Will Uamby's PR effort work?

We figured we needed to lift our public profile to help us with the Catchment Management Authority's Farming Systems project. (The CMA is looking to fund innovative farmers who can help them spread the word about new approaches to farming that can help restore health to the soil.) So this press release was sent to the editor of Australia's leading agricultural newspaper, The Land. Did it work? Stay tuned...



PRESS RELEASE - Wool needs marketing brains trust, says expert

Australia’s best marketing minds should be put to work to solve the crisis in the wool industry, says marketing expert and worried woolgrower Michael Kiely. “Australia has some of the best marketers in the world: John Singleton, Gerry Harvey, Aussie John Simons, ex-Woolworths CEO Paul Simons, to name a few. Put them all in a room for two hours and let them loose on the problem,” he says. “ They would be proud to serve on the National Marketing Brains Trust for the wool industry.”

The crisis in wool is a national crisis and needs to be addressed as a national priority by the highest levels of government and industry, he says.

“Wool’s major problem is lack of demand. The solution: create demand, ie. Marketing. The marketing to date? Look at the scoreboard: the price you are getting for your wool. Marketing to date has failed. And when you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you always got. It’s time for a 180° change.”

Kiely, a woolgrower from Gulgong, is a 20-year vetetran of Australian marketing. He includes among his clients Toyota, Macquarie Bank, and Hyatt. His monthly commentary in Marketing magazine has been appearing for 20 years.

“If I was Ian McLachlan I would do what every successful general has done – concentrate maximum pressure on one key strategic point to achieve a breakthrough. And that strategic point for wool is “natural”. Wool is a living fibre. Synthetics are made from petrochemicals. Wool is grown by individuals and families who care. Petrochemicals are made by corporations which do not. Wool has soul. Synthetics have none.”

The new brand positioning line could read: “Australian Wool: Made by Mother Nature.”

To sell this proposition, Kiely suggests recruiting the hippest celebrities – hot young movie stars, rap artists, models, young entrepreneurs, people that youth look up to and follow – and feature the ones willing to say they wouldn’t wear synthetics and prefer wool. The campaign slogan? “Wool is Cool…so what are you wearing?”

“Australia has a large number of world renowned celebrities: film stars, rock stars, sports stars, fashion gurus, etc. They should be recruited like the marketing brains trust - as part of a national emergency team to rescue one of Australia’s greatest assets and national icons: the wool industry,” he says.

Kiely is full of praise for Australian Wool Innovation’s initiatives to date: “Eliminating the barriers to purchase – product disadvantages like how it feels against the skin – and creating more reasons to buy by offering new blends and new products are all essential activities to be done before the marketing break through can occur. AWI should be applauded for its initiatives.”

“But they are wasted effort so long as the fundamental driving force is missing: demand for the product. People have got to want wool. To make wool attractive to the masses you’ve got to start with the style-setters – the elite who the rest follow like sheep.”

Mr Kiely does not expect Australian Wool Innovation to welcome his contribution. “They are the victims of unreal expectations among growers. We all own this problem. The more ideas we get on the table, the more we talk and think marketing, the closer wed get to actually doing it.,” he says.

Spooky stuff

I got goosebumps when I read this ancient Hasdidic saying the first time: "When you walk across the fields with your mind pure and holy, then from all the stones, and all growing things, and all animals, the sparks of their soul come out and cling to you, and then they are purified and become a holy fire in you."
Now this sounds weird at first, but I read it 20 or so times - drawn to it like a moth to a flame. I couldn't understand it, but yet I felt it was trying to say something to me about what we were doing on the farm, where we were trying to take the 'conversation' with nature, and how to get there. It made me think of another saying that is popular in some farming circles: "The footsteps of the farmer are the best fertiliser." Here we have the same action - walking across the fields. The walking bringing something good out of the soil. The soil reacting to the presence of the farmer - the mere presence. Both statements say something about the farmer's state of mind.
The act of walking across the fields is unusual today. Mostly we drive or ride across a paddock - fast. You can't get much information about what's really happening down at ground level when you do that. When you walk along, you can see how much of the soil is bare (and unproductive), how much iss covered with weeds, how much is covered by introduced pasture plants like clover (that the white man brought here from over the seas), and how much is covered with native perennials (the type of grasses that grew here and were best adapted to the soil and weather conditions by thousands of years of natural selection). By walking you can get an idea of the insect life that is so vital to the food chain that links the birds with micro-organisms in the soil to provide the complete community of players in Nature's cycle of life. You can also get a much better feeling for the number and diversity of birds when you walk, unlike when you roar across the fields on a 1000cc 4WD bike. Birds are a key indicator of the overall health of the ecosystem which supports your farm enterprise.
Walking is a form of engagement with the soil - a type of communion. It enables the soil to talk to the farmer. (The experts say that you can hear the soil talking just by observing the type of plants it supports. Certain types of weeds, such as Bathurst Burr, will only grow in highly fertile soils. Other weeds indicate by their presence that the soil is deficient in certain minerals.)
At the second session of training in the Central West Catchment Management Authority's Farm Systems program yesterday, an Aboriginal man called Will Burns told us how he detects sites of cultural significance on farm properties. He "listens" with his instincts. "I follow my gut feel and nine times out of ten it will lead me to a site," he said. The Australian Aborigines had a deeply spiritual relationship with the land when they lived their traditional lifestyle - every element of the landscape was a living thing, celebrated in their 'songlines' and incorporated into their mythology.
SO listening to the soil has a long history in Australia. But what about the other side of a conversation? Does the soil listen to the farmer? Sure, it will respond to the things the farmer does. (I was tempted to write "things he does", but many farmers are women these days. My wife Louisa is a farmer. I am a philosopher.) But do the soil and the plants and other living things respond to the farmer in other ways? Do "the sparks of their soul come out and cling to you"? In the book The Secret Life of Plants there is a huge amount of evidence that plants respond to a person's thoughts baout them.... to their unspoken attitudes about them. Rudolf Steiner - the19th century mystic who invented biodynamics and many other branches of science and education - believed that nature was controlled by 'spirits' that could be interacted with (a form of fairies at the bottom of the garden). Now this sounds like crap to most intelligent people. But biodynamics works wonders - and it involves burying cows horns at night under a fullmoon and digging them up at another part of the lunar cycle - weird science, ridiculous. But it works.
New age thinkers like Deepak CHopra and Wayne Dyer teach their followers about the power of 'intentions' in shaping the material world. Quantum physics teaches us that the smallest particle of matter is not solid by a packet of energy and information that exists as a vibration of potential until attention is given to it. (ASk a physicist if I am wrong.) A thought is also a packet of information and energy. If we put our attention on a thought with sufficient regularity, these gentlemen contend we can bring the thought into existence on the material plane... This is one of the technologies taught in the TM Siddhi program, an advances Transcendental Meditation technique taught by the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.
Deepak was once the foremost of the Maharishi's students and today is recongised as the world's leading exponent of the expression of the ancient wisdom of the Vedic masters through the concepts and fidnings of western science - both medical science and physics. The ancient vedic texts called the Upanishads say: "You are what your deepest desire is. As is your desire, so is your intention. As is your intention, so is your will. As is your will, so is your deed. As is your deed, so is your destiny." Now I don't expect anyone to understand or agree with what comes next. i just put it out there as a possibility to be entertained. Deepak Chopra writes, In hsi book Synchrodestiny: "The world before it is observed and the nervous system before the desire or intent to observe something both exist as a dynamic (constantly changing), nonlinear chaotic field of activities in a state of non-equilibrium (unstable activity). Intent synchronistically organises these highly variable, seemingly chaotic and unrelated activities in a nonlocal universe into a highly ordered, self-organising, dynamic system that manifests simultaneously as an observed world and a nervous system through which that world is being observed." (Phew!) That's the theory. He goes on to say: "All learning, remembering, reasoning, drawing of inferences, and motor activity are preceded by intent. Intent is the very basis of creation." (Motor activity does not mean driving a car, though it can. It means any human movement.)
Carlos Castaneda wrote: "In the Universe there is an immeasurable, indescribable force which sharmans call intent, and absolutely everything that exists in the entire cosmos is attached to intent by a connecting link." It gets even spookier. Castaneda says: "Intent is a force that exists in the Universe. when sorcerers (those who live of the Source) beckon intent, it comes to them and sets up a path for attainment, which emans that sorcerers always accomplish what they set out to do." Now we enter Harry Potter territory. Wizards' stuff.
But it can all be reduced to a single thought. "You gotta have a dream, if you don't have a dream, how you gonna have a dream come true?" (from the song Happy Talk, in the Rogers and Hammerstein musical 'South Pacific'.) You gotta plan your work and work your plan, goes the old salesman's self talk. Simply by developing a plan and envisaging it coming into reality, we take the first steps towards changing reality. Here at "Uamby" we have an "Holistic Goal" as part of the Holistic Resource Management system we follow (as taught by Allan Savory). That goal - which we develop between the key decisionmakers - tells us what we want the physical form of the farm to look like in 5 years time, what we want the economics of the farm to be like, what we want the environment to look like, and what we want the community we live in to be like. Once we have set that goal, we 'test' every decision we make after that against the Goal to see if it will take us further away or closer to our Goal. And that is how we move forward. Louisa checked a goal we set for the wool we produce, a goal set several years ago, and found that our latest clip comes in right on that material specification, to within a decimal point.
So when we walk across the fields with our minds pure and holy (our intentions clear and well-meaning), it is true that nature responds somehow, though whether "the sparks of their soul come out and cling to you, and then they are purified and become a holy fire in you" is the best way to express it is something you could question.
But can we dismiss the basic premise?

Uamby selected for Government Envirofarming Program

This is a view of Uamby from the high country. You can see the homestead and farm buildings down in the valley. Uamby has been selected by the NSW Government's environmental agencies as a demonstration farm for "triple bottom line" farming practices. The Catchment Management Authorities are independent Government-funded organizations which seek to influence the practices of farmers to achieve environmental objectives. The Central Western Catchment Management Authority has $10 million to use as incentive to farmers who are willing to change the way they manage natural resources. We are involved in programs which seek to return soils to health so they are salt-resistant and more productive. This largely revolves around the transition from exotic annual pasture species which rely on high levels of artificial fertilisers and must be resown year after year. Instead the Authority is encouraging the developing of pastures based on native perennials (the grasses that were there before the arrival of white civilisation).

We have received grants to help us divide our paddocks into smaller units to make it possible to conduct time controlled grazing (concentrating animals in smaller areas for shorter periods of time – which uses animal impact to graze the pasture efficiently and allows each area up to a year’s rest for the plants to recover). Multiplying the number of paddocks means a large amount of new fencing and there is the need to make water available in each new paddock. These costs can be high.

We have also been selected for a farm-planning program in which we get paid to attend an intensive training program and produce a new farm management plan. Out of the 11 farmers selected for this program, 3 will be given access to funding to put the plans into practice.

As part of the training program we have to attend 20 days training before June 2006. We have committed to host a field day on Uamby and be available for media interviews.

This is my wife Louisa - the farmer - inspecting floodwaters at the Molly's Creek crossing on "Uamby". I met her when she was studying agricultural economics at the University of New England. She did not complete her studies until we had 3 children. She has since studied Farm Management at Sydney University. Her belief in progressive farming techniques was recognised by the Central Western Catchment Management Authority when we were selected from a large number of applicants to take part in a pilot program to develop ecologically sound farm practices.

Greetings from "Uamby"

My wife Louisa and I bought our first property, “Vbrindavin”, 1000 acres near Goolma, New South Wales, in 1998. We did Holistic Resource Management training in 1999. We adopted rotational, time-controlled grazing techniques (against the advice of the local farmers). To do this we added 20 new paddocks and 4 dams.

We bought “Uamby” 15 kilometres away in 2001. We kept on the farmer who had been leasing the property (1780 acres) as manager. This was a mistake, as his attachment to traditional management methods and our lack of confidence in our own decisions led to a series of disasters. The worst drought in living memory forced us to sell “Vbrindavin” and follow advice which conflicted with our HRM training, to our disadvantage. We weaned early and took heavy losses. We opened all the gates and the pastures suffered badly from set stocking.

Taking over the management, we returned to the discipline of HRM and adjusted the drought plan to set stock only one area while allowing the other paddocks to recover. The current graze plan enables us to monitor the number of grazing days per paddock, which has enabled us to use certain paddocks twice as much as previous, while maintaining ground cover. We are committed to 100% ground cover 100% of the time.

We are experimenting with electric fencing and developed a mobile unit for dividing paddocks into four sectors. However it has been of limited value until recent times due to the dryness of the soil.

We are not interested in sustainability as much as regeneration of once healthy resources. The soils at “Uamby” have been severely depleted by years of over-cropping and neglect. Apart from the pioneer family (two generations of management) and the second family of owners (two generations of management), the other owners or leaseholders have been opportunistic and short term in their interest.

As part of our soil reconstruction program we have done the following:

• Pasture species selection: Shifted focus to concentrate on growing native perennials which our research revealed are as nutritionally sound as the best exotic pasture species, but also hardier and longer lasting. Our sheep prefer them and will walk over clover to eat perennials.

• Soil supplement trials: In the past 4 years we have conducted several trials with natural fertilisers to restart vigorous biological activity in the soil. Each year a different combination of trials was conducted, based on the learnings of the year before. We applied chicken manure and lime in various combinations on test paddocks. We applied Guano and DAP with a test strip in between. We applied nitrohumous (treated biosolids) on a 50 acre test bed. We applied worm juice. Results have been encouraging, although the long dry largely stilfed the full testing of these materials.

• Mulching: We found that where the previous owners had left round bales to rot, there was significant soil growth under the bales, several centimetres per application. So we invested in good straw to minimise weed problems and spread it on many bare patches to create a mulching effect. The results have been variable, depending on the stability of the surface covered during run off. However the principle works and mulching is now part of our management program. (Wellington Council is helping us restore a badly exposed section of the property after we shut down a gravel pit that had been operating for many years without compensation to the landholder. The restoration is using the mulching method to restart soil growth.)

• Paramagnetic rock dust: Arranged analysis with Boral pending a paramagnetic rock dust test. (Paramagnetic rock dust is spread and “antennae” of rock dust filled pipes erected to capture cosmic rays of energy from the Sun and transfer them to the soil which, so the theory goes, aligns the soil’s molecular structure and makes transfer of nutrients from soil to plant – via cations (see Albrecht) – more rapid.

Mineral supplements - Victorian animal nutritionist Pat Colby has formulated a sheep lick based on her analysis of minerals and trace elements which are commonly deficient. The lick – containing sulphur, copper, dolomite, and seaweed meal – is dispensed via a mobile grain feeder that follows the mob about as well as static dispensers.

Hydroponic feed production - As a drought feed supplement, we trialled hydroponic methods of growing oats, feeding out the biscuits once the oats had reached 15cm-20cm. Oats was preferred to other grain trialled (rye, wheat). This alternative was abandoned after a cost/benefit analysis.

Natural drench: We trialled Pat Colby’s lick as a drench, combining it with apple cider vinegar. The drought-affected sheep improved immediately and the improvement lasted 2 to 3 weeks. Conventional drenching is minimised by rapid movement of the mobs through the paddock rotations.

Monitoring worms: We conduct egg counts on manure so that no sheep is drenched without testing. Our ewes have been drenched only once in 2004 and 2005. Lambs and hoggets are more susceptible.

Pasture cropping: “Uamby” was among the first on farm consultations about pasture cropping. The experiment was a success, with the oats being sown dry and not striking until after the locusts had passed, giving us a crop to feed. And the native pasture has populated the test paddock, despite the baring of the earth by too aggressive application of the sowing equipment by our former manager. (We are not in favour of baring the soil for reasons of weed infestation and wind/water erosion.)

Weed management

On arriving at “Uamby” we found many of the paddocks unusable due to heavy Bathurst burr infestation. The Burr had not been managed due to a dispute between the owner and the lessee over who was to pay for it.

The first task was to get the burr below the belly level of the grazing sheep. To achieve this we developed “shellacking” – levelling the dried burr plants using a toboggan made from old gates and railway sleepers. Paddocks treated in this way had limited infestation during the next season as pasture species out-competed the weed.

The following seasons an extensive chipping and burning campaign kept the burr under control.

Bathurst burr infestation increased this season due to the soil baring influence of the long dry and the increasing soil fertility as a result of our measures. A ride on mower and a mulcher attached to the tractor were used to great effect to crop the weeds before they seeded. Shelacking was still required due to the resurgence this season. Burning the clumps of standing dead burr also proved effective, but used too much fuel.

In the first year, Purple Top infestation rendered another paddock unusable. While conventional HRM would prescribe simply putting your animals onto the patch, our sheep were not appropriate for clearing a paddock (because of size and vegetable matter in the wool). So we offered the paddock to a neighbour who had 20 horses and cattle on a 50 acre block and who was short of feed. Several weeks later the paddock was ready for sheep.

Fly traps

We have installed 6 fly traps to reduce the blow fly burden on “Uamby” and the incidence of blow fly strike. These are being monitored alongside the incidence of strike. Another example of testing natural methods of solving problems on the land.

Conclusion

We have a documented Holistic Goal for “Uamby” which we are working towards. Given this clear statement of intention, we simply follow our guiding light when making decisions. Our management practices develop as we trial ideas gained from other sources and solutions we invent to achieve our Goal.

The original management paradigm we started with was a variant of the traditional set stocking regime. The soil was to be protected by keeping animals off certain places, eg. river banks, by means of fencing them out and using corridors. However Holistic Resource Management, as taught by Alan Savory, revealed to us the tools of animal impact and rest as methods of returning life to the soil by assisting the carbon cycle.

To make planning easier we have invested in Endeavor farm monitoring software. The first application has been planning new fencing and water infrastructure. Ultimately this program will contain all operating data for the property, enabling us to better monitor progress and make decisions.

We have spent the last 5 years learning the sheep wool business and passed a significant milestone during our latest shearing. The shed was managed by our son Daniel who has been learning the farming business for less than 2 years. He has his stencil and classed this shearing. The results speak for themselves: In 2004, shearing 1854 sheep, we managed 35 bales and 5835 kg of partly tender wool. In 2005 we shore 2136 sheep for 50 bales and 9082kg of sound wool (2 bales tender). Relying on our own management expertise, we have lifted production per sheep from 3kg to 4.25kg per head.

In this period we have been continuously assessing alternative enterprises. We have principles by which other enterprises are assessed:
1. They must help us move towards our Holistic Goal.
2. They must not be too labour intensive.
3. They must complement our existing enyterprise. (We are committed woolgrowers.)

Other enterprises trialled/investigated:

Yabbies – we have 25 dams, many of which have populations of yabbies. We started selling yabbies to a firm from north coast NSW, after investing in 100 traps and a large holding cage. But the return on effort was not sufficient to warrant continuing. Yabbies are trapped now for entertaining guests and visitors from the city.

Worms – we bought several barrels of worm juice to apply to the paddocks with a view to installing 6 trays of worms to produce casting for sale to nearby vineyards. On paper this project did not meet our objectives, being too labour intensive and requiring a constant supply of large amounts of organic material (manure, etc.)

Fat lambs – our previous manager wanted to share farm a fat lamb flock. We declined for three reasons: 1. It would reduce the number of paddocks available for rotating the wool flock. 2. The danger of fibre contamination across flocks. 3. Insufficient feed to finish animals.

Grapes – we had a 50 acre paddock on a hillside that was suggested to us would be useful for a vineyard. This was aborted when it was discovered that the investment in trellises, etc was significant and this usage of the area locked it away, reducing the flexibility of the operation.

Chickens – the most promising enterprise is a mobile chicken house which it is intended will follow the flocks around, cleaning up the pasture of parasites and worms. This idea is based on Joel Salatin’s enterprise in Virginia (as described in “You Can Farm”) where his ‘chookerator’ moves among his orchard trees disturbing the soil and fertilizing the trees. The eggs will be sold through a local store at first. This enterprise has scalability.