 merino sheep and cropping oats, wheat and cereal rye on the same land. In recent years it has become increasingly popular, with more than 1,500 farmers in Australia converting to the method and farmers in the Northern hemisphere adopting the approach (Pasture Cropping, 2008).