Save Soil, Sadguru and the crime of 5 acres of hay left to rot

[Pamela Jo]

This has been an issue that has been bothering me for quite awhile. I've been trying to get my aerated compost bins for my horse manure finished for 3 years now. But even my sons didnt get it. Now the Ukraine war and nitrogen fertiliser prices have doubled, even tripled. So my manure is suddenly valuable. The neighbour finally agreed to spread it, but he mixed it with a pile of construction dirt that contained huge rocks. Now the hay guy cut about half the field and refuses to continue because the rocks will break his machine. Wo the cut grass being turned 3 times to dry and then baled it just rots. Enough to feed my herd for about 6 mos... Trying desperately to find either old equipment or a solution here. In the UK those preserving draft horses are using them for farming again. Ireland hasn't even begun that journey back to sustainable multi-solutions for farming. Argghh. Anyway please have a listen to Sadhguru. This really is the most important issue out there.

 

[Pamela Jo]

 

[Dorm Ant]

Green manure is a solution. Certain clovers and other fast-growing, nitrogen fixing plants can be grown on poor or resting soil and then dug in or cut and left on the surface. Many seed companies sell packs of mixed green manure crops, which is what I use. Comfrey is great for reclaiming land, as the roots smash right down and pull nutrients up from the deep. It also attracts loads of pollinators. Dandelions are almost as good.

Another solution is humanure, though it means having room for a compost toilet and the storage beside it to keep the composting poo for at least a year before use. When used, it makes a garden totally circular with regards to inputs and outputs.

I recently got into listening to Sadhguru's podcasts/speeches/whatever you call it (my boyfriend downloads them). He has a great way of explaining things.

 

[Serra K]

@Pamela Jo Have you seen Kiss the Ground? It's fantastic! I studied permaculture in my early 20's and I can't believe much of the world is still invested in outdated farming practices. I think the tide is turning slowly as more conscientious land owners are coming to the party, but big business is not an opponent to take lightly.

It took me a while to come around to Sadhguru as I was raised in a cult with a guru as leader, so at first he reminded me of that. But lately I've been listening to him talking on particular topics and thankfully now I can listen to a guru without having a panic attack! I had no idea he was involved in preserving the soil, this made my day

 

[Pamela Jo]

Yeah, I'm

@Pamela Jo Have you seen Kiss the Ground? It's fantastic! I studied permaculture in my early 20's and I can't believe much of the world is still invested in outdated farming practices. I think the tide is turning slowly as more conscientious land owners are coming to the party, but big business is not an opponent to take lightly.

It took me a while to come around to Sadhguru as I was raised in a cult with a guru as leader, so at first he reminded me of that. But lately I've been listening to him talking on particular topics and thankfully now I can listen to a guru without having a panic attack! I had no idea he was involved in preserving the soil, this made my day

I'm not big on guru's, but the responses he's given to people in the audience have reassured me. that he's genuinely committed to this issue that I was begin ng to think no one gave a Damn about. Nonetheless there is a lot of culty stuff on You Tube selling him that made me a bit nervous. Sorry to hear about your bad experience. It really is the saddest thing for children, to have their questions taken away. Cool on the permaculture. I may contact you for advice.. Now I am off to pick up rocks. I found a neighbour with some 70's equipment willing to cut and bale. He's already turned the hay. And I received nematodes in the mail today. No instructions. I remember you make it into some kind of soup...??

 

[Pamela Jo]

Green manure is a solution. Certain clovers and other fast-growing, nitrogen fixing plants can be grown on poor or resting soil and then dug in or cut and left on the surface. Many seed companies sell packs of mixed green manure crops, which is what I use. Comfrey is great for reclaiming land, as the roots smash right down and pull nutrients up from the deep. It also attracts loads of pollinators. Dandelions are almost as good.

Another solution is humanure, though it means having room for a compost toilet and the storage beside it to keep the composting poo for at least a year before use. When used, it makes a garden totally circular with regards to inputs and outputs.

I recently got into listening to Sadhguru's podcasts/speeches/whatever you call it (my boyfriend downloads them). He has a great way of explaining things.

Green manure is a help. Good way to keep down weeds and fix nitrogen. But doesn't work for growing a lot of cereals or pasture. I'm very afraid humanure on a grand scale is going to spread diseases we havent dreamt of yet. It's one reason China is the incubator of virus's to the world. I was horrified to learn that human feces and even medical waste is allowed to be spread on "organic" produce. I learned that from a study in the UK where soil tested showed a high content of everything from anti-depressant residue to antibiotics-all detrimental to the microbes needed to create soil. I am glad to meet someone as involved in the solution as you are. I bet guinea pig manure makes great compost. I also like the way Sadhguru cuts thru to the point instead of dithering.

 

[Dorm Ant]

There are good and bad ways to compost humanure. If done properly, which takes time and generates heat, it's perfectly safe. The way it was done on bean sprouts a few years ago, that caused that big e-coli issue, was basically human slurry spraying. Eew.

Guinea pig poo composts really well. It's handy that it comes out of them as dry, almost odourless pellets.

There's much discussion amongst allotmenteers at the moment about peat-free compost, as it seems to be made from the contents of household green bins. Basically, there's reports of lots of plastic and all sorts of other stuff in it. Dog poo? It's certainly very variable. My polytunnel is doing so much better than my potted herbs. People are going back to peat, which is tragic. I believe peat is being outlawed within a few years, though don't quote me on that.

 

[Serra K]

Now I am off to pick up rocks. I found a neighbour with some 70's equipment willing to cut and bale. He's already turned the hay. And I received nematodes in the mail today. No instructions. I remember you make it into some kind of soup...??

Such a pain that you have to go out and pick up rocks Thank god for your neighbours, huh?
On a side note, I saw this simple milk and molasses mixture which stimulates some nematodes (kills others) and stimulates bacteria and fungi to help process more organic matter. This is really only useful in a small scale setting but thought it was interesting.

I may contact you for advice..

I'm no expert, but I am passionate about it. Always happy to seek out solutions for sustainable food production/land management. There are a lot of proponents touting 'sustainable monocultures', but realistically there's no basis for them.

 

[Peyton Stafford]

When I was in my teens, picking up rocks was a summer pastime on my grandmother's farm in the rolling hills east of the Kentucky Bluegrass. The limestone formations beneath the topsoil constantly produced rocks that floated to the surface and had to be picked up by hand. Then we manure-forked a few hundred pounds of sheep droppings mixed with straw and urine out of the barn into a manure-spreader, hitched the spreader to the tractor, and flung chunks of poop across the fields. A dozen or so loads would bare the earth floor of the barn, so we could spread fresh straw and begin another cycle.

The Suffolk sheep and Red Poll cattle thought we were hilarious. They stood in the shade of trees and watched the funny monkeys at their antics in the sweltering summer air.

"I'm glad I'm not a human," one said to another.

 

[Katie-Ellen]

Dr Rex Newnham, RIP was a soil scientist ahead of the field; mapping and correlating boron deficiency in soil with global distributions of arthritis. Jamaica for instance, had some of the worst global stats, owing to over intensive practices in sugar cane farming, notwithstanding all the other nice things associated with that agricultural industry's history.

Boron regulates calcium/magnesium metabolism in the body. He came up hard against the status quo in establishing safe dosage, making it available as a product for human consumption.

Discovering the cure for arthritis - PubMed

 

[Josephine]

Do you know Rebecca Hosking? She is good on regenerative agriculture, I think her film A Farm For The Future is on Youtube. Might be at a more basic level than you're looking tbh, but I found it pretty inspiring (as a non farmer, and before I had any permaculture education)
Edit: it looks like it's twelve years old now so not quite as groundbreaking as it once was. Still, a good watch, IMO