We have decided to let one of our paddocks rest completely over spring and summer aiming to deposit lots of grass seeds in the seed bank in the soil.
Today we walked the paddock and I gathered all the different grass flowers I could find to see what variety we had.
I counted 19 different types of grass - most native grasses with a few introduced ones. I am sure there are more than 19 varieties in the pasture, some will flower later in the season and I will collect a sample of their flowers then.
Some are quite green in colour and others have a reddish tinge. Pretty aren't they?
I have recently realised that I am not really a sheep
farmer at all, I am really a grass grower...
I am not sure why it took me this long to come to this conclusion.
It's simple really, if I have grass then the sheep have food. So my first responsibility is to help the grass grow and allow them to deposit their seeds into the seed bank in the soil sometimes.
Natural Farming advocates like Pat Colby say that a good pasture has 65 species of grasses and other plants including weeds. I will watch and see what other grasses and plants appear over the next few months and see how my tally goes. Certainly I have weeds to add to the list of species in my pasture!
So now that I have realised that I am a grass grower first rather than a sheep farmer, the next challenge is to be a soil developer.
Gosh, so much to learn...
I like that idea. We certainly don't have 65 varieties! We have mostly African Love Grass and Couch :( the couch is our "good grass" relatively speaking! (some people poison couch). We need to work on our fertility and the better species will come eventually.....
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