Early thoughts for Farming "Idol"

A few months ago, Uamby was host to a Prograze study group, for the Department of Primary Industries. It is part of our vision for Uamby that it become a demonstration farm for progressive management practices.
As our vision takes shape, Uamby will be host to many more groups like this one.
The way we intend to make the dream come true is through a special program we are involved with.
We were selected along with 10 other farming enterprises to be trained for 20 days in advanced farm planning, with the possibility that three of us will be given the opportunity to fund our plans up to $100,000, courtesy of the Central West Catchment Management Authority. Coodinator Bruce Maynard says he wants our plans to be more innovative than we have ever been before. This is a big ask. Some people, like Col Seis who pioneered pasture cropping, have got runs on the board already.. (Col says he has something new up his sleeve.) With several "holistic" managers and at least one biodynamic operation, there are some pretty radical thinkers in the group. It is going to be hard to compete. And everyone has their sights set on that $100,000. You could set your farm up pretty well with that investment.
"Uamby" is already an innovative farm, converting to holistic resource management, and the CMA has contributed funding for the fencing, water points and a wildlife corridor involved in that move. Amazingly enough, we are being paid to do the things we want to do anyway. The CMA is encouraging 'soil farmers' who are committed to native perennial pastures because these help combat salt rising with the water table. Salt infusion can reduce the productive capacity of land down to zero. A fully-operational farm managed on holistic principles will meet the triple bottom line that the CMA is anxious to promote - ie.be more profitable, more sustainable and make a greater contribution to the community. Holism involves time-controlled grazing systems which requires smaller paddocks to allow the biggest proportion of the pasture under management to be rested for as long as possible to allow the plants to recover. "Rest" - a concept originally introduced by Turnip Townsend in the crop rotation system which is at the heart of the Agricultural Revolution in Europe in the 18th century - is a tool of production. I have seen grass grow in the driest period of a drought. Give it a chance to recover from grazing and it will grow.
As part of the CMA's Farming Systems training program we volunteered to blog our ideas, giving our fellows (our competitors) complete access to our thinking... ostensibly to encourage cross-fertilisation of ideas. My underlying motive was to promote our candidature as "innovators" worthy of reward.

So true to our promise, here in outline are our ideas so far. Understanding the CMA's objectives are educational - to spread new ideas about resource managment among the farming community by 'seeding' and publicising innovators - we have developed an educational package that turns Uamby into a demonstration farm, a centre of learning for both rural operations and city-based people. Not only will we adopt progressive practices such as the application of paramagnetic rock dust, worm juice and other natural suppliments to the soil, and the use of non-chemical drenches and treatments on the animals. We have plans to establish a learning centre to be the home of the study of the Philosophy of Agriculture. This area of study is based on the fundamental fact that every operator makes decisions within the parameters of a belief system based on a particular philosophy of agriculture. Your philosophy houses the assumptions you make and on which you based decisions. Every generation brings with it their own philosophy.
As with general philosophy, there are different schools of thought. The Philosophy of Agriculture does not identify any one philosophy as right or wrong. Just different. Once the operator understands that there are alternative views to their own on how farming should be managed, it broadens their options.
I taught the Philosophy of History at the University of New England in Armidale, northern New South Wales and will rely on that experience to prepare study materials. The Philosophy of any area of activity asks us to address the following questions: What is Agriculture? Why do we do it? What assumptions do you make about it? What have been the schools of thought: Primitive Agriculture, Traditional Agiculture, Scientific Agriculture, Natural Agriculture, Steiner Agriculture? What about the concept of occupancy - tribal ownership, individual ownership, corporate ownership, stewardship, government impacts? You'd be amazed what a discussion on fundamenal assumptions would reveal to each participant about their own beliefs - a breakthrough for many. The first step towards enlightenment. To institutionalise this into a school at Uamby we need to expand the accommodation to include more sleeping quarters (we already have a cottage) and meeting areas. It becomes a value-dded farm stay for city folk and an educational experience for farmers.
Uamby Natural Systems Farming will be illustrated by information boards in each paddock that explain what is happening in each area. Once we build a new shearing shed, the old one becomes a museum of farming, based on the techniques used over the years on Uamby.
To meet the community bottom line we have the restoration of the pioneer's graveyard which is underway and the alliance we have forged with Wiradjeri elders to use Uamby as an educational facility for revealing indigenous land usage and resource management.
The other thought we have had concerns an enterprise based on bamboo as a renewal building resource. Bamboo a fats growing and versatile, strong and flexible.

SO there you have it. Complete transparency. PLEASE Email me your comments and ideas.