Pasture still thin on the ground

The green flush is all around, and it is so joyful to see the grasses return. Unfortunately it's a bit 'thin on the ground'. We need rain-and guess what!! The ants are back!!!! In their thousands - crawling all through the cupboards, testing every lid and package. They predicted the last rain, but they weren't very accurate about when.







Let's go and have a look at Middle Paddock. It looks good from the air and from outside the gate. But on closer inspection, it is a different story.






Windmill grass and couch grass indicate salination. There are patches of native perennials valiantly trying to re-establish.





But there are also many bare patches which will need more time to recover, and some special treatment. We had pasture cropped this paddock in 2004, which gave us an explosion of perennial grasses.






(Pasture cropping is the direct drilling on something like oats into a dormant pasture instead of ploughing and sowing conventionally.) Heaven knows what the paddock would look like had we not done that.




The sheep don't have a problem with the grass - they're just so happy to see it. They run from paddock to paddock when we are moving them. No need to push them. Just show them the gate.





The impression that we are drowning in feed that the aerial photo might give is wrong. More than half the property is still in drought. Only those areas we were able to take the sheep off, thanks to our supporters. We fed the sheep in 'sacrifice paddocks' which you can see here.One of the sacrifice paddocks was called The Lease.






It is still struggling to come back. ALthough those sections where we spread Nitrohumus a few years ago (treated human biosolids) reveal better results.This treatment aimed to increase biological activity in the soil and kick start the restoration program.







We took advantage of the rest House Paddock was given over the last 3 months to allow some river red gums establish themselves in a paddock in need of trees. There has been one brave little gum tree growing well. So we protected four more seedlings to sede if they would flourish.



(I believe it is best the let Mother Nature decide what to plant and where. The tree is morem likely to survive that way. And we have planted many trees unsuccessfully over the years.) Here is our little master. He'll soon no longer need the protector.





And here is one of the babies - see how he grows in a few months.