Moora Farm Journal

Creating pastures

2012-01-16T23:12:00.002+11:00

Ever since I used conventional mechanised means to kick start the transition to high productivity pastures at Moora, I have wondered whether I might have been able to do it without the contractor's 200 HP John Deere, disc plough, and other implements.

But, at the time, I hadn't read Peter Andrews or Joel Salatin - and I hate gorse - of which we had plenty. So I got the most of the place mulched and then burnt before cultivation, lime, 2 years of fodder crops and re-cultivation (to break the weed cycle) ... before planting to a mix of just a couple of pasture species - plus clovers.

I think Moora pastures are now pretty good, but I'm actively looking to increase the range of species in the pasture sward with hand oversowing - and also just seeing what volunteers (and performs) under the cell grazing regime we now operate to. After reading Peter Andrews, in particular, I can never look at a 'weed' the same way again.

Leasing another farm nearby has given me an opportunity to try a different approach to improving pasture. We are fortunate enough to have the new farm - of about 60 acres - on a long term basis. So I can afford to put some effort into building its productivity - knowing we will reap the benefit for as many years as I am likely to want to continue farming.

When we took over there was one reasonable quality 10 acre paddock - where we were already grazing stock. The farm included 4 more small paddocks (another 8 acres) and a big area (40 acres) with little grass and a lot of hungry kangaroos in residence. This area had been fenced, but at some stage this had fallen into disrepair. My first thought was to just lease the fenced paddocks, but this was not attractive to the owner. In the end I took on the big paddock as well.

When it started raining again in winter of 2010 the response in that big paddock was pretty impressive - and a bit unexpected. By the end of that summer, I was in charge and it was necessary too slash the huge quantity of grass and weeds. It took a contractor several days to grind his way through it all and the mulched grass lay thick on the ground.

During the winter I had an electric fence built to separate my area off from the part of the property I'm not leasing. It's a 4 wire fence - 2 of them electrified. Various pundits predicted the kangaroos would destroy the fence, but it hasn't happened in the 6 months it has been there. Perhaps because of plenty of feed in the bush - or the long grass - we seem to have far fewer kangaroos. Long may it continue.

We've had another good year and the grass (with fewer weeds this time) was well over a metre deep across most of the big paddock by late Spring. My holiday job has been to create an electric fenced sub-divsion - and to start the process of cattle led pasture improvement. I have a mob of 19 steers on it and they are working their way through it.

In the spring they were getting about a 1/6th of an acre a day. With the deteriorating quality of the pasture now, I'm giving them about 1/4 of an acre. There is a lot of Phalaris and it's long and has seeded. They are trampling a fair bit of it now, but look well and seem to be gaining weight.

I've now finished feeding 2 of the 7 paddocks that the fencing has created. I'll keep two of these as 'set stocking' rest areas. The other 5 - I'm going to really try to improve pasture productivity. The first of these, I finished feeding at the end of November. It is now greening up and coming back nicely.

The second paddock was very long and rank before the steers went in - and had more weeds. When they finished, I decided to use my big zero turn mower to slash the residual. The first photo shows slashed and unslashed areas side by side.

The second photo shows the southern half of the paddock after I finished - and the last one the northern half.

The slashing creates more organic material to go with the mulched pasture from last year. It also knocks down the weeds - a mix of dock, thistles, wire weed and another woody thing that the cattle seem to strip bare. They don't touch the dock, thistles or wire weed. We do a certain amount of grubbing, but mainly we're going to use the Peter Andrew's approach and see what happens with cell grazing and a bit of natural fertility enhancement.

Mowing it gives me a good look at the paddock - where grass is growing well - and where it's thinner. This, and the fencing, tells me that I've got quite a bit of really productive land - at least when it rains. Not all of it is good - but I think the poor spots are probably only about 15% of the 40 acres. The rest looks as though it's as good as (or better than) the best of Moora.

When I finished it this evening it looked pretty good. I'm thinking of getting a really big lot of the chicken manure and rice hulls that I've been using at Moora and using my manure spreader to put that out. It has made a big difference at Moora - where I've spread it. I just got 22 m3 a few days ago - and most of that will go onto 43 this weekend. The rest will be used to turbo charge the compost heaps.
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Dung beetle update

2012-01-16T17:41:00.000+11:00

As I've reported previously, over the last 2 years we've released two species of dung beetles at Moora and one type at our leased farm.

The first were released in March 2010 only at Moora - when things were still very dry. They were Geotrupes spiniger. Earlier this year we released some Bubus bison - at both properties.

As I was walking starting to do some paddock harrowing a few weeks ago I noticed that quite a few cow pats looked a bit 'disturbed'.

I haven't had any feedback from the supplier yet, but I suspect the G. spiniger to have been at work.

As I understand it they burrow through the cow pat and into the ground - and then as much as a metre into the ground - where they lay their eggs in a ball of cow manure.

My paddock harrows spread things around a bit, but they don't dig metre long tunnels and bury the dung in deep in the root zone.

Cell grazing and cattle update

2011-11-26T21:51:00.002+11:00

I've been very busy. Too much of it in the City, but that is what pays the bills.

There is a website in Australia that is a bit like Google Earth, but better. It's a website based system accessed at www.nearmap.com. Here is a screen shot taken from a photo taken 21 October this year. I hope I'm not breaching any agreement by putting this on the blog.

The photo shows 4 of my paddocks. Starting bottom right and going clockwise, we go 41, 42, 43 and 44. The photo shows the pattern of use.

Paddock 43 (top left) was mulch mown in May because I'd not been able to get to grazing last season. In late July when it was very wet I thought this paddock might be good being the highest on the farm. Not true - it seems to hold the rain and the cows hooves were going in 4 inches. So the mulched grass got well incorporated into the paddock. I put the whole herd back in there for a few days in early October when it was again very wet. The photo shows the paddock 2 weeks later with just the slightest of green tinges starting.

When I looked at it today, I scored it at 5 on a scale where 10 equals the ideal next grazing point. I just checked and it's 49 days since last grazed - and I'm looking for a 100 day cycle. 43 is a Perennial Ryegrass paddock - which doesn't seem to be as good as my paddocks with Phalaris in the mix.

Paddock 44 (top right) is Phalaris - except for a strip around the edge. Don't ask how this happened, it just did. It was grazed from 6 September to 1 October and had a huge amount of feed as the break before grazing had been 242 days - albeit that included the winter. The cows calved in there - and the calves could hide in the long grass. You could be a few metres away and not see them - just an agitated Mum told you that you must be close.

There was so much feed in 44 that a certain amount of it wasn't used and just got trampled. 56 days after the cattle left it's already back to score 7 or 8. At the time the photo was taken the score was already about 3.

When the photo was taken one mob of cattle were in 41 (bottom right). They are at the western (left) end of the paddock. They are about to be shifted to the last area in the bottom right corner of the paddock. There was 3 days of grazing in the dark green bit for the 9.5 tonnes of cattle in there. They got through the paddock (another Ryegrass paddock) in 20 days.

The stripes you can see come from the compost and chicken manure spread last year. 41 was half done last year. 42 and 44 were fully done. 43 and the rest of 41 will get their turn this year. Other lines are where temporary electric fences have been.

The cattle are in 42 as I write. When the photo was taken, it had not been grazed for 60 days. The cows went in after 80 days but, as a Phalaris paddock, it was already pretty good. The score for the first few days grazing was 9, but we're now into an area where the Phalaris is about 4 feet high and I score it at 12. I'm feeding a 80 metre strip 4 or 5 metres at a time. That way the cattle seem to graze the tops with their butts on yesterday's area, then work their way down the stem - without the plant trampling they do with a wider break.

The way I work out how much the mob gets each day is I multiply the square metres by the pasture score and give them about 70% as many pasture units as there are kilograms of live weight. This is my version of Joel Salatin's cow days. The feedback is pretty good though - you just have to look at how they did yesterday.

The pasture growth I am getting now is pretty fantastic. How much of it is just because, after many dry years, we've had 2 good years in a row? Surely some of it is the cell grazing - and the compost / chicken manure - and the paddock harrowing.
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Progress report on calving

2011-10-03T13:49:00.003+11:00

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We have 21 cows due to calve this year - with only one maiden heifer (2008 produced 8 boys and a girl).

As of half an hour ago ... we had 10 calves - with no problems and no losses. Here is the latest arrival to a cow called Haviva.

Yesterday Grumpy-bum, otherwise known as Sarah, calved and wanted me to leave the paddock forthwith.

A day earlier she had upset the Chairman (woman) by trying to chase her out of the paddock when we were just trying to move them to the best paddock on the place.

I gave her a quick tap on the nose with the nearest thing to hand (an electric fence Tread-in) - then felt guilty about it.
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A Maremma learning his job

2011-10-01T07:55:00.002+10:00

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We have 2 Maremma pups that we are training to be livestock guardians. They are still both very young so they are not physically or mentally ready to protect stock.

They spend most of their time penned up near the livestock they are to be responsible for. Every day we take them out at least 3 times. We walk them around the boundary and supervise their interaction with the chickens (for Josie) and sheep (for Polo).

Here is a video of Polo with the sheep . I'm very pleased with his progress. Polo bounces a bit - especially at the end, but otherwise it's all very gentle. We have been told to watch for the adult animals accepting him - and for him licking their faces. You can see both in the video.
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I wonder how they do it

2011-09-27T06:28:00.001+10:00

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A large retailer is reported today to have 'imposed' a 5 % cut on prices paid to suppliers for a 3 month period as an 'investment of mutual benefit to both our organisations'.

This is Orwellian.

If a consumer walked out of their store with 5% more than they had paid for, presumably they would want it to be called theft rather than a 'mutual investment'.

A farmer in the industrial system has to deal with these people. Even a farmer outside the industrial system has to deal with the consequences of consumers having access to product derived from exploitative systems.

People in the city should understand the level of abuse and economic distortion that underlies their access to 'cheapness'. These things don't last forever.
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The wise and witty

2011-09-25T08:02:00.000+10:00

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I enjoy reading or listening to a guy called Dmitry Orlov. He wrote a book (Reinventing Collapse) that says that our industrial economies are collapsing and the main difference between the USSR and the USA is that a centrally planned industrial economy used up resources less efficiently than a capitalist industrial economy and that, as a result, one collapsed 20 years ago and the other is collapsing now.

For the avoidance of doubt, I enjoy reading him because he's an original (and witty) thinker and he is probably directionally right - AND NOT because I particularly want the world to 'collapse'.

His blog just posted an interview he did recently. In it he talked about the 1% that own 90% in an economy like the United States (not that we are much better). He said something that really caught my attention:

Their wealth is ephemeral. It only exists as numbers and letters on pieces of paper. Their wealth is denominated in future industrial production that does not exist.

Orlov is different to most pundits in that he doesn't then offer a series of prescriptions to remedy the problems - so that we can all get 'back to normal'. He views the collapse of Western industrial societies as inevitable and counsels practical adaptation rather than political fixes.

I was really struck by his characterisation of the ways the wealthy hold their wealth as 'denominated in future industrial production'. I guess this can apply to the various forms of capital market products (shares, bonds, funds, etc), to the sort of employment we commonly think of as a 'good job', to any real estate where value is not anchored in practicality, and even (perhaps especially) in future claims on governments. He's saying the wealthy are actually not wealthy! They only think they are - and the process of collapse will uncover the real situation.

I think I worked out something similar 15 years ago. My rationale was different. It occurred to me that there were / are what economists call principal agent problems shot through our modern society. The things that stood out to me were:

Public companies commonly didn't (and still don't) operate in the interests of their shareholders.
Most financial intermediaries have all sorts of conflicts of interest.
Government bureaucracies have equally serious conflicts of interest.

It seemed to me then that, if agents are not reliably representing principals on a systematic basis, strife is pretty certain to follow. It prompted me to:

Make direct investments in food and fibre.
Avoid (as much as possible) intermediated financial investments.
Expect nothing of governments in the medium or long term.
Think about what might happen if ..........

Moora Farm is not a perfect hedge against the sort of disruption Orlov anticipates, but its a partial one.

I came across something else a day or two ago by my old favourite Wendell Berry. Whereas Orlov is clever / witty, Berry is sober and even majestic. The article, which I've read before, is at this location. He argued, 20 years ago mind, the exact opposite of conventional wisdom about urbanisation and scale economies. Instead of seeing the drift from rural to urban as inevitable and progressive he said clearly and cogently that it was detrimental with much more lost than gained. I was 'sent to the city' by the sort of influences Berry describes.

Time will tell where value really lies.

WWOOFing

2011-09-18T21:36:00.001+10:00

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Our son has done the work to register us as hosts under a scheme called Willing Workers On Organic Farms.

We now have a host number - VM 259 - and we are waiting for someone to tell us they want to work with us for 4 to 6 hours a day in return for board and lodging. Someone who does this is called a WWOOFer.

We are not a certified organic property. We don't have to be - it's enough that we are mainly organic and don't ask our WWOOFers to use any chemicals or non-organic remedies.

A neighbor has been hosting WWOOFers for some time - and we've had a couple of groups of them around to dinner - just to give her a break. They were all nice kids.

We have quite a lot going on at present, so it will be good to have some help. The two Maremma pups take quite a lot of time. They are fed 3 times a day and taken for a short walk each time. We're also trying to socialise them to the animals they have to guard as well.

Josie is doing well with the chooks, but still needs to be supervised. The sobering part is that she will need to be supervised until she 'matures' - which could be a year away!

Polo is also doing ok with the sheep, but we definitely need to supervise his interaction with the ram. Even the ewes are a bit aggressive with him. He, for his part, is wanting to run around and play. When the ram does try to butt him, Polo stands up for himself by barking and 'charging' back in a 'get off me' sort of way. Having observed it a couple of times I think it's borderline what he should be doing to establish his role as their protector.

People say that it's best to get a pup and train them yourself - but that's a non-trivial undertaking.

Yesterday we drove down to Buln Buln in Gippsland and bought 6 fresian steers from a dairy farmer. Our reason for doing so is that we just don't have enough cattle to eat all our grass at Moora - let alone at the leased farm at Benson Rd.

We now have 6 steers of about 6 weeks old. They were advertised as weaners, but are really a bit young for weaning I think. We have a bag of milk powder / calf formula and have started out giving them 2 litres each once a day. The farmer gave us an old feeder - which I think was a hint to continue giving them milk for at least a week or two.

We will probably get another 6 in a few weeks, but will see how these ones go first. Whereas we grow our Belted Galloways to sell the meat direct to consumers, we intend that the dairy breed steers will be grown through to the end of Spring next year - and sold on the market.

Moora is 57 acres. Benson Rd is around 100 acres. I think, with the effort going into cell grazing, we can look at eventually having a herd of 50 Belted Galloway cows - plus the growers that come from that. Taking the steers through to 24 to 30 months will give us about 125 head. At present we have nearly 60 - so with a few more calves ... we'll be half way there.
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Good days ... and better

2011-09-10T09:33:00.000+10:00

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Yesterday we got our first calf of the year. The mother is Hargit and it is her fourth calf with no dramas. I got progress reports by email - including that it was 7 degrees and hailing in the hours after she was born.

It was still very cold when I got home and all I did was look out into the paddock. I couldn't see it so wondered if it was ok. There was a different explanation which became obvious this morning. I went to shift the cattle at 7 am and the calf was there and looking good and strong. I let the cattle through into the next area that has long thick pasture including phalaris over a metre high. The calf promptly disappeared. I could see where Hargit was, a little separate from the others, but from less that 10 metres there was no sign of the calf. Good instincts if there were to be predators around - particularly as Hargit was keeping a careful eye on me and the dog.

Thursday was not so good. We currently have six Dorper ewes. Five lambed a few weeks ago. I had begun to wonder whether the other had lambed and lost it as her udder looked full. Then Kristina came in saying "The last ewe is lambing". By the time I got out to it an hour or two later, it had two lambs, but both dead. With only six animals those two were the difference between a lambing percentage of 117% and one of 83%. I could have gone straight out, but I don't want to have to lamb ewes or calve cows. I'm prepared to cull for this. I have to concede to wondering about the longer term wisdom of human obstetric practises.

We now have a second Maremma pup and are putting quite a bit of time into their training. Polo has got shifted onto the ewes and lambs - as he is the more confident animal. Josie is a little bitch - and a bit of a sook. She has got the chickens to look after. She was a week or two younger than Polo when she came home - and the first to leave the litter. Inevitably it must have been a bit stressful going from 6 litter mates to a paddock. We are feeding them 3 times a day and walk them around the boundaries of their area before each feed - plus a bit of supervised contact with the animals they are being bonded to. It's quite a time consuming task - and Kristina is doing most of the work. It's a bit sobering to know that they won't be fully trained as guardian dogs for more than a year.
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What's going on ...

2011-08-27T08:43:00.001+10:00

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Haven't blogged for a while - so here are some photos of recent goings on as we head into Spring.

Spring means new arrivals. This little sweetheart looks as though her mother had a fling with a Friesian bull.

The cows are now in a separate paddock and clear of last years calves. Sometime in the next month they'll be looking after new ones.

The second photo shows my daughter in law learning a useful skill. Elastrator rubber rings are part of family history - with both my grandmother's brother and Kristina's grandfather part of patenting the idea. They went on to sell a lot of them!

Doing the tail is easy enough, but the castration task needs care.

Not much fun for the lambs, but then ... I didn't enjoy being vaccinated when I was a little tacker. They lie around for half an hour, but are then up and running again.

The first of our Maremma pups is now at Moora. We've called him Polo - which is short for Napoleon - and the other one is likely to be called Josephine .... Josie perhaps.

He seems like a very bright little thing. As gorgeous as any other pup, but showing signs of being suited for the work he has to do.

We are gradually getting him used to (and bonded to) the animals he has to protect. Each day we take him on 2 or 3 walks around the area he has to watch most closely. At least one of the walks is on a lead. He didn't like it the first couple of times, but accepts it now.

He is already in the paddock - and isn't allowed near the house. He has a kennel. The first night I wasn't sure whether he had worked out where to sleep, but he has now. The other problem is that it is not going to be big enough for him for very long. The gates keep him from playing with the chooks - at the moment his only contact with them is supervised.

We've all reading a book produced by a scientist at the Cooperative Research Centre for Invasive Animals. It's a very useful document.
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Problems ...... and solutions

2011-08-08T21:33:00.001+10:00

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Last week we were late locking up the chooks ...... and lost 8 in one night. With the 3 lost while we were away and a couple of other single losses, our small start to egg production has been brought to a shuddering and distressing halt. Not that we've seen them, but it has to be foxes.

The loss of these birds hurts us financially - they cost money to buy - and we have also lost the income we were earning from the sale of eggs. But the sense of having failed our livestock hurts worse. It is said by farmers that where there are livestock there will be dead stock, but we still owe them the best care we can manage. And that includes remembering to lock them up before nightfall.

On Saturday morning we took a step towards solving the problem. We put a deposit on 2 Maremma pups.

Maremmas are a livestock guardian dog - originally from Italy. One of our pups is 4 weeks old - and the other 6 weeks old. This is the younger one.

We will bring them home at 8 to 10 weeks just as they are weaned. They will then begin their training immediately. I have found a book that describes itself as a Best Practise Manual for the Use of Guardian Dogs. The author worked in an Australian research institute and our breeder said "She got a few things wrong, but not many." Sounds like a recommendation.

One of our dogs will be put with the remaining 3 chooks - to bond with them. The other will be put with a couple of the quieter ewes and their new lambs. We have to make sure they spend time with the animals they are to bond with, but have somewhere to get away from them, and not be allowed to play with them. Sounds like a lot for a pup, but 'the book' says 8 weeks is the best time to start.

Once we have the chook pup trained well enough - and only then - will we get another batch of hens. This will take several months at least.

Learning, learning

2011-07-29T20:42:00.004+10:00

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The Moora Farm cattle are in paddock 43. It's a paddock we didn't graze last year - because we just had so much feed. In May I got the rank, long pasture mulch mown. The mown grass was then just left on the ground to compost naturally. Even though it was mown in May, there had been good regrowth - more than you would expect in June and July.

Last weekend I was looking for anywhere to put the cattle that was even slightly drier than the rest. I lit on 43 because it hadn't been grazed and is the highest paddock on the farm. It wasn't dry however. As soon as the cattle went in there they were sinking 2 or 3 inches into the ground everywhere and deeper in the wet spots. Without other options really, I decided to experiment.

Since then they have been shifted every day. So each strip gets only 24 hours of 'deep tissue massage' from the cattle's feet. The first photo shows 2 strips separated by where the electric fence ran. The second photo shows a close up of the 'damage'. It's not trivial, but I guess the mulched grass from last year is being well and truly incorporated into the top few inches.

I have been far from convinced that I am doing the right thing, but also reluctant to shift the cattle onto even better paddocks - and have them chop them up.

Then .. this afternoon I noticed something. Over quite a lot of the paddock there are holes about 1/4 inch across. You can see them in the 3rd photo is you look closely. It's not like they are across the whole paddock - but there are a lot.

What could be causing this? I have released dung beetles, but this looks nothing like their work. When I lifted a clump of dirt I was surprised, first, by how friable / non-sticky it seemed. Then ... it was full of smallish earthworms. They look too small to make such big holes - and so many of them.

Does anyone know what the source of the holes is likely to be?

I'm quite hopeful that the seeming mis-treatment of this paddock will have a good end. I think I'll spread, by hand, some seed and then paddock harrow it (once it's dry enough). I'll be very interested to see how it comes back.

The last photo shows the cattle on their new strip tonight. The strip over past this one is very, very wet - still with lots of standing water. I'm going to skirt the temporary fence around this and use it as a bit of a control to compare with the majority of the paddock which will have been all chopped up.

All very interesting.

We had a meeting at our place today and I got to take a neighbour (who is a real farmer - albeit an orchardist) around the pastures. Before John got to see 43, he saw the progress we've made in some of the other paddocks. Hopefully he didn't then judge my 43 experiment too harshly. It is a bit confronting when you see it up close.

I'll report back.
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A new arrival

2011-07-29T19:52:00.003+10:00

This little guy arrived today. Our first Dorper lamb. We've had a couple of dry days, but he wasn't born onto warm Spring pasture ....... but he seemed happy enough and keen to feed whenever Mum would let him. She's a first time Mum - but seemed on top of things.

Cold and wet

2011-07-21T20:38:00.000+10:00

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I suppose at the end of July things should be cold and wet. While we were away the cattle stayed on pasture, but I have put them into the feed yard since and have been feeding them hay.

This keeps them off the paddocks when they are at their wettest. It will also use up some 2009 hay that I have left. It also produces a bit of waste hay mixed with manure to turbo charge our compost. This year we got access to some rain damaged hay from a neighbour. We've now picked up most of it and put it straight into the compost bins. By the time we're finished we'll have at least 4 compost containers - each 6 metres in diameter and about a metre deep once the material composts.

That is about 120 cubic metres of compost. I'll add that to a similar quantity of chicken manure and rice hulls and put it out on my paddocks. Actually 250 cubic metres will cover nearly half this farm! This last year I did about 15 to 20%, but only the first 5% with compost. From what I read and understand the compost mix should definitely be better than just the 'chicken & rice'.

Nothing much is growing at the moment - other, hopefully, than calves in cows. It won't take long though and Spring will be here. Last year growth didn't seem to take off until late September. I can't wait to see how this year goes.
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Everything dies

2011-07-21T20:12:00.004+10:00

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The last few weeks has seen the Indonesian live cattle scandal explode and expire.

I think the main problem exposed by this affair is the disconnection most Australians have from animal reality - and the willingness of foolish bureaucrats and politicians to pander to nonsense - to the fairly immediate detriment of animals, farmers and common sense.

Let's get one thing clear at the start. I don't think it's ever a good idea for humans to mistreat animals. But it's an ill (at the extreme perhaps - an evil) just like a lots of other ills. We need to be careful that we don't turn our world upside down to solve one ill - at the cost of creating a series of other ills - worse than what we started with.

Let's remember that a domesticated cow is descended from what was always a prey animal. Its ancestors were chased, caught and killed by predators for millions of years - with nary a stun gun in sight. Cattle or sheep or chickens having a scary, gory, painful end is what they have always had.

When we kill domesticated (or other) animals 'humanely' we are doing it, I think, for two reasons:

the meat of an animal that was not stressed at the time of slaughter tastes better; and
in some way we (humans) are always diminished by cruelty.

I don't think there is an additional obligation to do anything just because nutty people are squeamish about a natural process - that is ... dieing.

My father and mother couldn't afford to be squeamish if they wanted to have the treat of what they then called 'poultry'. Between them, they had to kill a hen, pluck it, gut it, clean it, prepare it. Their grandchildren pick up the organic chicken from the supermarket or Deli - and just have to cook it.

The reality is that the life (and end) of the hen my parents put on our table in the 1960s was immeasurably better than that of the chicken my kids eat. Eight week life, unnatural food, unnatural housing, sub clinical dosing with antibiotics, grotesque body shapes, industrial slaughterhouses ... that's what produces the chicken we eat every day.
Sorry ... the organic chicken will have another week or two of life, slightly better food, slightly better housing, no antibiotics - and an industrial slaughterhouse.

I can't help but see the fuss over the way Indonesians treat cattle as ... mainly ... self indulgent (and hypocritical) squeamishness in a set of circumstances where the very real costs of that self indulgence are imposed on others.

[After discussing the following two paragraphs with my cultural adviser (my son), I've decided to add a warning. Only read on if you have heard of DH Lawrence.]

I'm reminded of the line in Lady Chatterley's Lover where Mellors observes to Connie (her in a state of undress) "An' if tha shits an' if tha pisses, I'm glad. I don't want a woman as couldna shit nor piss."

Mellors was enough in touch with reality to understand that humans (and animals) shit, piss ... and, one day, die.
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Rupert Murdoch and the Select Committee

2011-07-20T03:28:00.003+10:00

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I'm obviously still adjusting to time changes if I'm watching a Select Committee hearing of the House of Commons at 2-30am.

I don't carry any flag for Murdoch or News Ltd. I'm generally reluctant to acknowledge political leanings, but I would own up to being 'left' of Rupert [I can't watch his Fox News for more than 15 seconds without having an unstoppable urge to change channels].

Nonetheless, my gut response is that the Select Committee included a few sinners casting stones. And ... the commentators on the BBC that are saying the Murdochs performed badly ... well ... I'd say I find their pontificating and judgement obnoxious.

Rupert is undoubtedly culpable - but I think it's a dishonest nonsense to posture as though the mess is not a shared enterprise between proprietors, journalists, politicians (and their ex-journalist spin doctors) ... and even readers who pay for news content that pries into other people's lives.

The politicians on the Select Committee were actually not that bad - particularly a woman called Louise Mensch. As I write, she is pursuing Rebekah Brooks over the general Fleet St culture. That seems a lot more more plausible as an explanation of what happened than the BBC commentariat's implication that Murdoch is some sort of lone 'bad apple'.

A few months ago I saw a documentary on the Deepwater Horizon oil spill that included coverage of BP's Tony Hayward giving evidence to a Congressional Hearing. The politicians on the Select Committee compare extremely well with the cheap shot grandstanders from the US equivalent.
F

Performance of the next generation

2011-07-16T20:18:00.001+10:00

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We got home this week after 4 weeks and 2 days away.

Moora Farm had been in the care of our son and daughter - both of whom were working in the city, often later in the day. As a result their time to look after things was concentrated in the morning - never a good time for most under 25s.

Well ........ two less chooks, but otherwise everything else pretty good. Well done Anna and Neil!
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The Somme

2011-07-06T06:40:00.004+10:00

We are now staying in Flers in the middle of the British part of what was, between 1914 and 1918, the Western Front.

We are here because both of my grand fathers fought through this area. They both survived, but my Grandad had an older brother who didn't. Here they are - Harold Lee Spark (Grandad) on the left and Thomas Edwin (known as Eddy) Spark on the right.

Here is what my Grandad said about his brother in a recording made in December 1976:

He was wounded on the Somme, got a bullet through his lungs and they sent him home to Britain to recuperate.

That was the 1st of July 1916, a terrible battle. They kept them back for the Somme, and by Jove mankind are a lot of idiots, fattened them up for all this and then they were only in battle for about half an hour and they were just about all wiped out.

They were saved for the Somme like many other regiments were, and they just got completely cut up. They couldn't face the machine guns. It was the machine guns that did it; they mowed them down in waves just like grass, one wave after another. How the British soldier stood up to it - or any soldier. They just went forward, they had to do it. It mowed them down like grass, it was absolutely amazing, the spirit, the bravery. But that's history. I don't think they'd do it today; in fact I'm sure they wouldn't. But these silly fool had to do it.

... he was wounded on the Somme, got a bullet through his lungs and they sent him home to recuperate. And then the sent him back and got him blown to pieces. He was stretcher bearing, five of them were, and he was absolutely blown to bits, bringing in a wounded officer.

And he's commemorated at Pozieres.

And there he was on the western wall on a list of those lost with no known grave along with hundreds and thousands of others. Perhaps he lies beneath one of the many headstones that say:

A Soldier of the Great War

Known unto God

Perhaps not - perhaps he's just part of the Picardy soil that now grows beautiful crops of wheat, barley, potatoes, rape and sugar beet. Now they would find some DNA and give every one a grave. In the end does it matter?

Eddy was first wounded in the 'big push' at Authuille Wood on 1 July 1916. He didn't go back to the front until the Spring of 1918 - a few weeks later he was killed in action on 28 April of that year. He was 22 years old.

As I read my Grandad's words, I can hear him speaking. Over 50 years in New Zealand didn't dull his northern accent. I knew him well - and spent quite a lot of time with him. He always spoke as though he had a lot to say - and couldn't wait to get it out. And he said things with conviction - or with a twinkle in his eye - and sometimes both together.

Agree, then, about the folly of war. But give the participants their due.

Herbert Fairlie Wood

In the footsteps of my forefathers

2011-07-04T17:47:00.004+10:00

This afternoon I went back to the English village from where, in April 1841, my great great grandfather John Holdaway set out for New Zealand.

John was an agricultural labourer living with his wife Mary and 4 children in the village of Lasham in the County of Hampshire. Youngest of the children was James (5 at the time) – who was my great grandfather.

John left Lasham with his friend Thomas Creswell to take up employment with the New Zealand Company. They travelled to London and on to Gravesend where they embarked on the Whitby on 28 April 1841. Their wives and children followed – setting sail on 24 September 1841.

Lasham, then and now, was / is in an agricultural area. John and Thomas were landless farm labourers and poor enough to find attractive the idea of travelling to the other side of the world - to what? They had no capacity to type ‘Nelson’ into Google or Google Earth and see what the future might hold for them. They had only the flowery plans and promises of the New Zealand Company agent from the nearby town of Alton. Plans and promises about a settlement that did not yet exist.

That they became pioneers of Nelson, I am grateful for. So today I returned to Lasham some 170 years after they left. I came armed with the results of researches by a number of people: Ted Holdaway, my mother Mary Holdaway – and some additional guidance from my brother Alan.

Alan said we had to come by car – so we came by train. We arrived in Alton – with Lasham 3 or 4 undulating miles away. Taxis were hard to come by so we bought an Ordinance Survey map and started studying the foot paths.

Fate then intervened in the form of a driverless cab outside a betting shop. Kristina can persuade most people to do anything she wants – and so it was again. The off duty cabbie left his slot machine and drove us to Lasham.

We went to the Royal Oak and had a very nice lunch. A plan formed. I had found a footpath on the OS map that led pretty much straight from Lasham, via the village of Shaldon, to Alton. Is it not possible that John and Thomas might have passed this way as they left the place their ancestors had inhabited for centuries – never to return?

I don’t know this – and I don’t think anyone will know. If that is not the path they took on that occasion, they certainly must have taken it on others as they talked to the New Zealand Company agent in Alton and supplied him with the material that established their suitability as settlers.

Anyway we decided we would recreate the first small part of their journey and walk the footpath to Alton.

The path actually starts right where John and Mary are believed to have lived before they left – just north of the church in a lane known as Common Way.

It was a lovely walk – mainly downhill the way we did it. It took us a hour and 40 minutes.

We looked for old oak trees that might have already been there when they left. Here is one candidate just at the start of the journey.

John's grandson (my grandfather) was a great tree man - though I have to say, his taste was for fruit trees or eucaplyts rather than oaks.

The path got a bit overgrown in places. I was wearing shorts and crocs - so my legs got a light exfoliation by bramble and stinging nettle.

We crossed fields of rape and wheat. The wheat in John's day wouldn't have been the short stemmed, heavy headed stuff we saw, but he would have passed (in April) fields of young crops.

My legs were a bit weary towards the end, but spirits were lifted when we crossed a field with a big mob of working horses. They were beautiful.

We had a lovely day for our walk. It was in the low 20s I guess with a gentle breeze. No one would want to ever leave England on such a day.

I'm going to encourage each of my children to try to make this walk some day - in the footsteps of their forefathers. I'll make up a map and set of instructions for any of the descendants of John Holdaway who want to do so.

Four Farms - No. 3 Polyface Inc.

2011-07-02T15:42:00.000+10:00

This farm is something really special. Regular readers of this blog (are there any?) will have heard the Joel Salatin name before. If not from my scribblings, from Michael Pollan in The Omnivore's Dilemma or the film Food Inc.

Pollan's book was my first contact with the man. I finished the section ..... and immediately went back to the start and read it again. Joel was just as compelling each of the two times I saw (and listened to) him in Australia. And, of course, in his various books.

Here we were in Swoope, Virginia at Polyface Farm. Would it be as good as advertised?

Joel always makes a point of saying how it's whether something works that matters. I've always been a bit more of a William Morris fan. He said “Have nothing in your house (or on your farm) that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful”. He didn't say the bit in brackets - but he might have.

So Polyface is a working farm - and limited attention goes into making it look 'tidy'. Because you come first to the yard there is the usual junk about of someone who is a bit of a scavenger - like 3 second hand muck spreaders which, I assume, providing parts for the working one. Clearly most things on the farm are home built from least cost materials and for purpose.

My reaction to this is nuanced. Part (mostly) respect for the purpose and energy that is obvious - with a nagging feeling that, if it was me, I'd at least put the 3 old muck spreaders in a line and cover them up.

It's when we moved a way from the farm yard that my enthusiasm for what I saw became pretty much unqualified.

The first photo looks back along one of the fields. You can see the trees along each side of the field (optimizing edge effect), the quality of the recently grazed pasture, evidence of the compost that has been spread ... it was just beautiful!

The second photo is of one generation of the broiler chickens. Two offset rows of shelters each with about 50 Cornish Cross chickens in them. Polyface is criticised for using this modern breed - and they're not a particularly attractive bird. Joel justifies it by saying the performance of the bird (to kill weight in 7 or 8 weeks) is so superior - the meat type is similar (but better) than what his customers usually eat - and the birds are allowed to express their 'chickeness' and are definitely not ill-treated. In the end they are still an ugly animal - unable to stand up almost due to their grotesquely large breast.

Looking behind the shelters, you see exactly the effect on the pasture Joel describes. Grass grazed down, manure spread about - pasture about to 'take off'.

Here are a few hundred turkeys. You can see here a bit of the utilitarianism of the infrastructure. Things are built for purpose - and rebuilt to better serve the purpose as ideas occur. The energy of the whole enterprise just shines.

Having heard Joel speak and read his books I can see (I think) that the current challenge intriguing the Salatin family is just how far they can 'scale up' to feed more people. After half a lifetime on a previously degraded property they are now starting to look at just what the addition of extra labour units will do to lift productivity.

Those labour units come partly in the form of low cost 'interns', but also in the form of other employed people in the shop and in delivering - and doing other things attached in one way or other to the enterprise.

My perception is that Polyface is now examining the question / criticism often levelled at the local food movement: "How will you guys feed the world without industrial agriculture?"

I'm interested in the answer. And I applaud Polyface for the ambition of its vision. By the time I was up with the chicken houses and pigs, I was just in awe of the intelligence of the place. I'd forgotten the 'untidy' yard and was immersed in it all.

Was I affected by the fact that we were there on two lovely days at the best time of the year for any farm (Spring to early Summer)? I don't think so. David Holmgren said about Polyface something like "It's the best at scale example of permaculture agriculture there is." I agree!

I love pigs. They are the most curious, fun loving animals there are. The ones we met at Polyface were having the time of their life breaking in new pasture. They have access to grain and water, but take part of their sustenance from rooting around in the woods.

The next photo shows what happens after the pigs go out, some trees have been harvested and cleared, cattle have grazed, poulty has followed through. You start to get a beautiful pasture - with some remnant shade trees.

I didn't get the chance to confirm with Joel that he is slowly extending the cultivated part of his farm back into the woods, but I think that is what is happening. A lot less brutally (and more sustainably) than the first time around - when the woods were cleared and the land cultivated ... until it collapsed (in ecological terms at least) into the state it was when Joel's Dad acquired it.

The final photo shows me with some of the cattle - doing something useful. The cattle had managed to overturn the mobile trough. I put it back upright - and tried to let it refill to the point where there was enough weight in it that they wouldn't immediately turn it over again.

There were some thirsty cattle there - and they wanted some water.

We went to Polyface two days in a row. I could easily go back again and I'm sure I'd notice a whole load of extra things.

The second day they were slaughtering poultry - a process Joel describes in his books. It was as civilised and sensible as he says. In the first photo a lovely young woman was actually slaughtering chickens for the first time.

She had been a Polyface for 4 weeks and had worked on the processing part, but not at the killing cones before. The chickens are put head down into the cone. They 'go quiet' when this happens - which allows the head to be stretched slightly and the jugular veins to be cut. Quick and relatively stress-less. They were killed less than 100 metres from where they lived a short, content life.

This has to be better than transporting them to a slaughter facility - like I have to do with my cattle.

I'm reasonably happy that our abbatoir doesn't unnecessarily stress the animals in the slaughter process, but the whole 'to do' of getting them into the yards, transporting them, and penning them up in an unfamiliar place is so much less civilised than what Polyface is doing with its chickens.

As I write this, it's 3 days after we visited Polyface ... but I'm still excited by it. It was flat out brilliant.
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Four Farms - No. 2

2011-06-30T23:37:00.002+10:00

The second farm we visited was the Smith Family Farm in Bar Harbour, Maine. The farm is run by a lady called Maggie - far too young to have upset Bob Dylan in the mid 60s.

We first met Maggie at the weekly Farmers' Market at North East Harbour. She was selling raw milk, cheese and yogurt. I bought a pot of lemon yogurt and had only my finger to try it - it was good.

I shook Maggie's hand. It was a dairy farmer's hand - a little incongruous on a petite wee lady. I recognise the feel of a dairy farmer's hand from my uncles. Sorry Maggie - big fat fingers, chapped and cracked.

Maggie milks about 10 beautiful Jersey dairy cows. Is there anything more gentle and flat out gorgeous than a Jersey cow? I don't think so. She milks all year round - which I guess she needs to do to keep producing her milk, yogurt and cheese. Hard yakka!

The other part of the Maggie's farm that I found most interesting was her cell grazing. I helped her (not much) move the cattle. We talked about how we each manage the pastures and the right amount to eat down the pasture before moving them on.

Maggie has almost nothing in the way of permanent fencing - similar it seems to most of the US. It certainly makes the cell grazing easier. Her electric fencing is very light. Perhaps it helps to have gentle Jerseys.

Her pastures looked great - a wide variety of species and lots of clover (white and red).

Again a privilege to see someone else's farm.
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Four farms - No.1

2011-06-30T09:37:00.001+10:00

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Over the last 5 or 6 days we have visited 4 farms - one twice. Each has been special in its own way. I'll do a post on each over the next few days.

Number one was Eliot Coleman's Four Seasons Farm in Harborside, Maine (Sic - it's Americans who can't spell harbour - not me). This is a very special farm - growing vegetables mainly - in a quite inhospitable climate. Coleman has made a specialty of growing vegetables using poly tunnels and a lot of smarts.

The attention to detail was obvious. Everything was very tidy - just sort of obsessively so perhaps. There were so many things I was interested in - from the hand carts to his trellising system to the heating system in the poly tunnels - to the chicken tractors.

James the Trailer Doctor is going to have some things to make for me. The cart in particular is quite similar to one we used to have on the farm when I was growing up. We called it the U-cart. The American version is called a Vermont Cart.

Eliot's version was particularly stylish. It is so much better than a wheelbarrow - for everything except concrete.

I actually hate wheelbarrows - I've skinned my shins on on the cross bar too many times. They all have handles too short for someone my height.

The second thing I really liked was the chicken trailer. It's not quite so obvious that I'll get one built, but I like the lightness of it, the perches at floor height, the mesh floor and the integrated next boxes.

Four Seasons Farm has a farm shop and also sells through farmers' markets. People from the area say the prices are high, but the quality is brilliant. I bought some fennel, baby leeks, white onions, carrots and zucchini and grilled them as an accompaniment to a nice piece of sirloin. They were very good - in spite of a bit of a scorching.

Four Seasons Farm seems to employ 'interns' - who work for a period to learn - and then go off to start their own farms. Cheap and motivated labour. Other farms we visited seem to also use this system. Not only is it difficult for a farmer to earn a living wage rate - it seems to be hard to pay for help.

Overall ..... very impressive!
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Travelling ....

2011-06-20T23:50:00.004+10:00

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You know those bumper stickers saying 'I'd rather be skiing'. I feel like I need one for my for my luggage saying 'I'd rather be at home at Moora Farm'.

My dear wife and I are nearly one week into a month long trip. We've been briefly to New Zealand to see family - and then ... 4 days in Vancouver. Vancouver-ites were mightily embarrassed by the riots that happened the night we arrived, but we found the city everything it's advertised to be.

Actually, the best analogy I can come up with is a mix of the cosmopolitan-ness of Melbourne and the outdoors-ness of New Zealand. We ate well and saw a bit of the scenery and culture. This was the view from our B&B bedroom.

One evening we went sea kayaking just a bit further up Indian Arm. It was beautiful.

We've since moved on to New England - where we're headed for Kennebunk, Maine where I won't be looking out for G Bush the younger or elder. We're on Amtrak at present - a great way to travel. The landscape we've been passing through is a bit bleak however with lots of abandoned factories. It makes one wonder just what the economic base of New Jersey and Connecticut actually is.

Neil and Anna are looking after the farm and sounding very much like everything is well under control. We've had enough rain to cause some serious pugging in part of the paddock the cattle are in, but I know from experience how quickly that can recover.

I wish I were there ... even if I'm not missing the 6 degree morning temps.
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Cleaning out the Chookmobile

2011-05-15T08:09:00.001+10:00

My blogpost of 25 December last showed the Chookmobile we had built from an old trailer bought at a clearing sale.

Since then we've acquired 11 Isa Brown chooks that have started laying. The Chookmobile is working well. I move it every two weeks and the grazing and scratching the hens do close to their housing gets moved around a 1.5 acre area. After a week or so, you can't see where they have been.

After a few weeks the inside of the Chookmobile looks like the first photo. That is when I attach it to my Polaris Ranger and tow it up to the Compost Yard.

Then, after 15 minutes work from Kristina and me, it looks like the second photo. Under the mess is a layer of cardboard and newspaper over the old wooden floor - and that makes it quite easy to clean out.
The chickenshit, straw and cardboard / newspaper goes straight into the compost heap. Then we sweep it out and clean up any stray cobwebs etc.

At this stage we don't sprinkle around supher or any of the other disinfectants we could use.I guess I could also look at using the pressure washer, but so far it hasn't seemed necessary

Next we put down new layers of paper and use a staple gun to stop it sliding around. Photo 3 shows me doing this - with creaking knees!

Photo 4 shows the finished floor - with the perches reinstalled. They get a scrape down as well.

The last thing we do is add part of a bale of hay over the top to give them something nicer to scratch around in - rather than tear up the paper.

From dawn to dusk though the chooks are mainly outside in our trufferie. So far we've remembered to lock them up every night ... well almost. And the 2 nights we forgot Mr Fox either wasn't around or couldn't work out how to get into the trufferie.

The girls are giving us nearly one egg each a day at this stage. Which they should be doing at their age. The eggs are absolutely beautiful - especially freshly poached.

Into Autumn ...

2011-04-24T07:29:00.000+10:00

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Well - I've finished my first Spring and Summer of cell grazing. Seasonal condisitions have been so good and unusual that my cattle couldn't eat their way around the farm even once.

Since mid September I have grazed around 62% (11.9 ha) of the farm once - usually giving the cattle only one or two day's feed at a time. I cut hay from 16% (3.1 ha) - which I wouldn't normally do. I then also have 4 paddocks which I'm going to get mulch mown and just leave this year's grass to compost on the ground. That's 22% (4.3 ha) of the farm.

Initially I was just feeding 22 animals, then it dropped to 13 when the 2009 calves went to Millet Rd ... before the cows and calves came back to see the new bull and I had 48 animals here for a couple of months! The cows and calves went back to Benson Rd and Boundary Rd and the Millet Rd stock came back home - and I presently have 25.

My best cows are at the agistment properties. They are 'best' in the sense that they produce calves without drama. At Moora Farm I have 4 cows that are 'on probation' for various reasons plus my Dun cow (because she's cute) plus just one maiden heifer this year. I then also have the bull - and 18 steers. That makes a total herd of 25 at Moora Farm and 55 in all ... before someone goes to slaughter later this week.

If it sounds like I've been moving cattle around a bit ... I have, but it hasn't been so bad. I need better loading facilities in a couple of places, but I have a good trailer and the cattle are fairly cooperative. It is well worthwhile to get inexpensive access to more land. It works for my agistment farmers as well - as they get to look after my beautiful animals and bring land into production that would otherwise be idle.

The grazing regime at Moora is has produced a very significant increase in the quality of each paddock that has been cell grazed. The pasture sward is thicker and more species are volunteering into the mix along with the primary ryegrass and clover. I have several paddocks with Phalaris - and those are the ones where the growth is most spectacular. What I don't really know is how good is the Phalaris vs other grasses.

The cattle are now back in paddock 12 - which is one of the those Phalaris paddocks. The cattle grazed 12 from mid September through to 24 October. I could easily have grazed it again by the start of January - at the latest. You can see in this photo the mature Phalaris is almost 6 ft high. There is plenty of clover, ryegrass and other bits and pieces at the base.

It is interesting to watch the cattle when they get access to a new area. Most of them start by nibbling at the heads of the tallest grasses. The next priority seems to be anything more unusual - which might be weeds or some sappy annual ryegrass against the fence. Then the settle down to 'eat their greens' - ie the rest of the pasture.

Under the (remote) tutelage of Peter Andrews I am learning to relax about things I have previously thought of as weeds. Andrews, and Pat Coleby for that matter, believe animals eat what they need. The way they go for the stuff we are told to eliminate - you have to wonder.

A couple of weeks ago there was a patch of Marshmallow in a particular part of the paddock. Perhaps I should have checked before they got access, but in they went. First thing they ate! Checking online just now, I see that it's supposed to cause nitrate staggers. If it did, I didn't notice - and I did almost lose a couple of cattle from this cause eating too of a forage brassica called Winifred a few years ago.

I'd be interested in other people's experience with cattle eating weeds.
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A Good Book

2011-03-17T13:08:00.000+11:00

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I've almost finished reading No One Would Listen - by Madoff whistleblower Harry Markopolos. I read a lot of his material when it first came out, but the book is very good. I would say essential reading.

I'm not at all surprised by the incompetence he exposes at the SEC. They have also caused the industry I've been part of (accounting) tremendous cost and aggravation for little or no benefit.

The really jolting thing to read, in detail, is how every one with half a brain knew something was wrong, but still the thing lasted so long. That suggests Wall St is one bad, corrupt system. It was Burke who said "All that is required for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing." And then they have the cheek to pay themselves millions as well.

I've listened for years to people describing a country I love (Indonesia) as hopelessly corrupt. After reading Markopolos my question is .... Compared to what?
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An important idea

2011-03-12T12:13:00.000+11:00

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I'm a big fan of public radio - in Australia that's Radio National, but the BBC and even NPR are terrific as well.

This morning as I paddock harrowed Radio National's Paul Comrie Thomson introduced me to a guy called Jonah Lehrer and an article he wrote for the New Yorker. It's about something Lehrer calls the Decline Effect.

I guess I accept that the 'scientific method' has bought benefits to the world - even if I have had a growing sense of it bringing problems as well. Now I understand a little more of the why.

The decline effect focuses on just how much science turns out to be .... well .... wrong. And then it seeks to explain why - a mix of methodological errors, publication biases, randomness and commercial interests. Better you read the article yourself.

This is why 'the science' needs to be put up against, particularly, ancient knowledge and the observations of the wise on a much more equal basis than is common.

A couple of weeks ago I attended a seminar that featured Peter Andrews and his ideas about Australian landscapes. Most people know Andrews from a TV program called Australian Story, but a better sense of what he's on about can be got from his books Back from the Brink and Beyond the Brink.

Anyone with an open mind and a minimum of common sense reads his books or listens to him quickly suspects that much of what passes for scientific knowledge of the Australian landscape is seriously misguided. Andrews is a equal opportunity detractor of scientists in thrall to industrial agriculture and those steeped in 'Green'. Two of his clearest positions illustrate this well: he thinks monocultures (the core of industrial agriculture) are crazy, but he then thinks Eucalypts are often the wrong trees for Australian landscapes and that planting willows in a watercourse is a great idea!

I know I'd back Peter Andrews over a hundred Monsanto or Cargill employed scientists - or two hundred from the academy or the Department of Natural Resources paid from the public purse. Now I know a little bit more about why ......... the Decline Effect.
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New arrivals at Moora Farm

2011-03-06T19:19:00.001+11:00

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This morning I drove north for a couple of hours to a little place called Milloo - and picked up six F4 Dorper ewes and a pure bred Dorper ram. They are the (re)start of the Moora Farm sheep flock.

When we first got into (hobby) farming it was sheep we started with. My Dad had sheep (and pigs) for most of the time I was growing up. I was familiar with dairy cows through my Mum's family - but also familiar enough to know I didn't want to milk cows.

My sheep farming at Kilmore had it's ups and downs - as I adapted to the first cross Merino ewes that most Australian farmers had in those days. They were very flighty girls compared to the cross bred ewes I was used to. One might even describe them as poor mothers - all too willing to abandon a lamb.

Eventually we did adapt and learned to love them - and produced some very good second cross lambs. They were never easy though.

When we first came to Moora we had too many ewes and 80% of our paddocks cultivated trying to get rid of the gorse. We had to hand feed - as the couple of paddocks we still had in pasture got bare ... and then very muddy.

Imagine, if you will, my dear wife with a 20 kg bag of sheep pellets under her arm and 80 ewes all around her as she trudges through mud to a trough you can't see for milling mutton. Not just a pretty face!

I'm not sure what her tennis friends would make of it - but I guess most women are tougher than they look.

I'm told these Dorpers are much better mothers than Merinos - though still on the flighty side. We've locked them up in the sheep yards since they got home and we're going to try and get them well accustomed to us before they go into any paddocks. There is plenty of feed in the sheep yards for several days.

We are starting with just 7, but we will breed up until we have a flock of a similar size to the cattle herd. I understand they are complementary to cattle in a cell grazing system - but I still have to work that out. The start of the flock will just be doing clean up duty here and there for a while.

They are a lovely looking animal.

Is it Australia? Or New Zealand?

2011-03-06T18:30:00.005+11:00

This is the view west across paddock 44 at the end of an Australian summer. We cut hay just on 2 months ago. Then I spread perhaps 30 tonne of chook manure and compost.

[Double click for full screen view]

At this time of year we would usually be brown and dry, dry, dry. This year we're green, green, green - and not that wet really. I guess we've had 300 mm over the 3 months of summer - some of it was pretty heavy, but spread out like New Zealand - a week or 2 or 3 apart.

I'm thinking of mulch mowing at least one of the paddocks and leaving it on the paddock - just to see the effect of an on site composting. I'm also doing this at a leased property where there is long rank grass over quite a large area that, 12 months ago, was bare to the point of quite serious erosion risk. This happens when there are too many kangaroos coming out of the bush.

Sixteen cows and their calves have now had their time at Moora Farm with the bull and returned to their homes for most of the year - on other farms nearby. As a result I have only 14 animals at Moora Farm - and there is no way they can keep up with growth. I have the 2009 calves at another agistment property. I'll get them home soon - and that will help.

Anyone reading this in the Gisborne area (Macedon Ranges really) who is interested in agisting cattle for us - please get in touch. We have a variety of ways it can work. The main thing is that you can get to look after some beautiful cattle - but with a good support structure if you're a beginner - or just not having to worry about things if you're more experienced.

The cattle are Belted Galloways and have what my dear wife calls 'high paddock appeal'. Just this morning I picked up the start of a new agistment option - another animal with high paddock appeal as it turns out - see the next blog post.

Open fronted sheds facing south or west

2011-02-14T06:24:00.000+11:00

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All Australian farmers know better than to have the open side of a hay shed facing either south or west. That's where the weather comes from - and you always try to minimise weather damage to your hay.

The place where I park my Polaris Ranger faces south - and it's very irritating to come out when there has been a little rain - and find the Ranger very wet. The rain seems to blow in - and then seep into everything in the back of the Ranger - even closed tool boxes. The seat at the front - also wet. There is a bucket I keep in the back of it - 2 mm of rain seems to produce 10 mm in the bucket.

Yesterday I decided I had had enough of this. There is not really room for a door, so I built the wooden frame that you can see in the photo above the back of the Ranger. I'm just going out to work out what I can hang off it that will protect things, but not take too long to remove and replace as I go in and out.

The Ranger is a useful piece of equipment. I use it to get around the farm, to tow the paddock harrows, and to tow the ground drive manure spreader. You can see my braided poly wire for temporary electric fencing on a spool on the back corner. I have enough of my other electric fencing gear in the back to let me do the cattle shift pretty quickly and efficiently.
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Nothing more to be said

2011-01-30T22:09:00.006+11:00

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Here is an article on why you should buy food from someone you know and, as much as possible, avoid buying 'cheap food' from a system that systematically abuses both its suppliers and customers.

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Moora Beef outcome

2011-01-27T22:41:00.002+11:00

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Three weeks ago one of our Belted Galloway steers went to slaughter. We spent the early morning of Australia Day making up 10 kg boxes of aged, grass fed beef.

Believe it or not, a 580 kg animal became 15 boxes (most of which were 10.5 to 11 kg) - plus a bit left over for us. I was aware that a carcass is usually 50 something percent of liveweight. Well ... meat yield is 50 something percent of that by the time bones and other trimmings are discarded.

The good news is that the meat looks excellent - and it all sold in a day - with most to our neighbours in South Gisborne.

Each box is made up of a mix of cuts that is similar to what we get from a carcass. A sample pack consisted of:
Topside roast - 1.1 kg
3 medium scotch fillet steaks - 0.7 kg
2 bigger porterhouse steaks - 0.7 kg
1 piece of rump steak - 0.6 kg
1 piece of round steak - 0.7 kg
3 oyster blade steaks - 0.8 kg
Corned beef - 0.8 kg
3 osso bucco - 0.8 kg
Stewing steak - 1 kg
Pack of plain sausages - 0.7 kg
Pack of garlic sausages - 0.6 kg
Pack of Chorizo sausages - 0.6 kg
2 packs of mince - 1.4 kg
Total - 10.5 kg

Buyers lose the ability they have at the butcher to choose the exact quantities and cuts they want, but they get meat from a known animal that was treated well its whole life. The only things it ever ate were pasture, hay and Olsson's mineral licks. I guess most of our customers have driven along Couangalt Rd and watched our cattle grazing.

If you were to come to the farm I could show you the 2 or 3 steers from which I'll pick the next guy. I love my animals as much as anyone, but their reason for being is to provide meat. I honour them by taking the best care of them that I can - up to the day where they satisfy the purpose for which they were bred. As Joel Salatin says - 'Just one bad day'.

I remember Erez (the animal we slaughtered this time) as a calf. He was the son of one of my favourite cows - Annie. He was named after a guy I worked with in Israel a few years ago. The Israeli Erez was a good guy - and a lot quieter than most Israelis. I have to say Erez (the steer) was a bit 'spookier' - and always needed to handled gently.

Annie is a lovely quiet cow who has produced 5 calves in the 5 years I've had her. I saw her earlier this evening feeding her 2010 calf - a fiesty little heifer called Maya. I thought how well she looked - leaner than she was in the Spring - because she's feeding a growing calf. I expect she'll already be pregnant again, although Maya will stay with her until May. She'll then get a few months peace before (I trust) another calf in September.

We charge $150 for a 10 kg (minimum) box of Moora Beef. The quantity is such that a reasonable size fridge and a small freezer will allow it to be used over a period that doesn't require anyone to 'overdose' on red meat.

The price gives us a modest premium over selling the meat into the 'system' - actually a bit more modest than I'd like - but we're still learning. The most important thing at present is to make sure what we're producing is of high quality and appreciated - and that we make the slaughtering, butchering, packing and marketing process one we can sustain.

I've checked back and found a photo of Erez with Annie when he was only a few days old. It was very dry at the time. I guess we were part way through the pasture renovation at the time - which is why it looks so bare. Not like that now!
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Coles and Growth Hormones

2011-01-23T08:39:00.000+11:00

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There is a big story running in Australian papers about how Coles (one half of the grocery oligopoly) is going 'hormone free' with it's beef.

Notice that the quote attributed to Curtis Stone says 'all the fresh beef'. What about the rest?

And try to guess who might have pressured their 'supply chain' into production systems that 'depend' on things like growth promoting hormones and antibiotics in the first place?

Supermarkets seem to me a bit like miners - except they don't do the remediation that even strip miners are now required to do as a condition of their licensing. Supermarkets are only 'cheap' because they have created a system that reduces costs that people pay at the checkout while driving costs people pay through other means.

They 'mine' their supply chains for 'efficiencies' that are only efficiencies if you ignore costs of land degradation and social dislocation caused by industrial agricultural systems.

They jam the health system with people sick from eating the food they sell.

They use advertising and lobbying to create a world in which 'cheap food' is an political necessity. Reality check! No one in human history has spent a lesser proportion of their income on food that the modern consumer!

We don't need cheap food. We need (as we always have) good food and systems that produce it reliably.

I don't like the idea of growth hormones or, more particularly, farming systems that make it necessary for animals to be fed drugs we don't fully understand. But Coles should get no credit for doing this. They should get condemnation for:
- hedging on products containing processed beef; and
- jerking around their suppliers - after encouraging them into such counter-productive systems in the first place.

In the end supermarkets are not sustainable - and some of us are more exposed to their unsustainability than others.
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This is a good year!

2011-01-17T22:43:00.002+11:00

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Back in early December things got really wet at Moora Farm - for the first time (for us). Then it got dry - and just over a week ago I actually found young trees in the orchard and trufferie with some water stress. That caused me to start watering via the drip irrigation systems we have installed.

The watering regime that was laid down for the truffles is pretty water efficient. It involved 5 litres per tree 3 times a week. As the sprayers deliver 35 litres an hour, each zone runs for just 12 minutes each watering. It's pretty amazing to me that, with only minimal monitoring from me, the system will apply water successively to each of the zones - at a time I dictate - and never forget to do it!

Last week we had another rain event - another 152 mm of beautiful soft steady rain spread over 4 days. That's a quarter of our normal annual rainfall. This system is the tail end of what caused the problems in Queensland - and the same rain event that has caused flooding elsewhere in Victoria.

We are very fortunate where we are in that our vulnerability to flooding is pretty limited. We're close to the top of the hill (ie limited capacity for 'flash flooding'), we have good ground cover, we're not too steep, but also not flat. We get to take up a goodly amount of the rain in the soil profile, fill our dams to overflowing and then pass the excess down the watershed without any erosion.

However, we do have one thing to deal with. The cattle are on the paddock - and it got very, very wet. Near the end it seemed like the ground was soaked and there was a inch of water lying on top of the ground anywhere it could.

I had 50 cattle confined to a strip that was 30 metres wide and 110 metres long. They could then get back to the water trough via another strip 9 metres wide and 60 metres long.

The first photo shows what happened to the route to the water trough - very thoroughly churned up with no visible pasture in the worst parts of it.

The second photo shows the wet strip running through the middle. In the foreground and to the left is the previous strip - which is not churned up at all. In the backgound the cows are already in the subsequent strip - which is grazing fine with no pugging at all.

The next thing I will do is paddock harrow to spread the manure around and tickle things up. Up to now (3 days later) - it is still too wet.

This paddock is a mixture of perennial ryegrass, cocksfoot, phalaris and clovers. It got a bit of a beating last winter when we used it to feed hay through July and August. Most of the paddock recovered really well, but there are bare patches along the highest part of the paddock where the bales were set out.

Those bare patches came back with weeds rather than pasture. Obviously the water trough strip is also at risk of this ... so today I came up with a solution - which came from my attendance at a Joel Salatin Seminar.

I went to the seed company in Ballarat that supplied the original pasture seeds and got three separate seeds mixes:
- one called Sheep n' Beef 600 mm mix - which is what I have minus the phalaris
- one called Forage Blend Plus - which is 50% Winifred Brassica, 20% Tonic Plantain and 30% Chicory
- an Italian ryegrass called Crusader.
Whenever there is an opportunity - and paddock harrowing after grazing will be the main one - I'm going to hand spread a mix of these mixes on any bare spots and pugged areas - and basically anywhere I think I can get it to strike.

I'm hopeful that this will increase my pasture diversity - and, with the compost, chicken manure and better manure utilisation, it will boost pasture production.
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Making hay

2011-01-07T10:25:00.001+11:00

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We have 665 small square bales of hay made and carted. That should be about 16 tonnes of feed - or a full semi trailer load of hay (as I usually buy it).

I would not normally make hay - because I have limited land and purchasing hay helps me increase the effective carrying capacity of my farm. However, this year we have so much feed that, even were I to keep my entire herd at home, they could not eat there way through the accumulated feed before next spring. So we decided to make from 2 paddocks totaling 7.7 acres into hay.

The plan was to make it in mid-December, but the very wet weather and the contractor's other obligations put paid to that. In the end we cut the two paddocks with more Phalaris in the pasture mix - as they were a bit greener and less 'over the top' than the paddocks that were predominantly Perennial Ryegrass.

The first photo shows Simon cutting through some of the heaviest pasture on our farm - it's up to the top of his back tractor wheel for heaven's sake! Actually, though it's tall, there is still lots to do to improve the thickness of sward - so I'm not getting carried away.

Simon cut the hay on Monday night. After a bit of 'umming and ahhing', he raked it Wednesday early afternoon and went almost straight onto baling.

The second photo shows Simon raking paddock 44.

I organised my sons David and Neil and two of their friends to help me cart the hay and stack it in my hayshed. We started at about 5 pm. By soon after 9 pm we had the the 437 bales from paddock 42 stacked in the shed. By 11 am yesterday morning we had the 228 bales from paddock 44 stacked neatly in a corner of the yard.

We have so much hay, there wasn't room in the shed for it all. I'll have to organise a cover for the yard stack.

The final photo shows the last load from 42 coming in just after 9 pm. Carting hay is hard work, but having 5 of us made it a lot easier.

I've saved half the 2010 compost and chicken manure to spread over one of the hay paddocks. That needs to be done over the next few days.
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The effect of spreading compost

2010-12-31T11:08:00.000+11:00

To the left I have spread a 50:50 shandy of Moora Farm compost and chicken manure and rice hulls. To the right I have just paddock harrowed what the cattle left.

I have enough compost and chicken manure to do another couple of acres. I'm saving it for one of the 2 paddocks I'm going to cut hay from.

One hard working bull

2010-12-26T21:29:00.000+11:00

Our new bull is one hard working animal!

He does have 20 girls to cover over the next 2 months (time for 3 cycles), but by the evidence of what he is up to every single time I go to the paddock, I don't think he will need that long.

Our other bull was much less active - and also threw an awful lot of white socks - which a Belted Galloway is not supposed to have.
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Cell grazing made easy

2010-12-26T21:13:00.003+11:00

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For several months now I have been cell grazing my cattle. It's a system, invented (apparently) in New Zealand, of forcing stock to graze more effectively by confining them each day to an area determined by the amount of feed they can eat in that day.

This photo shows 50 cattle immersed in their new patch of pasture. Immersed is the right description at present as the grass is about 4 feet high. It's all very well to say it shouldn't be this long, but after the best year for (almost) forever, I simply can't keep up with the feed.

Allowing the pasture to go to seed the way it has this year diminishes the feed value, but will help thicken up the sward as the seeds fall to the ground - or go through the stomachs of the cattle - and back to the same place. Also, they say that a plant's roots are usually as deep in the ground as the foliage is above it. If that is the case, I've got roots going down further than they have been for quite some time. They will help open up channels for improvements in soil biology and soil carbon sequestration.

My guru Joel Salatin says that cell grazing has helped him produce 400 cow days of grazing per acre per annum from his pastures - when the county average is around 80 cow days using set stocking. Set stocking is the more traditional system of putting cattle into a larger paddock for a longer period.

Salatin (and other proponents) say that stock graze more efficiently and less selectively under cell grazing. They also deposit manure more evenly across a paddock. Pasture then gets complete rest until it is ready to graze again.

Temporary electric fencing is what makes it possible. Most stock respect an electric fence - and my quiet, well mannered cattle respect a single wire electric fence. So, with a perimeter hot wire in every paddock, its is just a matter of temporary fencing off the right sized area - and making sure they still have access to the water through.

Last week I made one of those small breakthroughs that make farming fun for me. Along with my mate James the Trailer Doctor, I came up with a design for a brace for the star posts I use in my temporary electric fencing. Although single wire electric fencing is light, end assemblies on temporary fences still work better with some form of support.

Here is what we came up with. It is made out of left over bits of box section - 40 mm I think. That lets me drive the star post in through the top. The foot (cross piece of the T) has 4 spikes on the bottom of it that anchor it nicely.

If I want to change the direction of tension, I just lift up the brace and swing it around ... then tread it in facing the new way.

I got James to make 4. As soon as I used it, I put in an order for more.

I'm feeling particularly pleased because I think my old Dad, were he still around, would approve.
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The Chookmobile

2010-12-25T15:39:00.000+11:00

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A couple of months ago I managed to pick up an ancient box trailer at a clearing sale for $100. It was pretty rickety, but had a light structure on top of a reasonable axle with 2 good wheels and tyres (and a couple of spares). The tow hitch was broken - as was most of the bracing - so it was brought home (only 3 km) very carefully.

I knew right from the start what I wanted to do with it. I wanted a mobile chicken house for up to 50 laying chooks. I bought a set of nest boxes and got James the Trailer Doctor on the job. What came back is a work of art.

Here are photos - first from the rear and then the front. James made a structure to fit over and around the existing box. It supports a new roof and a fox-proof back door.

On each of the rear corners James has added a 'leg' that means farmers of over 100kg can, at a pinch, get inside without overturning the whole enterprise.

Inside I have added enough perch space for at least 30 birds, a waterer and a feeder. I've put cardboard on the floor held down with staples. When it comes to to clean it out, hopefully, most of the mess will come out with the cardboard to go straight into the compost heap.

From the front you can see the jockey wheel and how James has fitted the nests. They are commercial ones with a rollaway egg collection system accessible from the outside.

We took the Chookmobile straight into the Trufferie where they have a confining fence - as well as being locked away at night. In time we may also get a Maremma dog for further fox and dog protection.

The whole thing tows easily behind our Polaris Ranger.

The point of this is that a mobile chook house avoids the concentration of scratching and manure deposition that happens around a permanent structure. Not only can we move the Chookmobile around the Trufferie, but we can take it anywhere else on the farm. In addition, a grazing bird can get a reasonable proportion of her feed from pasture and the critters she finds as she scratches. Not to mention the fertility that gets spread around.

We started with a borrowed rooster and 4 black hens as Chookmobile testers - and they settled in quickly. Yesterday we bought 10 Isa Brown hens as the start of our own flock. They are as beautiful (and interesting) as chooks are everywhere.
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Sad day

2010-12-23T22:01:00.001+11:00

It's not 20 calves from 20 cows any more.

Yesterday no 20 (named Puni), which had been struggling anyway, started refusing to feed and looking more and more poorly. At lunch time today I took her over to the vet who found she had infected joints in two legs. They checked her out thoroughly and called me mid afternoon to say she had a poor prognosis - and ask me what did I want to do?

There was no guarantee she would pull through at all - but the real problem was that, even if she did, she would almost certainly have structural weakness in those two legs. Her function in life, if she had been healthy, would have been to spend 10 to 12 years producing a calf a year. It's harder to do that on wonky pins.

With much regret I told the vet to put her to sleep - and send me the bill.

The mother was a heifer called Trish - not Henny as reported earlier. I'm not 100% sure how the initial mis-mothering occurred, but I won't cull Trish on one failure. She'd better not have another next year though.
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Twenty cows - twenty calves

2010-12-19T22:53:00.001+11:00

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One of my helpers on the farm says pragmatically - 'where there are livestock, there will be dead stock'. He says so because, even with our best efforts, we can't guarantee good outcomes for our animals always.

But I am feeling very pleased with myself at present. This year my 13 cows and 7 heifers have produced 20 live healthy calves. All births were unassisted - including the heifers. We've had cattle for 6 years now. In that time we have only lost one cow at calving, but we've also had perhaps 4 or 5 failures to get pregnant and lost 3 calves - all in maybe 50 tries. So we're very happy with 20 / 20 this year.

Three of the Mums have needed a bit of encouragement to establish feeding - including the very last one who is still confined to the yards as I write. Te Papa Henny is a heifer having her first calf. She produced a heifer calf, but then abandoned it. It took a while, and an urgent transfer of 14 animals back to Moora from an agistment property, to even work out which cow owned it.

Once that was accomplished we confined Henny in the cattle crush and allowed the calf (now named Te Papa Puni) to feed. Because there was not enough milk via that approach we had to provide other supplemental milk - which is always problematic because mums produce in response to feeding.

Two previous recalcitrant cows had got with the program after only a couple of days, but Henny has been more stubborn. Yesterday (after a week) we decided to give up - and feed Puni ourselves. I went off and spent $70 on 20 kg of milk replacement formula. Then this morning the darn calf turned up her nose at it! So I got Henny back in the yards and in the crush. Puni fed immediately.

Then tonight when I went out to put them into the crush again, for the first time, Henny was standing for Puni to feed without being confined! It has taken 8 days, but I think we may have got there.

For those aware that acquaintance with us likely means your name will get used one day the names of the 5 heifers and 15 bulls for this year are:
F01 - Iskandar
F02 - Owen
F03 - Otto
F04 - Jordan
F05 - Casey
F06 - Sam
F07 - Fazilah
F08 - Finnbar
F09 - James
F10 - Maya
F11 - Rod
F12 - Adam
F13 - Dmitry
F14 - Leigh
F15 - Allan
F16 - Jeanie
F17 - Rahman
F18 - Shaik
F19 - Koji
F20 - Puni
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Good news story from Indonesia

2010-12-19T22:08:00.000+11:00

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The Lowy Institute has just published a study of the Islamic Court system in Indonesia.

The Islamic Courts deal with what we might call family law matters for people who identify as Muslim. As there are over 230 million people in Indonesia and the majority are Muslim, it is the busiest court in that country.

The authors (Tim Lindsay and Cate Sumner) found it is one of the most effective and reliable institutions in Indonesia. Even before the end of the New Order in 1998, it was already a source of constructive support to poor - and particularly strong on the rights of women. During the Reformasi era it has continued to develop - and become a model for less reliable and effective parts of the justice system.

Although I've never come across the Court in my time in Indonesia, there are elements of the report that 'ring true' for me.

First - my experience is that Islam is an important part of what is good about Indonesia. Our Indonesian friends generally take their religious obligations quite seriously. The mosque plays a role in their lives more akin to the church of 50 years ago for Australians or New Zealanders.

Second - development of the Indonesian State occurs when and if Indonesians want it to - and then, only in ways that are consistent with their rich history.
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Spreading compost

2010-12-12T22:59:00.001+11:00

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Last week I got 60 m3 of poultry manure and rice hulls being removed from a shed near Riddells Creek. That has allowed me to 'shandy' this high nitrogen, but natural fertiliser with the approximately 60 m3 of compost I made this year - for spreading onto my paddocks.

The process goes like this: put a front end loader bucket of chicken manure in my H&S manure spreader - as shown in photo 1.

You can see part of one of 2 huge piles of chicken manure to the right.

Then: add a bucket load of my compost - as in photo 2.

I started out with a similarly huge pile of compost. It's mainly made from the waste hay and cow manure we clean out of the Feed Yard. But everything else I can get that is compostable also goes in.

To the left of photo 1 is the stack of urban green waste. We're in the process of working out whether the effort required to remove non-compostable garbage is worthwhile.

Then: drive to the paddock where you want to spread the material. Then engage the ground drive - as you can see me doing in photo 3.

The ground drive works from the wheels of the manure spreader. It makes the beater you can see to the right spin around - and, at the same time, an apron in the bottom of the spreader drags the material back onto the beater blades.

I'm pulling the spreader with a Polaris Ranger with a 700 cc engine - which is about the minimum it needs. Using the Ranger rather than the tractor is quicker for me - and reduces the weight of the traffic on the pasture.

The paddock I'm spreading onto was cell grazed about 3 weeks ago. Cell grazing is a process where the cows get a measured amount of pasture each day - before moving onto a fresh piece of pasture the following day.

It results in much better utilisation of pasture - and faster re-growth. When done well it can result in 2, 3 or 4 times the pasture production of the traditional set stocking system.

It is made possible by single wire electric fencing. I have this paddock divided into 4 strips that allow the cattle to get back to the trough - and to some shade.

If I was following absolute best practise, I would have a backing wire that keeps them off yesterday's area - and provide some sort of movable water system. I'm still thinking about how to do this.

The final photo shows the spreader spreading. I simply put it in low gear and drive along at walking speed until, after 120 or 130 metres it starts throwing the last of the load up into the air - and, if the wind is blowing in the wrong direction, back onto me.

The spreader has a capacity of 80 cubic feet. This tells you where it comes from ... the only place that doesn't use the metric system. In any case, that is 2.25 cubic metres - and I estimate that it covers around 500 square metres. So, following this, I will put out 50 cubic metres per hectare.

It's going to take me a while to cover the farm, but that is the aim.
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Moaning about the World Cup ... Wikileaks ... and Christopher Hitchens

2010-12-05T08:23:00.001+11:00

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I see that the UK, the USA and Australia think they shouldn't bid to host a World Cup until the selection process is 'cleaned up' to their satisfaction.

I would have thought the authors of the Washington Consensus should be less proud.

One could make an argument that the (market friendly) economic policies at the heart of that blight on the last two decades are as good or bad as any other, but the way in which they have been and are being foisted on the weak to the benefit of the rich is more corrupt and more consequential (in my opinion) than anything that might be happening within FIFA.

While I'm at it, let me declare my support for Julian Assange and Wikileaks. It seems transparency is fine when we're encouraging developing countries to adopt cartoon versions of best practise governance systems, but not when it embarrasses the American diplomatic set.

I guess it is possible that someone will get hurt as a result of the publication of 250,000 communications. When innocents get hurt by the military or other functionaries of those who are now complaining - I think the term is collateral damage.

I suspect this Wikileaks 'to-do' may be thought, in future, to be be quite a historical turning point. It may even be that a bit of 'collateral damage' is worth bearing if the diplomatic set of any number of countries end up considering more carefully what they say in internal correspondence.

This morning I listened to part of the BBC debate between Tony Blair and Christopher Hitchens. At the point where I decided I didn't need to hear any more Hitch-kins was getting clear support from the Canadian audience and Blair was battling uphill. I'm afraid I find the militant atheists about as attractive as any other militants. I know many gentle loving Christians, Muslims and Jews who I would trust to look out for my interests - but perhaps fewer atheists.

New compost excitment

2010-12-05T07:37:00.003+11:00

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During the last week, as well as a lot of rain, we've finished off the compost yard by adding B grade crushed rock to the handling area. All that remains now is to get more galvanised mesh for additional compost containers - and get some extra compostable material.

We made a start on the second task on Friday evening when we got a load of green waste from a guy who runs a green waste collection service in our area. Normally he would take it to the municipal tip and dump it - at a cost of $170.

His first reaction when I said I would be interested was that there would be 'too much crap in it'. As we discussed it, he decided that this would indeed be the case from one part of his route, but that perhaps the more civilised customers (in Woodend for example) could be trusted not to put things in their green waste bag that they shouldn't.

I didn't ask whether this lot came from civilised Woodenders, but there certainly is some stuff that can't be composted. We have been left a number of woolpacks to re-pack the stuff that will have to go to the tip. We've just got to work out how long this process is going to take - and compare that to the value of the fertility we add via an increased compost supply.

Early last week we went to a 2 day seminar with Joel Salatin of Omnivore's Dilemma and Food Inc fame. I've now seen him in person twice - and he is as good as in print. There is an intelligence and intellectual honesty about the man that is really special. Compost is a critical part of his farming system. It's not where I got it from though.

I remember two things as sources of my interest:

my Dad's use of a deep litter system for housing pigs in the 1960s; and
reading about the role of compost in gardening from the Yates Garden Guide that my Mum gave me shortly after I got married.

I wish I could ask my Dad how he put together his pig raising system - because I think it would be one that Salatin would approve of. I remember bits of it (the bits I helped with) - and not others - and, sadly perhaps, Dad is not around to ask any more.

Much of my energy policy work at present is around carbon pricing and the ways in which the electricity and gas systems can be de-carbonised. I have to confess that I probably don't make enough noise about the capacity of composting and the sort of farming we're trying to do to make a difference.

My excuse is that I work at the implementation end of things where the big policy choices have been made and governments (or businesses) need someone to help them 'do it'. I won't work for policy choices I think to be wrong, but experience tells me good, common sense implementation can make all sorts of things work - or work better. And policy almost always turns out to be wrong ... in retrospect.
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Flooding rains ...

2010-11-27T08:28:00.009+11:00

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After 15 dry years, we're finally having a really wet year. As I drove along Couangalt Rd last night I knew something was up.

Here is the sight that greeted me when I got home. Fortunately this is an example of a well designed spillway working properly. I suspect the quantity of water was partly a function of a dam in the property above us failing. I will have to check this morning.

Earlier in the Spring I had two nephews from New Zealand staying. After a couple of months they went home - missing white water kayaking too much (although I suspect someone called Sophie may have had something to do with it). Little did I know we could have offered them Grade 2 rapids in our own ephemeral creek if only they had waited.

Perhaps not Grade 2, but there is quite a lot of water going down here. I would guess it's at least 4 feet deep.

I would think we are now approaching the point where the soil profile must be getting pretty saturated. When we arrived at Moora, post holes got drier the further down I got. We had damp soil over a bone dry subsoil. In places the sub soil just shattered into what looked like talcum powder. Now you can't dig a post hole without it filling with water.

Using what you have

2010-11-23T10:20:00.000+11:00

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I'm a fan of re-using things. Perhaps not as much as some (like my wife), but a fan nonetheless. Re-use or continued use of something old is actually much more 'green' and 'sustainable' than many things that are promoted as such.

I have a three examples:

My tractor
It's a 1992 John Deere 2250. I bought it after it had already a very hard life working for a Western District Shire and a Kilmore contractor. I spent $10,000 adding a new front end loader and got it back to John Deere green - instead of Shire yellow.
It's now in a condition where, if looked after properly, it should last forever. I use it for what a real farmer might think of as 'tractor work' rarely, but I use it to substitute for muscle all the time. Yesterday I used it to shift some timber on a pallet, move a rock bigger than I could lift, scrape up some dirt and move it. The first job needed bale forks, the last 2 needed the bucket. No problem - everything done in half an hour including the bale fork / bucket changeover. If I had to do it with hand tools, it would have taken at least a couple of hours - and I'd still be thinking about how to shift a 400 kg rock. I might have used a quarter of a litre of diesel.
If I spent $50,000, I could have a new tractor and loader with the same capability - plus a few bells and whistles of questionable utility. Why?

My car
My car is a 2002 Statesman. It's now done a bit over 150,000 km - and I have no plans to replace it. I bought it about 4 years ago with about 70,000 on the clock. It was 'cheap' because it was a V8 and petrol had just spiked. It suits me for a number of reasons. First and most importantly ... I fit in it comfortably. Then ... the V8 lets me tow big loads occasionally. Then ... the 'inefficiency' of the 11 litres / 100 km fuel consumption is more than offset by the avoided cost of constructing a new, more efficient replacement.
If I spent $50,000 to $100,000, I could have a new car with the same capability - plus a few bells and whistles of questionable utility. Why?

The Compost Yard
The construction of the handling area of the compost yard has seen the re-use of a variety of materials including:

fence posts from an old set of cattle yards;
some sleepers left over from another project;
some sleepers recovered from a railway line somewhere;
some rocks sourced from where all the other rocks come from - one thing we don't lack is rocks!
timber for the rails from a whole variety of sources - stored away under the trees for eventual re-use;
corrugated iron from a shed we demolished when we built the extension;
used Tek screws from the same shed; and
dirt and rock from the post holes - which will reduce the amount of crushed rock we need.

In due course we're going to surround the whole compost yard with a cypress hedge. Doing that also involves some re-use:

carpet from our old dining room to provide the first level of mulching;
chipped mulch from work on trees to provide the second layer of mulching;
drip irrigation pipe from Alan and Sandy's vineyard to ensure the trees get away to a good start;
that will be connected to a standpipe that was recovered from another location.

In the end, I think the result looks better than if we had used new materials. Yes ... it cost less, but it still cost in labour anyway. I think the integrity of re-use shines from it. But perhaps I'm biased.
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Composting, recycling

2010-11-21T22:56:00.011+11:00

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I've been working on the compost yard over the weekend. The intention is to produce an amount of compost sufficient to spread it across our 57 acres - rather than just make garden size amounts as we have for the last 37 years.

The compost yard is not far from the house - maybe 40 m. But that is not a worry - compost, to the extent it smells, smells beautiful and earthy rather than anything bad.

The core of the system is a round compost heap like this:

The mesh is easy enough to get and it does a great job confining the heap. Here you can see it gently steaming away as it composts. This photo was taken on a crisp Autumn morning.

The system has broken down a bit recently with the amazing amount of rain we have had. I plunged my hand into the pile ... confidently expecting the normal warmth ... and instead feeling clammy, wet cold. Too much rain has soaked the pile and killed the composting process - in that one at least.

This next photo shows how the majority of the material gets there. I, or someone else, recover soiled hay from the Feed Yard.

At this point real farmers tend to think we're nuts - cleaning up a confinement feeding area every day (or at least every 2 days) seems like too much work for most.

At this stage it's not for me. Cleaning up regularly helps get good utilisation of the hay, involves checking on the stock closely, captures as much of the fertility from the dung as is possible - and, on top of all that, the Feed Yard looks good when it's done - as the next photo shows.

The surface of the feed yard is just B grade crushed rock, but provided we keep on top of it it cleans up almost like the surface is concrete - except it's not - and the cattle don't slide around like they would if it was concrete.

An exciting development is that I've come across someone who collects green waste from houses in neighboring communities. He has offered to give us reasonably clean green waste for nothing. It works for him - because he currently has to dump it at a municipal tip - and pay for the privilege. So pretty soon we'll have a whole lot more compostable material.

I'll post again on the other work we've been doing to get the compost yard set up for handling bigger quantities - and the purchase of a compost spreader to get it on to the paddocks.
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New bull, old bull

2010-11-21T22:07:00.001+11:00

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Today we went off to pick up a new bull. The bull we've used the last few years now has too many daughters in the herd - so we need top make a change.

I contacted a breeder who had leased us a good bull a few years ago - and they had a 5 year old bull at a very reasonable price. At 5 he should have several years left in him - and he also has a track record. Today we were able to see several of his progeny.

So here I am with Pine Gully Park Alto. He's a big, gentle guy - a bit like his owner I guess. He is 124 cm high at the hip - which qualifies him as a miniature. He's quite a bit heavier than me - I would guess he might be over 700 kg.

After I put him in the Bull Paddock while he met the first contingent of his girls, I had to shift them all back into paddock 20 where I'm break feeding. Alto was lying down. When he saw what was required he started himself rocking forward and back. After 15 seconds of this he got his feet under him and quietly got up. I feel a bit like that occasionally - I need to think about getting moving - and I need to work out how to get moving. Neither Alto nor I are into springing into anything very much these days.

Those of you that have been to Moora might remember Leyla. She is not black with a white belt - but is a colour called dun. A few weeks ago she had her first calf - and it is also dun.

The breeder told me today that the dun gene is a dominant one - so Leyla should have a fair proportion of dun calves. This one is a little bull - we might keep him and see what he can produce.

You can see Alto in the background - contemplating the work in front of him. We will be putting him to about 25 cows this year. But he has a few weeks to look after them. As long as they're all in calf by the end of January - I'll be happy.
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Cross subsidies

2010-10-17T21:49:00.000+11:00

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I just watched this week's Landline program. It had 3 stories where there was a Bush / City conflict of significant dimension. No surprise ... the Bush is losing every one. I felt a lot of sympathy for:

small scale timber mills producing hardwood sleepers and the like who are being driven out of business by a combination of big mills, imports and environmentalists;
aboriginal and other people adversely affected by Queensland's Wild Rivers legislation; and
Murray Darling irrigation towns who want some recognition of the consequences of water reallocation proposals.

I've been part of a world view that believes good pricing generally leads to good outcomes. I don't use the word 'efficient' as an economist would, but I mean many of the same things. This world view has, unfortunately, been a significant part of screwing the Bush blind for, at least, several decades.

Good pricing means people see the real price of things over the medium term. What I would term real prices are something between short run and long run marginal cost - with the excess distributed with some sort of equity.

Far too often over the last 30 years, the Bush sees too little equity - and precious little common sense besides. It has to sell into markets where it faces systemic (but usually) unacknowledged market power, but then faces heavy access and price discrimination on their inputs.

We should recall that Australia is built, right back to white settlement, on agriculture and mining. These are pretty much the only things we have ever produced on a consistently, globally competitive basis. Miners seem to be big enough to look after themselves, but for at least 50 years farmers have lacked the capacity to get a fair share.

I'm a bit sensitive to this point partly because of a conversation I had with a colleague last week. We were talking about my likely access to the benefits of the NBN - 50 km from the centre of Melbourne and 5 km from a reasonably substantial town. No fibre for me! Apparently I will likely (possibly) get access to the internet at 12 MB / sec (as against my current 0.16 MB / sec). My City (and town) friends are going to get 1 TB / sec via their fibre!

When I complained, my colleague looked at me with a resigned look that said I should be grateful of getting anything - and didn't I understand that I was just paying what it cost.

I've made a mental note to sell him some very expensive food if his food distribution system ever breaks down and he turns up at my gate.

I don't actually think the answer lies very much in any sort of political action. Farmers / rural people are just too few to ever win that way. People treat people like Bob Katter as a clown - when he is actually saying some things that are no more unreasonable than the rubbish my colleague thinks of as perfectly ok.

To me the answer has to be a market one - where we just don't sell through the industrial / supermarket system that has served us so poorly, but create parallel distribution channels that dis-intermediate food processors and supermarkets like they dis-intermediated the wholesale / retail system that used to serve producers a bit more equitably.

It may be that peak oil or other developments turns things in our direction at some stage. I don't really know that I hope for that. Another story on Landline was about the Bowen poisonings of the water of a tomato nursery. That nursery apparently supplied farms that produce (at least at certain times of the year) some 60% of Australia's tomatoes.

The poor sods directly affected by this I feel sorry for. The punters in the City who get to miss out on their tomatoes - or have to pay more for them - I feel somewhat less sympathy for.
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What a wise man said at the Kyneton Bowling Club

2010-10-16T09:36:00.002+11:00

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Yesterday I attended an event put on by the Kyneton branch of the University of the Third Age. U3A is a really interesting institution - an example really of what is best about Australia. It consists of a bunch of people in a small town being interested in working together to facilitate their own and others learning.

So yesterday about 150 people gathered on a wet cold day to listen to one of my heros. Most people know of Professor Ross Garnaut as the primary author of a report on climate change that was published back in 2008. Actually he has been a significant contributor to various Australian public policy debates all the way back to when he was an economic adviser to Bob Hawke in the mid 80s.

He has been a contributor to 3 things that have ended up being the focus of my professional life:

He played a significant role in developing the intellectual framework the economic reforms made by the Hawke and Keating governments that led to what became known as Competition Policy in the 1990s.

It was Competition Policy that motivated the electricity and gas privatisations that my firm became a major adviser to and then led to me (eventually) becoming an energy markets specialist.

He became Australian Ambassador to China from 1985 to 1988 and has since played a major role in trying to shape Australia's engagement with China - and Asia more generally.

I have spent 2 periods, totalling over 5 years, living and working in Asia.

He has, more recently, become the climate change / carbon pricing guru.

How the electricity sector deals with the transition from a high emissions present to a low emissions future has become the major focus of my professional work since I have been back in Australia.

I deal with things on a fundamentally different level to Ross Garnaut - with the consequential reforms that flow from the 'big pictures' that he paints and then navigates through the political level. I get to work when officials want to know what to do next - or how to make something work.

When you do my sort of work, it is always helpful to have a good sense of why you are doing something - and I've always found Garnaut to be a good source of that sort of content.

Yesterday he had various things to say, but one thing really stood out for me. He was talking about the impact of the Global Financial Crisis of 2008. In the midst of his usual measured and careful analysis, there was one little burst of the sort of passionate language I don't associate with people like him.

It was quick - but went something like this: "The behaviour of those responsible for managing and regulating global financial systems was traitorous - their choices have condemned the people of North America and Europe to a generation or more of economic grief." I've put it in quotes, but it is just my memory of the gist of what he said.

I think I agree.
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Calving

2010-10-14T23:11:00.002+11:00

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We've been calving. All 5 cows at Boundary Rd have had theirs. We have 5 at Moora as well.

It's the heifers that are a bit slow. There are 7 in Helen's care at McCorkell Rd and only 2 have calved. We have 2 at home - and they have no calves last time I looked.

It may be tempting fate, but it's gone pretty well this year. There have been only two minor dramas. The first was when one of the cows I have been thinking of culling for under-performance (1 live calf in 3 tries) produced a calf - and then wouldn't stand to let it feed. Whenever it tried she seemed to be moving away. This can only go on for so long.

We got Lyn and her calf into the cattle yards and put her in the crush. It holds them around their neck while giving access to the back end - providing you dodge the kicks. The leg rope we used was a nice soft wide nylon, so as long as she didn't try to trash around she was reasonably comfortable.

The calf was great. It hadn't got too weak and got right onto the job. The first time it fed for over half an hour. It had a bit of trouble on the back two teats which were a bit big and distended - as you can see in the last photo.

She got on to one of them ok, but I had to milk out the other a bit so that she could finish the job.

We got her in late in the afternoon. I went out again at about 10-30 pm and made sure the calf got another good feed. Same again in the morning - and David looked after another feed while I was at work.

By the time I got home Lyn had decided it was simpler to just stand and let the calf feed. As I walked out to check them it was all action.

It was good to put them back in the paddock with confidence things are going to be ok. The only thing a cow produces is one calf a year - so you don't like to lose one.

Shortly after this we had a different problem. A cow called Sarah had a calf - and the silly thing staggered its way under / through the electric fence. Son David was trying to push the calf back through to be with Mum when Sarah took exception - and charged.

It's a scary thing to have about 600 kg of cow coming at you with intent, but David handled it pretty well. He just backed off and left her alone. Within reason, I want a cow that is protective of her calf. Sarah stretched things a bit by remaining fairly cantankerous with anyone coming near her for almost a week. She has calmed down now - but the calf is well able to get around and look after itself.
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Whack !

2010-09-11T23:01:00.001+10:00

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I've been working on the electric fence system. If I started fencing again today the whole she-bang would be electric. As it is, I just added offset hot-wires to my conventional fences after they were built.

The system is energised by a mains power energiser in the tractor shed. Until now the line has gone out from there and off around the whole farm. This means that every single paddock has been electrified - all the time. There are a couple of problems with this. For one ... you can't climb through any fences. More importantly, a fault anywhere in the system causes the performance to degrade - and it can be hard to find where the fault is.

Usually the problem will be a kangaroo having flicked the hot -wire over the top barb when it jumps over ... but where? You just have to work your way around the farm looking for it. That can take some time - and it is pretty frustrating.

A few weeks ago I came up with a better plan. I now have a 'main line' that follows my internal race system. The main line travels on an insulator through a spare hole in the star posts. That way it is pretty much immune to kangaroo interference - and the whole main line is perhaps 15% of the length it was previously. Then I've also split the main line into 3 separate parts. I've then got switching that allows me to energise part or all of it.

The beauty of the main line system is that I can now energise only the individual paddocks that actually have stock in them. I do this through a switch at each gate way. So now when a kangaroo hooks the hot-wire over the top of the barb at the back of paddock 42 ... it won't matter. Until it comes time to graze 42, I won't even know (or need to know) that there is a problem.

Up to now my fence tester has registered a reading of around 6.5 when the whole system is clear and working. Once I got the main line up and energised that reading went to 9.9! And this strength is maintained when one, two or three paddocks are switched on.

The other thing I've had to do is to dig the main line under all my gates - and also take both a earth wire out everywhere I go with the main line. Why I need to do this is beyond me, but I was never any good at physics. My fencing advisor tells me that this helps the strength of the belt an animal gets from it.

This afternoon I wanted the cattle to eat some grass around the Billabong ... so I decided to add a hot wire around the inside of that fence. While I was doing it I managed to place a spanner on to the main line - when it was energised!

I can now attest to the strength of the jolt - because I got a beauty. I've had quite a few electric shocks - but I can only remember one other that knocked me side ways. That was at Alfa Lea in about 1968 - just by where the old shearing shed now is. I'm going to remember the one I got today just as clearly.

My eldest son was out working with me when it happened. He heard my yelp - and was appropriately consolatory. After he thought about it for a while, he did say that he thought the cows were probably laughing.
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Good rain - and a full dam

2010-09-05T10:15:00.001+10:00

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This morning our main dam is full to overflowing. We've been at Moora Farm for 5 years and this is only the second time it has flowed over - and the first time it has done so this strongly.

The first photo shows the inflow last night - then the second shows the outflow this morning. The third shows the resulting full dam.

The proximate cause is a body of warm moist air from (wait for it) .... Indonesia. I wish my Indonesian friends would send me such gifts more frequently! This warm, wet air occasionally gets sucked down across the country and dumps heavy rain on SE Australia. We've had nearly 70 mm.

The wet and the warmth must have set us up for a good spring. I can just about see the grass growing out the window. It's a measure of how dry it has been for how many years that virtually none of my farm has been boggy - in spite of what was already the wettest winter for years. I've yet to venture out this morning and find out what difference the last 2 days has made.

When we first arrived in Gisborne the local tractor dealer told me that he used to get people coming into his workshop in June to tell him their tractor was stuck in the back paddock - and that he should come to pull them out ... in December or January ... when the ground had dried out a bit.

I'm pretty confident that I could take my old John Deere 2250 down to paddock 42 this morning and get back - but I'm not going to test it.

Another thing that tells me about the cumulative effect of dry or wet years is the process of digging post holes. When I first dug post holes at our last place (Kilmore in 1993) I would get down 700 mm and the ground would be wet. If there had been any rain the hole would start to fill with water. By the late 90s you would dig down and, while the first 2-300 mm may be damp, it would then get drier and drier. For most of the last decade, in summer, you would get down to 700 mm and the soil would be a bit like talcum powder.

I've now taken that first walk around after the rain. It is pretty much as I expected. Water every where - but still not really soggy.

Moora Farm Beef

2010-09-02T23:13:00.002+10:00

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Earlier this week we slaughtered two of our Belted Galloway steers.

We are planning to sell the beef in 10 kg packs - made up of around 3 kg of premium cuts, 3 kg of sausages and mince and 4 kg of 'every day' cuts. We will have some boxes with pack sizes for small families - and some with pack sizes for bigger families. The beef will have been hung / aged for just under 3 weeks.

After the slaughter earlier this year of another animal, we feel very confident of the quality of our grass fed beef. As I loaded them onto the trailer on Monday they looked pretty good. Their names were Asher and Gustavo - named after colleagues I worked with on a project in Israel a few years ago. The funny thing is that earlier today I got a LinkedIn contact request from the human Asher (an Israeli) - after no contact for several years. The human Gustavo lives somewhat closer to home. I wonder whether I can sell him a Beef Pack?

I have no problems eating my animals. My view is that they are beef cattle - bred for that specific purpose. My responsibility is to take the very best care of them - right up to the point when I sell someone their meat. In most cases what is good for the animal is also good for the beef consumer. Good natural food, clean water, shelter from hot weather and as little handling stress as possible. I don't include shelter from the cold particularly because my beautiful Scottish cows just put their furry butts into the coldest, wettest, South Gisborne wind and look completely unfazed.

This photo shows cattle in the afternoon light grazing pretty happily. This was not a cold, wet, South Gisborne day.

Among the beefy highlights of the first animal we slaughtered was a standing rib roast - which was great when we first had it - but almost better in a roast beef sandwich the following day - and the day after that. Beautiful fresh brown bread, butter, thick slices of reasonably rare roast beef - and plenty of Dijon mustard.

Another highlight was the sausages - when they were fresh. They were just the butcher's plain beef sausage recipe - because we forgot to tell him anything different - but they tasted so good. It was like the difference between a real egg from your own chooks - and a supermarket egg. It was not just pride of ownership.

One last highlight has been the mince - so good I need to tell you about two recipes. The first was our friend Mike - who made mini hamburgers about the size of a Post-it note. To the mince he simply added an egg, a little oatmeal and some seasoning. He also hand made some mini bread rolls - and then had a variety of condiments so you could make up your own 2 to 4 bite burger (although 4 would be pretty dainty). It was a great way to show off the simple good taste of the beef.

The last thing I particularly remember was a recipe from an American barbecue cook book given me by my son's father in law. It's the recipe for the chilli in a Cincinnati Chilli Dog. Google it and you will get a variety of recipes - but the essential (spicy) bits seem to be cayenne, cumin, allspice, cinnamon and (wait for it) unsweetened chocolate. Try it.

All this good beef (and much more besides) came from what might have been thought a considerably less promising animal than the two who took their last ride on Monday. She was a cull heifer who after two failures to produce a calf was nearly 4 years old. She still produced a quality of beef I don't think you can easily get from a butcher - let alone a supermarket.

My description would be that you taste the quality along the sides of your tongue. The taste should fill your mouth and tell you you're eating something that is the main part of a meal. When I was a young man, I might have looked for a huge steak (I'm a big guy), but now I just want good taste and a modest portion. A modest portion of this beef satisfies. And provided it's cooked well, it will be tender - some of the steaks we have had could almost be cut with the back of your knife.

We're looking to sell our meat as close to home as possible - and essentially just by word of mouth. A 10 kg pack of aged Belted Galloway beef will cost $150 if you pick it up from Moora and $160 if we deliver it to an address in metropolitan Melbourne - or points not too far north of the city.

Packs will be available for pick up on Saturday 18 September - and we will do deliveries on Sunday 19 September. Anyone interested - please call me or Kristina on 03 5428 3671 - or email me on giholdaway@gmail.com.

When Spring?

2010-08-17T22:33:00.001+10:00

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Each year there is a day when I notice the first sign of spring. For me it is not what I see, but a feel in the air.

It must be related to temperature, because a cold day (like yesterday) was definitely not Spring. Today was more like it - even though there was a frost this morning.

We're working hard on the vege garden. By chance I placed it just below the little 'plateau' that the house and farmyard sits on - and right above where the rain that falls on that plateau seems to go.

This first photo shows the vege garden - with the very wet area in the foreground and to the right. With the amount of rain we've been having, it's just as well that we created the raised beds. They are staying acceptably dry - while water is lying in the trenches between.

Over behind me, Sam and Finnbar are putting in some drainage to allow excess water collecting in the trenches to flow away quickly. Most of the time we've been at Moora the problem has been quite the opposite - things have been so dry.

You can see just how wet things are at present in the next photo. Here I've just built a very handsome trellis structure over some snow peas. When I came to do my garden diary tonight I discovered that the variety I planted beneath my trellis (Sugar Ann) is in fact a drawf variety!

Perhaps I'll just plant a 3rd row of climbing peas up the middle.

In the background of this second photo is my potato block. I've now planted 10 rows of potatoes - 11 varieties in all. I'm really looking forward to harvesting them. Fresh new potatoes are about as good as it gets.

I think it's a bit early, but we've got asparagus coming through. It doesn't look that great yet, but tastes absolutely spectacular. When I do the picking, I usually eat at least one raw. So sweet and delicious.

My dear old Mum was nearly perfect (at least in my eyes) - with only one or two exceptions. One of them was the way she served asparagus - boiled to within a inch of disintegration. What a terrible thing to do to the queen of vege patch! My favourite way is to fry just picked spears in butter for a couple of minutes and add cracked black pepper just before serving.

Doesn't take much to keep a dog happy

2010-08-17T21:48:00.001+10:00

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This is Raffa - our recently acquired Fox Terrier / Jack Russell bitzer. Mine is not his favourite lap, but any will do at a pinch.
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Cesar Milan is one of my favourite people - so Neil and I try to be the calm assertive pack leaders that all dogs need. I think Neil is better at it than me.

The reason we got a Foxie is to chase rabbits, but Raffa has shown little interest so far.
S

Rain and Cold

2010-08-02T22:16:00.002+10:00

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It's darn cold and wet outside at present. In spite of this, quite a lot has been achieved over the last week or two.

We followed up the planting of the apples with another 27 bare-rooted fruit and nut trees - and one flowering cherry. Right from the start at Moora I knew where I wanted to put the main orchard. In 2006 I planted out a good part of it with a sheltering surround of ornamental pears, about 12 fruit trees and even a couple of nut trees.

Then the cattle got in. The first time I caught them before too much damage had been done. The second time I was away - and I came home to a right royal mess. It was almost too much ... and I just left it.

Now, with the help of my nephews Sam and Finnbar, we've well and truly back on track. We have 24 fruit trees planted in the main orchard - pears, plums, peaches, nectarines, cherries, apricots .. and a quince.

With the shelter trees - I managed to recover 10 from the 24 (expensive) trees planted in 2006 - and we filled the gaps with new (equally expensive) ones. They are Pyrus Calleryana 'Chanticleer' and they should shelter the orchard, put on a modest show of blossom in the Spring and then some spectacular Autumn colour.

Below the orchard we have planted 6 walnuts. All trees I plant are in honour of my grandfather Len Holdaway, but walnuts more than anything. On the farms where I grew up there were walnut trees planted by Len and his brother Charles. My grandfather lived long enough to see his walnut trees produce huge quantities of nuts - which his grandson had to pick up. Uncle Charl didn't live to see his great grand-nephews earn pocket money by harvesting nuts from his trees throughout their teens, but I'm sure he got his share in earlier times.

Finally - I'm trying a couple of figs back up by the house. We had a beautiful fig tree when we lived in Gardenvale in the 1980s. My wife loves figs - so I'm trying them for her.

Our garlic is up and moving now. I'm very pleased that Neil and I did the bed forming before planting. This block of the vegetable garden is just downhill of a very wet spot. While it's possible there is a spring I think it's more likely that there is some sort of natural underground drainage from the higher area up by the house. In any case, the rain has left water lying in the trenches between the beds - but the beds themselves are wet but not soaked. And they dry reasonably quickly.

On the weekend the boys and I got our potatoes in. We have planted 12 metre rows of 7 different varieties: Pontiac, Kipfler, King Edward, Otway Red, Nicola, Desiree ..... and .... well 6 out of 7 isn't bad. They are in a block of the garden that is not as wet - thank heavens. At the moment we've just planted them about 4 inches deep. We'll mound up later as the shoots appear and need frost protection.

Tonight I spoke briefly to my Uncle Barry. He was telling me about the bullock team he has in training. He has a couple of what I imagine must be steers - one a Simmental and the other some sort of Friesian cross. I wasn't aware of my great grandfather and his sons having used bullocks as opposed to draught horses, but there are many, many things I don't know. Later this month we'll be back in Blenheim for a few days - and I can't wait to see the team.

Kristina has also found a newspaper article referring to a previous owner of Moora Farm - one Willie Benson, who lived in our house for over 40 years. The article was on standard bred horses - and Willie was a registered trainer / driver. It also mentioned him as having Clydesdales and standing various stallions. We certainly find plenty of horseshoes and other ironmongery whenever we move any soil around the farm yard. I also think I've found an old stables location - which I deduce from what looks like a stable floor of rock from the paddocks. It's an area of similar sized rocks laid out roughly flat. It can't be natural - so why would it be there? I think it has to be a stable or perhaps some other type of farm shed.

Most days are pretty good - but some are special

2010-06-26T17:02:00.004+10:00

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I had 2 days at home this week - along with 2 in the office and a trip to Canberra.

Monday I had to do an big cleanup of the Feed Yard - because it hadn't been done the previous day by my dear son. On my own it took me nearly two hours. Hard work, but it was a beautiful day and I'm just very pleased to be capturing the fertility for use later. Later we went over and shifted cattle at one of the farms where we have stock on agistment.

But the really great day was yesterday. It wasn't a beautiful day - in fact it rained and was cold. But I had a ball. I started in my study doing a couple of hours on an interesting piece of work for an important client. It involves things I have been around, in one form of another, for many years. Each time it rained during the day - I just came in and moved the task ahead. Stop start perhaps, but it gave me a chance to think things through.

With the rain I needed to finish transferring the outside haystack into the hayshed. Most of it I had moved on Wednesday evening (in the dark) and Thursday morning (causing me to be late for a meeting - which I don't like doing). Getting the rest of it away was important - hay is a cash expense - and we need to get as much of it into the cows' stomachs as possible.

I also set up the planting of 10 heritage apples (which got planted today). Nine of them are to be espaliered on a dividing fence that was done as part of the building project. They will divide the kitchen garden off from the western lawn. I have planted Abas, Gravenstein, Snow, Cox's Orange Pippin, Jonathon, Opalescent, Blue Permain, Bramley's Seedling, Rome Beauty - and then, off to one side, a Sturmer Pippen. According to the notes we should have apples from February to May with that lot.

In between times, a guy who calls himself the Trailer Doctor came. He is going to service the two trailers we have - and also help me build a portable shade structure to provide shelter for the cattle on very hot days in several paddocks with no substantial shelter trees. It's something I want to provide for my Scottish cattle - who struggle with 40 degree days in the summer - as we all do I guess.

I also had to respond to a couple of emails in relation to the IPO of a company I'm a director of - and complete the Feed Yard cleanup - and do a few other bits and pieces.

Then, in the early evening, some very good friends from Jakarta came to visit. They are people we knew first in Melbourne about 15 years ago - and who were then very good to us on our recent stint in Jakarta. We would have loved to show them the farm, but it was dark and wet when they arrived - so we just talked and had dinner. That was good enough - a fine end to a special day.

In and Around Beautiful Rockhampton

2010-06-11T07:47:00.001+10:00

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At present we're having a short break in Central Queensland. I've got some work here - and I've brought Kristina along for some time in the sun and warmth.

I guess it's the best time of the year here, but it certainly is beautiful. Clear, clean and cool. In the morning it gets into the teens, but during the day it's in the low 20s. The other day we had our first day looking around and went for 2 long walks - one around suburban Rocky and the other along the beach at Emu Park. Near the end of the second walk (and after about an hour and a half) Kristina asked me if I had seen a single bit of litter on either of our walks? Neither of us could remember doing so. A little later we saw a couple of cigarette butts, but it really only emphasised the point that we are clearly in a place where local people look after their beautiful environment.

At home we get irritated by the need to pick up beer cans / bottles and occasional other litter from our roadside - and the degree to which rubbish from Gisborne (4 km away) ends up getting blown down and caught in our fences. I guess though, our willingness to clean it up is what people in the Rockhampton people must do on a very disciplined basis.

Kristina and I love Indonesia - but we both find it very disappointing that such lovely people don't seem to think litter is a problem. I've never been anywhere in Indonesia where the garbage load is not absolutely dreadful! Rich Indonesians tend to blame 'poor people', but our observation is that they're all about equally as bad as each other.

Bali tends to be a little better - but you can still find Indo-mie noodle packets caked into every path and all types of garbage caught in every bend of anything from an irrigation channel to a major river.

Rockhampton is quite a grand town. There are beautiful old buildings in the centre of the town - and I love the Queenslander houses that are everywhere. Not so keen on the low rise, brick veneers that seem to be what is built now.

There are also an awful lot of 4WD motor vehicles here. It must have more Toyota Landcruiser utes per head of population than anywhere else.

Busy, Busy, Busy

2010-05-31T08:39:00.001+10:00

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It's been really difficult to get around to blogging. This is going to be an attempt at a 'catch-up'.

"As a retiree you're a failure!"

This is what my dear son Neil has told me. Since we've been back I've spent a bit more time than I expected on city work - and I just haven't been able to get quite as much done in my time on the farm.

Personally, I think it would be unreasonable to expect the transition from 35 years of full time employment to a portfolio career to be all easy and precise. I'm quite happy to go though a year or two where I'm feeling things out - and getting a sense of just how much I can actually fit in. I think that is the challenge at present - understanding how much is enough.

When I was first back in the office with the firm where I was a partner for 20 years, everyone seemed pleased to see me, but the work was a bit slow in coming. Just as I was starting to get a little concerned, 3 interesting jobs materialised and it seems like we're off and running. One that involves travel to Rockhampton (Central Queensland) makes it a little more difficult.

Eating local

No question - we want to eat local. Initially I thought of trying to use a food log - but that definitely takes way too much time. I'm just going to have to estimate it - with a bit of checking analysis from time to time.

In a previous blog post I said we would look at food from 3 sources:

our own;
from short sustainable supply chains; and
everything else.

1st April we had nothing of our own except a few herbs - so it was off to Farmers' Markets and the like. I was quite surprised how quickly we could get the supermarket component down once we got started. There is a Farmers' Market within 15 minutes drive of home every weekend - and the quantity / range of food available has improved substantially in the 2 years we were away.

Then, at the start of May - a major development. A cull cow went up to the slaughterhouse and came back as nearly 300 kg of Moora beef. Now 5 year old cows are not supposed to be 'prime', but the butcher said it was beautiful meat - and it certainly tastes that way. We're particularly pleased with the mince and sausages - both of which have a real depth of flavour.

So my best guess is that our 'eating local' performance looks like this:

In just the last few days we've started to get the first salad greens from the kitchen garden - it's onward and upward from here.

Moora meat

We're very pleased with our first taste of Moora Farm Belted Galloway beef. On limited word of mouth we've managed to sell nine 10 kg packs of meat. Each pack includes around 3 kg of premium cuts (steaks and roasts) 2.5 kg of mince and sausages and 4.5 kg of a variety of other cuts. Feedback so far has been very good.

We've managed to find a really good butcher to do the breaking down of the carcass and packing it into meal size packs. We are also happy with the 10 kg pack as where we'll start in terms of how we will sell the product.

Hopefully it will only be a few weeks before we are looking for orders for the first of several steers that are ready to go.

Compost

Our compost heaps are growing and looking good. This is a photo of me with Winarsi soon after we got back. Win had her first job with our family in Jakarta 20 years ago - and we have kept in touch over the years. She was in Australia with her current employer and it was good to show her around the farm.

I'm now working out, in my mind, just what infrastructure we need to make the compost yard work well on a farm scale - rather than garden scale as we've always done before. When you're trying to cover 57 acres, a wheelbarrow is not enough. I think the minimum is a chipper (probably PTO based) and a spreader. I met a guy the other day who was effusive about the capacities of a Bobcat / Skid Steer.

Joel Salatin

For the last 5 days a great hero of mine has been in Daylesford giving seminars. Joel Salatin is an American farmer and local food evangelist. I attended 2 events and he didn't disappoint. He is a very bright guy.

Feed management

One of the things I desperately want to do is manage my pastures better - such that I have a thick sward in every paddock - except where the cows have just been. Well the reality is some way short of this. Moora has been a bit over-stocked and we're going into winter without enough carry over feed. Plus - it stopped raining as soon as we got back from Jakarta and we didn't seem to get much Autumn growth.

Part of the solution is to get access to more land - and we now have 2 places where we are ajisting stock and I'm looking for more. We're happy to help people get fences and water in order - it just needs to be within 10 to 15 km of Moora.

I bought 20 tonne of hay - and we're feeding that out gradually. The cost of hay is a lot lower than it was a few years ago.

Glyphosate, Grazon and me

2010-05-04T21:23:00.000+10:00

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One of the first things I did when I got back was to spray around the yard with some glyphosate that was already mixed and in the 100 litre sprayer.

For those that don't know, glyphosate is a broad spectrum systemic herbicide. It is closely established, in most peoples' minds, with chemical company Monsanto. They were the holders of the original patent and, since the patent expired, have made it a key component of their move into genetically engineered crops. The main feature of Monsanto's genetically engineered seeds seems to be that they are 'Roundup Ready' - that is capable of living through the application of glyphosate that kills everything else.

I remember a friend who worked for Monsanto back in the early 1980s telling me that Roundup (Monsanto's brand name for glyphosate) was so safe you could drink it. I'm not sure that was an approved company view, but he had picked it up somewhere - and the reality seems to be that it was less dangerous than many other chemicals in common use at the time (or now for that matter).

I've been a modest user of glyphosate for many years - basically for its capacity to help me keep things tidy. It does, over the course of a week or two, kill almost anything green - and with limited residual effects. It makes broad scale weeding easy - and I'm not convinced that any downsides from my limited use of it are sufficient to outweigh that benefit.

I wouldn't apply the same logic to wider use of it - or, particularly, to its use in conjunction with genetic engineering. That seems to me to be pretty risky.

I have another organic weak point when it comes to woody weeds like gorse and blackberry. My last two properties have had long established infestations - over big areas. I've used (and continue to use) much more potent chemicals than glyphosate to help with controlling regrowth of these weeds. I guess I'd rather not, but an infestation of gorse that is left for a few years (let alone a few decades) creates a seed bank that lasts (it is said) for 20 years.

This seed bank means that, having got rid of it, you need to keep dealing with regrowth (from seed) for 20 years - and never allow anything to flower and set more seed. A couple of hours and a couple of tanks of Grazon spray once a year means that, by 2025, Moora will be free of gorse. As of today, we're only 5 years into the program - and to remove it any other way would still take days - rather than hours. Perhaps, in another few years, the level of effort will allow manual grubbing, but, for me, not yet.

So I guess I won't be becoming certified organic any time soon. I don't like chemicals, I think they are bloody dangerous, I think I should be more careful with their use than I am, and I'll continue to search for better alternatives ... but I'm not willing to exclude the possibility of using all chemicals - where the payoff for use is still so substantial.

I also have a philosophic objection to the whole idea and process of organic certification - but that's another story.
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Eating locally

2010-04-05T08:24:00.001+10:00

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We've just arrived back at Moora - with an objective to, without being silly, grow as much of our own food as possible. Where we can't grow our own, we want to get as much as possible from short supply chains - connected back to farmers who, much as we can determine, are doing the right thing. The remainder - we'll buy from the corporate food system.

While I think many things about the way most of us eat are wrong, not sustainable and even dangerous, it doesn't seem sensible to opt out completely. So what I'm going to do is ask those cooking food at Moora to, once a day, do a simple estimate of the proportion (by input value) of our food from each of 3 sources:

grown by us;
sourced from a short supply chain - with little or no corporate involvement; and
everything else.

I'll need to create various rules to make the task explicable to those who will do the estimates. I'll publish them when they're a bit more developed.

The output I'm expecting will be a graph tracking the proportions over time. I'll publish that from time to time.

At present we don't have a lot of capacity to eat from Moora - because we haven't been living here. Son Neil has done a great job looking after the place, but the only thing ready to pick at present are the herbs in the herb garden we created when we were back at Christmas time. Within a week or two we are going to slaughter one of our cattle - and we will have a supply of beef. The other thing we need to do is get going with the vegetable garden.

The herb garden mentioned previously is in just the right spot - just outside the kitchen door. It already has a good supply of parsley (2 types), basil, rosemary, thyme, sage, mint, oregano - and probably one or two others.

Today we planted some seedlings in the kitchen garden - which is an area about 15 metres from the kitchen tucked in between the house, the garage and the plant shed.

The first photo is of me doing something I couldn't do before my recent functional fitness workouts! I'm planting seedlings into beds - which we're going to fill with a jumble of vegetables and flowers. The beds are filled with compost and topped with sugar cane mulch. My guess is that we'll be eating lettuce and other greens in between 4 and 6 weeks.

You can see all 9 beds in the second photo. The 3 on the left are going to contain lemon trees in due course. The garden will be enclosed (eventually) by a line of espaliered apples or pears growing on the structure you can see to the right.

[If you want to see a bigger version of the photo, just double click on it.]

I've yet to decide what is going to go on the pergola structure between the garage and the plant shed. It will be either food or fragrance. In any case, yesterday we made an important start to producing more of our own food. Later on there will be a bigger garden producing food for more than just us.

The other thing we've done is get the cattle a bit organised. Saturday we got them all in and weighed them. I separated off the 5 cows we have that have had no trouble calving - and at least 3 times now. They have now gone, with their 2009 calves, to our friends' place at Romsey. When the calves are about 8 months old, we'll wean them and bring them back here. The cows will then have 4 months quiet before, hopefully, having 5 live calves in mid spring.
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Home !

2010-04-02T05:31:00.001+11:00

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We're back at Moora.

Our two years in Jakarta were a great experience, but there is no place like home. We've come back to find the place in good heart - thanks to son Neil and the best start to a year (rainfall-wise) in 13 years.

I'm going to try to blog regularly - with photos to show what we're up to.

Tomorrow we will weigh all the cattle - all 39 of them - and start shifting some pregnant cows to other parts of our 'virtual farm'. We already have one Macedon Ranges property owner willing to look after beautiful Belted Galloway cows for us (on a supported basis) and we're going to be looking for others to help us create a more substantial productive enterprise.

All you need is a bit of land, good fencing (we can help you get that), reliable water (help with that too) - and be willing to keep a reasonably careful eye on them. We'll supply gentle, hardy and beautiful cattle - and be available to support you if you have any questions or problems. We'll get the girls pregnant (at Moora) and buy the calves.

If anyone is interested, please leave a message on the blog with a phone number. I get to pre-screen comments, so I'll just get the number, but not publish the comment. Alternatively, just drop in sometime - we're half way along Couangalt Rd on the south side. Look for the cows!
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Making a compost heap

2010-03-01T00:52:00.002+11:00

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I had a great time yesterday!

We spent the weekend at Panaruban where a young American couple have had plans to start a compost project. They have a new baby and their academic research priorities - so they had made a start ... and then stalled a bit. They had obtained and cleared a site, but hadn't made much progress in actually building compost piles.

On Friday I went off to look for something to contain the compost. I was hoping to make a version of my Australian system (see earlier compost blog post), but I couldn't find the reinforcing mesh that I thought I might use to create a containing circle.

What I did find was some lengths of galvanised fencing material. They were 2.4 metres long and 1.2 metres high. We cut them in half and set off for the site.

At the site we cleared the ground and made a square compost bin. Because most Indonesians are somewhat shorter than me, I decided to cut down one side to make it a bit easier to load material in - and then place it within the heap. Heap construction makes a big difference with composting - to the speed of the composting process - and also to whether it creates a nuisance.

Nuisance is easily avoided by putting anything that might smell or attract scavenging animals in the middle of the heap and covering it. In Australia (or New Zealand) you encounter people who think that composting is dirty and, in some way, unhygenic. In Indonesia the prejudice is even stronger. The expectation seems to be that it will smell and attract rats. Done properly this just does not happen!

Here the team of Eman, Wagiran and I are connecting up the first two pieces of the heap, before attaching them to the stake we have put at the corner.

Once the container structure was complete, we started to fill it. There was not much material actually to hand - so I didn't expect to get very far.

However, we were being watched. The elderly gentleman next door had been watching what we were doing - and after seeing that we were running out of material, he offered us some sweepings from his yard. When these were enthusiastically received he went off into the surrounding areas and came back with baskets and baskets of fantastic compostable green material. Here is one of our helpers (Nawang) emptying one of maybe 20 baskets of material that Pak Tatang gave us from heaps that were within 20 metres of our site.

We didn't take them from an existing compost heap. Rather, it was just rough green material (not good enough to feed to cattle) that had been cut from somewhere it wasn't wanted and put in a quiet corner where it would eventually decay in place - but not be subsequently used (as compost) other than in just building the soil where it was dumped in a corner or a little gully.

In Indonesia you see these heaps of organic material laced through with plastic rubbish almost everywhere you look. If they are inconvenient - they will often be burnt.
Smoky, smelly fires of green material (and plastic) are just everywhere. It didn't take very long before we had a modest bin full - but with a 'hole' in the middle. Into that hole we tipped a bag full of what can only be described as rocket fuel (in composting terms).

I asked our hosts for the weekend whether I could get some cow manure from their small dairy farm. Pak Iskandar have me a whole bag of manure that had first been through his biogas system. The material he gave me was almost compost like already - with very little smell. Fantastic stuff!

When I think about the biogas process - it produces methane - which is CH4. I think that means that all the nitrogen I need for the compost heap should still be there and still available to balance out the carbon content of the other material.

We also put in some kitchen scraps, but when I think about it, I don't think the compost heap is the right place for kitchen scraps in this environment. Almost every house has chickens - and scraps are used to feed them.

In permaculture terms feeding scraps to chickens would have to be a better use than composting it - particularly seeing that the cow manure is available as a source of nitrogen (which cannot be fed to chickens). The chicken manure would be an even better source - just the same scraps ... but after they have been through the chicken.

So here is Pak Tatang and I admiring our completed compost heap - after I put on a topping of grass and sawdust. The finishing touch will be some sort of cover to stop the rainy season rain so soaking the pile that it won't compost properly.

I wouldn't mind betting that this heap will compost very well. I look forward to getting reports on its progress. Overall, the site looks pretty good - with one completed heap and another underway.

I am a bit ambivalent about the process however. I find myself asking myself how I'm different from the Green Revolution gurus who came into Indonesia (and many other places) with 'new and better' technology that turned out to be 'new' but, in many cases, anything but better.

While I might think composting is better / purer than artificial, chemical fertilisers, what do I really know about how the farming systems of this area of Java really work? My instinct tells me that, if I observed for a while, almost certainly I would learn things that would cause me to modify processes and better integrate them with pre-existing systems.

Of course the great guru of composting, Sir Albert Howard, did his learning in an environment not that dissimilar to a Javanese village.

It's raining!

2010-01-01T21:02:00.001+11:00

It has already been a good spring and early summer in terms of rain - and it is just getting better as I write. I would guess we've had a inch of rain in the last 30 minutes. Here is a photo taken out towards the south west - although the rain is coming down from the north rather than from this direction.

Our pastures are appreciating the regular rain and look as good as they have since we started to try and improve them. That is not to say that we can't do a whole lot better once I can manage the grazing more closely - and do the paddock harrowing - and make and spread the compost.

Not long now - 1st April this year we will be returning from Jakarta permanently.
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Wow !

2009-11-29T23:43:00.002+11:00

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We just spent a weekend with friends at a place called Panaruban.

These friends are very special people. Iskandar Kuntoadji and Tri Mumpuni run an organisation called IBEKA. This page focusses on Puni (as an Ashoka Fellow), but also tells the IBEKA story. Make sure you work your way through the four pages of information if you possibly can (see the line half way down the page that reads The New Idea | The Problem | The Strategy | The Person).

Iskandar gets only one small mention, but I'm sure Puni will forgive me saying that IBEKA is very much a team effort. While Puni is the public face the real work is split pretty evenly between social preparation (Puni's speciality) and the engineering and construction handled by Iskandar and his technical team.

I'm a bit in awe of how well they do both sides. Their community engagement seems to be about as good as it gets - and the engineering planning and execution is practical and disciplined. How can I know this? Well there is a track record of 15 years and around 60 different projects.

This photo shows the Cinta Mekar power station. It's a 500 kw micro-hydro station a few kms from Panaruban. In the centre left of the photo you can see Iskandar and a couple of colleagues working on a pico-hydro turbine test. There is a laptop on the platform just above turbine that is monitoring its performance. The technology in both the power house and on the test site is a mixture of purchased and locally developed - with the most important components being locally manufactured and locally serviceable.

And 100 metres behind me when I took this photo is the health centre that is partially funded with profits earned by the village cooperative that owns and operates this power station.

It's really interesting talking to Puni and Iskandar about their 'failures' over the years. They are like most very good businesses (or NGOs I suppose) - they don't lightly countenance failure - and have a whole variety of strategies to work around and through common problems. But after a few penetrating questions, I have discovered that their strategies do invariably include the most important problem solving strategies of all - persistence, discipline and, in the end, a willingness to 'walk away' when fundamental values are at risk of being compromised.
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Tim Lindsay does understand Indonesia

2009-11-21T11:14:00.005+11:00

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See my previous post (8 November) on the current political situation in Indonesia.

Finally there is an intelligent article in the Australian press on the great battle underway in Jakarta. As one might expect, it's written by someone other than an Australian journalist. Tim Lindsay is an academic.

Here is the article.

However, there is one thing where I think I disagree with Lindsay. He puts the Bank Century issue in his list of issues with the implication that it is just one more corruption scandal. I suspect that something more complex is happening.

As I understand it, Bank Century was a (reasonably typical) badly run Jakarta bank. It had the misfortune (perhaps good fortune) to get into trouble at the time the Global Financial Crisis hit late last year. This meant that, in the rush and panic of the GFC, the banking regulators and the politicians had to consider the possible systemic impact of a bank failing.

Government decided to 'rescue' Bank Century. Surprise, surprise - the rescue cost more than first thought. So - there is now a clamour to find out who benefited - and to attack the people involved in the decision to rescue as 'corrupt'. It is worth looking at who is being targetted - and who is doing the accusing.

The primary Bank Century targets are a lady called Sri Mulyani Indrawati (Minister of Finance) and Boediono (Vice President). The main accusers are from the Indonesian parliament.

Sri Mulyani and Boediono are very prominent members of a group among the Indonesian elite sometimes referred to as 'the professionals'. They are called this because of their education and approach to public administration - in summary, their commitment to professionalism.

The main alternative to professionalism is an approach that 'works things out pragmatically' based on more than just the facts and rules - taking into account interests, opinions, past obligations, future expectations ..... a bit like 'stakeholder' politics in Australia really. And just like in Australia, professionalism is the natural enemy of pragmatic stakeholder politics.

I think Bank Century is actually being seen by the 'pragmatics' as an opportunity to attack the 'professionals' - with the hope being that, if the professionals get a bit of their own medicine in relation to corruption allegations, they will support the pragmatics in their wider battle to reign in the anti corruption forces at the KPK.
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Other good news

2009-11-15T22:03:00.004+11:00

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The other good news from Kristina's flying visit to Australia was the condition of an ornamental grape vine that we transplanted from the old part of the house around to the western side of the new extension.

We are hoping its size would give us a 'running start' on covering an area 3.6 metres wide and 22 metres long. Because it's the western side - we need the shelter it will provide from the summer afternoon sun. There is a fantastic pergola structure - but waiting for an ornamental grape vine.

We had a large old one on the other side of the house. But getting it out meant that the usual transplant rule - keep as much on top as you keep below - could not be met. In fact we cut the top back to only two 'branches' - but each was about 4 metres long. What they had in the way of roots once we got it out was only two stubs less than 400 mm long and another one slightly longer.

Here it is in its new position.

I have to say I hoped, rather than expected, it would survive.

Well look at what had happened only 4 weeks later.

It's definitely a sign of survival at least. Kristina fed it well with seaweed fertiliser - and we will make sure it continues to get plenty of water.

Hopefully, within a year or two, it will look like it has been there a hundred years - and provide the necessary shade in summer - and lack of shade in winter - to make the passive solar aspect of the house work well.
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Some new arrivals

2009-11-15T21:28:00.004+11:00

The calves that didn't arrive when we were at home in September have been arriving since. There is only one cow still to calve - although she may have in the last few days. The result is slightly disappointing - 9 live births and two dead.

This is one cute little guy. Actually I don't know he's a guy, but I'm assuming. For a Belted Galloway he's got a bit of a problem. He has the most broken belt (non-continuous) I've ever seen. On the other side he has the black - white - black pattern, but on this side he looks like a fluffy Angus (well perhaps not).

I love this photo. Is this an attentive Mum - or what? I'm also pretty pleased with the pasture in paddock 20! When I was home it was looking a bit sad. I paddock harrowed it - which breaks up the cow manure and tickles things up. The response in just a couple of weeks is pretty good. I'm very much looking forward to being back at Moora and managing the pastures much more actively than I can from Jakarta.

And here are 5 of the calves all in one spot. Looking very well - even if I say so myself.

Australian understanding of Indonesia = zero !

2009-11-09T00:27:00.001+11:00

Why should I be surprised? Very few people in Australia have a balanced, intelligent understanding of Indonesia.

Something very, very important is happening in Jakarta at present. There is a battle underway that may even end up being as significant as 1998 or 1965 - but the Australian media doesn't seem to have noticed. I'm sure there must be some reporting - but I can't find it in the online editions.

The current battle is ostensibly between the Police and Attorney General's office and the Corruption Eradication Office (called KPK). KPK has been pursuing official corruption successfully enough to threaten powerful interests in the Indonesian Parliament and the legal system. The Police and AGO have hit back with investigations of senior members of KPK. The (now ex) Chairman has been accused of murder. Two other Commissioners have been accused of accepting bribes to halt investigations.

The details don't matter so much - suffice to say that a big section of Indonesian civil society thinks KPK is in the right. They are trying to mobilise support and pressure the President to back KPK more decisively than he has been doing.

A few weeks ago a senior Indonesian policeman was silly enough to ask a rhetorical question of a Tempo journalist "Can a Cicak fight a Crocodile?" A Cicak is a small lizard - in Australia we might call it a gecko. The policeman was saying that KPK (the Cicak) could not possibly win in any clash with something as powerful as the Indonesian Police (the Crocodile).

There are now a million members of a Facebook Group called Cicak - which is some sort of acronym for Love Indonesia Love KPK. There is talk of 'people power' of the type that had a major impact on the events of 1998 (fall of the New Order Government).

If I knew how, I would join Cicak and become the million and first member. I wish them well and think reform of Parliament and the legal system is a goal worth pursuing - even at some risk of social and political upheaval.

How can it be that something that has taken up 80% of the front pages of the Jakarta Post for 10 days has been unreported in Australia?

I suspect the dominant reason is that our view of Indonesia is so distorted that it is not easy to actually explain what is going on.

Didn't the 'good guys' win and the 'bad guys' lose back when they got rid of Suharto?
Well no actually. In practical terms, rent seeking behaviour (corruption) has actually been worse since then. In Indonesia it's always difficult to determine where mutual obligation gives way to rent seeking gives way to petty corruption gives way to grand corruption. The fall of the New Order government and the decision (hotly contested though it may have been) by the Indonesian Armed Forces to step back from politics were just first tentative steps. What is happening now may be the next step in a long slow transition.

Islamic terrorism is the main story!
Well no actually. While there is some threat, it's probably less than an Indian student faces on tonight's train to Weribee. If the current situation spills onto the streets, I'll be more concerned about personal safety than I've been about terrorism over the last year or two. What will DFAT do with their travel warnings then?

Indonesia is a marvellous, complex place. We owe it to ourselves (as Australians) to develop a more sophisticated understanding of it. Reporting a big, important story would be a start.

My Papa's distant cousins

2009-10-24T12:56:00.011+11:00

There will be readers of this blog who may remember the efforts my Papa used to make each year to prevent blackbirds and starlings from eating too many of his cherries. There were several weeks in late Spring and early summer when battle was joined by a whole variety of means.

Most conventional perhaps was the shotgun (slug guns for grandsons eager to help). But the more interesting parts of the system were various bird scaring contraptions that worked on a combination of noise and visual disturbance.

It's a bit difficult to know quite how to describe the whole thing, but suffice to say, that the components included electric motors, gear boxes from old farm machinery, long lengths of wire, lengths of second hand galvanised iron downpipe, gravel of just the right type (smooth river gravel didn't work), an old blacksmith's hammer - which struck a disc off an old disc plough.

Why recall all this? Well a few days ago, on an early morning walk, we came across my Papa's distant Javanese cousins - with their own bird problems. These people have padi rice fields that are within a week or two of harvest.

You can see the grains of rice - and so can substantial flocks of small birds - a bit smaller and finer than a sparrow.

With shotguns not an option on a relatively small island with a population of 130 million, a lower tech alternative is one component of the system.

I'm not sure how many he'd get with this. They seemed pretty small and quick.

The more important part of the system was a series of strings - with streamers and noise making contraptions attached.

A well timed tug on the right strings - and the flocks of birds take fright - and fly on to another patch - when it's necessary to pull another string.

Eventually they seem to hope that the birds get tired of constant disturbance - or find the padi of someone who is still in bed at 5 am - when they should be out protecting their crop.

This was the most impressive of the 'control centres'. Most were at ground level and just provided a place to sit and some shelter from the sun. This one involved a bit of height - and padi fields quite a way away.

There was a special relay system to carry the operator's tug at least 100 metres - and then up and over a little roadway. I can see my Papa looking at it and approving - or disapproving if he thought there was a better way to solve the problem.

This guy not only had the only high rise control centre, but he also had a wind energy driven noise generator of some type. I'm pretty sure Len Holdaway would have understood it - even if his grandson couldn't quite work it out.

And finally he is the man himself. Can you see the likeness?

One of life's stranger pleasures ...

2009-10-21T10:22:00.006+11:00

The last two weeks I've been back in Central Java working with regional water authorities - trying to help bring reticulated drinking water to more people. This time I took my wife - and she brought our vehicle. I still went to work all day, but in the evening the hotel room was a little more like home. And my wife is quite capable of entertaining herself in places that are somewhat off the normal tourist track.

One thing that always interests us both is how people farm. Some things you see just as you drive around - the crops, the terraces, the irrigation technologies, the tools, the transport systems. They are easier to see in a place like Wonosobo (where we were last week) because the population density is so high and nothing much is hidden behind walls.

I've always enjoyed going into the stores that farmers shop at. In Australia its Elders or CRT or Landmark. In New Zealand its PGG or CRT. In the States they're harder to find, but are there in many of the little rural towns we have visited.

What I enjoy is finding something that I can't get at home - but that is useful or

clever in some way. I can easily think of things like my Carhartt hat - bought somewhere in Ohio. It's a heavyweight version of a baseball cap - with ear flaps. I guess it's made for farmers who have to work all day in the snow of an Ohio winter. Most times of most days it is not necessary in Australia - but there are times when it gets very cold at Moora - and my Carhartt hat keeps me warm - even if only for the early morning work.

Not intending to offend any Ohioans, but the hat looks silly enough that I'd take it off if anyone came.

It probably cost me $20, but it serves a niche need well - plus it makes me recall my son David's year at High School in Brown County, Ohio and his wonderful, generous host family - the Dotsons.

It's a long way from southern Ohio to Central Java, but a few days ago my wife found the equivalent of a farm supplies section of the Wonosobo pasar (market). First she just bought me a machete that I will use in the garden or to prepare stock feed. I sent her back to buy other stuff. I think she got a number of hand tools of various types (several to give away).

There must have been some risk, as she drove back to Jakarta, that if she got stopped, she could be accused of carrying enough weaponry to start a small (low tech) insurrection.

The cost of this collection of knives, machetes, sickles, adzes and grubbers - Rp350,000 or US$35. And the lady who sold them looked like she thought all her Christmases (Lebarans maybe) had come at once!

No - I haven't died ...

2009-10-17T19:43:00.003+11:00

We went back to Australia at the end of September - and things have been busy, busy since then.

The trip home was wonderful. One of the main reasons was the way my 56 year old body stood up to the farm work. A few months ago my dear wife introduced me to Pak Murgiono at one of the gyms she goes to while I'm working. I have been going to see him 3 times a week when I'm in Jakarta.

As I generally do - I just follow instructions. I start with 25 minutes of cardio - walking or a stationary bike. Then I do about an hour of exercises - with most of the focus being on my 'core'. None of the exercises are with heavy weights, but quite a few are pretty hard. Murgi is big on making me not lock my knees, lean at a specific angle, twist just so, breathe out with the maximum effort - and a whole lot of other instructions.

Before I went to Australia I knew I was feeling pretty good - and already a bit stronger. What I didn't expect is that I could work all day (well most of the day) - and not be bent over with a sore back - which usually recovers overnight just enough to let me get back out there the next day. This time I was still in reasonable shape at the end of each day - and definitely raring to go the following morning.

My Sunbury masseuse confirmed the improvement - but still found spots to make me hop anyway.

It will make quite a difference to my future as an (somewhat elderly) farmer.

Irresponsible entities

2009-09-10T09:31:00.004+10:00

In Australia we have things called MISs - which is an acronym for Managed Investment Schemes. An MIS collects money from a variety of people and invests it in a long term farming or forestry enterprise.

An MIS is organised and managed by something called a Responsible Entity or RE. Turns out these companies would be better named IEs - for Irresponsible Entities. Quite a number of them have failed - part way through their projects. RE's for MISs sold by Great Southern, Timbercorp and EnvironInvest have run out of money and passed into a most complicated insolvency situation.

In the end though, who is really at fault? There are at least 3 candidates:

the scheme promoters - who usually also own the RE
the government that set up the regulatory framework
the investors

I remember looking at the MIS option when I first considered investing in forestry. In 1998 the flaws were already pretty obvious:

They were sold using discounted cash flow (DCF) forecasts of return in a set of circumstances where costs were near and certain and income distant and uncertain. In such circumstances DCF is mildly interesting, but basically useless - as an investment analysis tool. Seeing how the sales material focussed on forecast IRRs made me very nervous.
The scheme structures involved promoters taking their returns early and investors getting their returns later. This violates a common sense principle that you try to understand and verify the value of what you're buying before you hand over your money.
Of course investors did get one source of immediate value - a current year tax deduction. Now I value a legitimate tax deduction as much as anyone, but the way this was done was another warning bell. Investors' dislike of writing a cheque to the ATO was being manipulated - and they ended up writing cheques to spivs promising returns over a decade later.
The regulation that governed MIS clearly didn't do what it purported to do. It held out that it could protect the interests of investors - when Blind Freddy should have been able to see the structural flaws.

This was all reasonably clear right back at the start of all this. Obvious enough for me to avoid them myself - even though I've invested a heap of money in plantation forestry over the same period.

A good result ... and a last hurrah

2009-09-05T10:16:00.011+10:00

My girls won the firm's mini Olympics basketball competition!

In the final we had to beat a team that we 'ambushed' in the preliminary rounds - and who seemed to think we were not good enough to beat them. They complained about our 'rough play' - when their problem was really that one of my girls (unexpectedly) had the capacity to play good man to man D on their best player and completely disrupted their game.

In any case, they were determined to beat us the second time around. My team was equally determined to win again. This is a bit unusual for Indonesians - who are usually cooperative rather than competitive. I suspect there was a bit of Collingwood (slums) vs Melbourne (silvertails) - or Lakers (Showtime) vs Celtics (Blue collar). In our case it was professional staff against secretarial / support staff - with my team being the ones who felt they were being expected to 'know their place'.

So quite a final was in prospect!

I decided we needed some new defensive wrinkle to create the same lack of composure that won us the first game. At this stage anyone who knows basketball is going to think I'm nuts, but I taught my team (of one stud and 9 beginners) to play a 2 - 2 - 1 zone press. To cut a long story (slightly) shorter - their first 3 possessions resulted in 3 turnovers and 2 baskets for us. Not long after we were up 8-0 and we coasted to a 15-5 victory playing our second stringers for much of the second half.

It didn't hurt that Lisa played a great game offensively - although she and our second option (Chiara) had to withstand a mauling to do it. Our opponents played rough in the final - while we only ever played tough.

That made it extra good to win!

Later that day I left a competitive basketball court for the last time. I played 2 minutes in each half of the (so called) Allstar game. It was a bit like the rest of my basketball career really - a few points, a few rebounds, but not really what I should have been capable of.

What matter?

I will remember scoring 24 points against Waimea College for my high school in 1970. And playing for the Marlborough mens team as a schoolboy. Then when playing for Victoria University, how we slowly improved over 3 years. The competitive games against Marist and Coca Cola - and finally the victories. We won the 1974 New Zealand National Club Championship beating Marist in the semi and Coke in the final - even if I sat on the end of the bench by that stage. I will remember a few good games against class players after I stopped playing for Vic Uni - (so I could start and not play behind national team centre John Saker). I'll remember scoring a bunch for a team in London with an old Vic Uni team mate (Kevin McGrattan) watching and being ticked off for taking jump shots instead of powering to the basket. I'll remember dropping in 4 hookshots in a row from the right hand block (off Neil Faulkner entry passes) in a game at the old Albert Park stadium. And I'll remember playing just one game with son David at Broadford Stadium - which was when my knees finally started to hurt.

In life I aspire to follow the wise counsel of Coach John Wooden. He says "Don't measure yourself by what you have accomplished, but rather by what you should have accomplished with your abilities". I never really worked hard enough at basketball - to claim accomplishment. It wasn't until I was a very slow triathlete in my mid 30s that I think I got close to doing that.

But sport is not only about 'being your best' - it's also just about fun - and I've had a lot of fun playing basketball - and rugby, cricket, squash, golf, soccer, ten pin bowling, table tennis, tennis, 40 or 50 fun runs including 2 marathons and 60 or 70 triathlons including 1 Ironman!

Earthquakes

2009-09-03T10:08:00.008+10:00

Earthquakes are not fun! We had a medium sized one in Jakarta yesterday. Away to the south was closer to the epicentre and the damage there seems to have been greater. There has been some loss of life.

Kristina says she didn't even feel it - she must have been sozzled from another of her long lunches! I was on the 35th floor of a steel framed skyscraper and I certainly felt it. First there was a bit of a wobble - then it kept on going - and eventually we started to sway. There were no thumps.

I would have guessed the earthquake lasted 45 seconds, but the papers say a minute. The building then swayed for maybe two or three minutes - enough for me to feel a little motion sickness.

The quake itself was also long enough for me to decide to get under a door frame - and try to tell colleagues to do the same. Most of them seemed to prefer running around in circles - or bolting for the stair wells. My partner jumped in a lift!

Afterwards I was asked whether I was not scared? I said I was in fact terrified - which is why I was standing quietly in a doorway on the 35th floor and not getting trampled in a stair well, stuck in a lift or struck on the head by falling glass outside a tall building.

When we got home to our 5th floor apartment we found cracks in the laundry wall - see photo.

I remember quakes from my New Zealand childhood. I always find them scary and can't help wondering - just how big is this going to be?

My home town Blenheim - and Wellington (where I went to University) are overdue for a 'big one'. Last time there was a really 'big one' in 1855, the location of Wellington airport went from a tidal swamp to dry land.

An 1848 quake lifted big parts of the Wairau Valley - including the farm I grew up on. With melting Greenland ice sheets, we could probably do with another couple of metres rise - but I shouldn't joke about things like this.

Addendum - It seems I got things back to front in the last paragraph. It seems the Wairau plain fell (not lifted) in 1848 - and as a result the Opawa River became navigatable as far up as where Blenheim now is. Apparently that earthquake also created the Vernon Lagoon.

Early morning

2009-08-30T10:52:00.006+10:00

This photo was taken at my favorite time of day - very early on a summer morning. I don't specifically remember this morning, but something tells me it was to be a hot, Australian day.

It was taken looking to the east from our house at Kilmore. I know each feature and tree silhouetted in the foreground. It's actually hard to know what I can see - and what I can just imagine.

I love walking through a quiet house as the sun starts to light the sky - or eating my breakfast and thinking about the possibilities of the day.

At Moora we have the most wonderful window to the east of where I will eat my breakfast in future. It's 3.5 metres wide and will frame our views of each new day.

I'm looking forward to getting back home in a couple of weeks and doing quite a few things - including starting to make a garden. What bones we have to work with!

Ted Kennedy

2009-08-29T14:23:00.006+10:00

It is interesting watching the response to Ted Kennedy's passing.

I'm not particularly a Camelot junkie - I'm about equally uninterested in Jacquie Spencer or Diana Bouvier (I can't even be bothered to check the spellings). And I have no sympathy for the way Kennedy men seem to have treated women.

But .... I guess I must admire redemption.

Oh that we should live long enough to learn something, and long enough that the balance of our life tilts towards the good we do and lets the small (and great) errors we all make seem less important.

There are those who want to point out how a privileged young man cheated at university - and how, as an adult, he drunkenly contributed to death of a young woman - and then pretty much failed to take responsibility.

I have been struck by the way in which an interview with Roger Mudd has been mentioned as a turning point in his life. At the time the incoherence of his reply to Mudd's question "Why do you want to be President?" seemed like a disaster. With the passing of time, it seems like the making of him - as it released him from chasing the presidency and allowed him to grow into a role for which, it turns out, he was always better suited.

Vale Ted Kennedy.

Denial as a strategy

2009-08-28T11:04:00.002+10:00

It seems like no one is much worried about the global financial crisis any more. Most markets are up 50% from their lows. Interest rates are low - prosperity is just around the corner ....

I don't believe it. I just read a comment by Charles Hugh Smith (Oftwominds blog) which went:

Denial is a wonderful survival strategy until suddenly it isn't.

I think we're well and truly in this stage of denial.

The US is fundamentally and structurally stuffed - I think they have a long way to fall before the fundamental goodness and soundness of the American people kicks in. It's funny, but the thing they're most proud of - their system of government - is probably the thing that is dragging them down. The reality is that many (if not most) first world countries have a better performing system of government than the US. And there is no better example of this than US health care.

What I think is underestimated is the extent of China's vulnerability. Things I read suggest to me that there is a huge correction somewhere in the works. It's not clear to me that China has the structural capacity to adjust. I hope they do, but it won't be pretty. It seems to me like they're building an asset price bubble bigger that California real estate. Perhaps more like Japanese real estate in the late 80s - when the value of downtown Tokyo was said to be worth more than all the real estate in - where ever ... Turns out it wasn't!

And where goes China - so goes Australia - at least in the sense of being the miracle economy that is cruising through everything else. In the last few weeks there has been much talk about the A$ being a proxy for China - and that investment in Australia is now a low risk way of investing in China. Methinks there is an asset price bubble building in Australia.

I want to be a peasant

2009-08-23T23:44:00.006+10:00

I've always found it amusing that, in many countries, being a farmer is thought of as pretty low status - particularly if one is a small farmer - or peasant. This is not the way farmers were thought of in New Zealand or Australia when I was growing up. Having internalised that way of looking at the world, I could never really see the growing of food as anything but an honorable and important calling.

So it's refreshing to discover an organisation called La Via Campisena which sub-titles itself the International Peasant Movement. They're big on food sovereignty and very negative on the WTO, World Bank, IMF et al.

However, I'm not sure we get to quite similar positions on the same basis. I think I get there more like Joseph Stiglitz - who said it well in Globalisation and Its Discontents:

Behind the free market ideology there is a model, often attributed to Adam Smith, which argues that market forces--the profit motive--drive the economy to efficient outcomes as if by an invisible hand. One of the great achievements of modern economics is to show the sense in which, and the conditions under which, Smith's conclusion is correct. It turns out that these conditions are highly restrictive. Indeed, more recent advances in economic theory --ironically occurring precisely during the period of the most relentless pursuit of the Washington Consensus policies--have shown that whenever information is imperfect and markets incomplete, which is to say always, and especially in developing countries, then the invisible hand works most imperfectly. Significantly, there are desirable government interventions which, in principle, can improve upon the efficiency of the market. These restrictions on the conditions under which markets result in efficiency are important--many of the key activities of government can be understood as responses to the resulting market failures.

Like Stiglitz, I see the failure of the World Bank, IMF and WTO as deriving not from evil conspiracy, but from a series of intellectual errors and a bureaucratic failure of the imagination. What ever they intend, they end up serving the interests of first world corporations (particularly the finance sector) against any sensible conception of the public interest. And these corporations (mainly) follow the rules - except the rules are dumb - particularly in systematically favouring scale - and then in allowing scale to distort markets.

In the late 90s and early this decade I watched Australian regulators completely muck up the implementation of independent economic regulation of the electricity and gas sectors. There were a couple of sensible, pragmatic characters (in NSW and SA), but the rest were hopeless. They cloaked themselves in the public interest and ended up doing the devil's business - because they didn't have much idea about how the real world actually works.

But when things go wrong (and plenty of things are wrong with the world), it's almost always because the we have screwed up. The implication of this is that it is only we who can actually change anything - not they or them - just we.

These things I believe !

So I've decided the practical, rational response to all the problems of the food system is ...... for me to be a peasant. Not long now .....

Going bush - in Central Java

2009-08-13T10:26:00.004+10:00

I was born in what Australians call 'the bush' - that part of the world beyond the big cities.

At age 18 I was happy enough to get away from always being someone else's son or grandson. For at least 20 years I enjoyed the relative anonymity of big cities. Since then it has suited me to spend more and more time with the type of people I grew up with - as I have been doing these past 3 days.

The good people of Blenheim would not necessarily see the similarities to the people of Kudus in Central Java - but I can.

Just 10 minutes ago at breakfast a man about my own age took it upon himself to greet me (an obvious stranger) and ask me what my business was in Kudus - much as Harold or John Spark or JC Irving would have done - just out of interest and good fellow feeling.

I am here to try to help the local water authority to attract loan funds to enable the extension of basic drinking water infrastructure. When I did similar work in Australia I always found it easy to empathise with local people and easy to get irritated by the hoops that various bureaucracies put them through. So it is here also.

The forces that work for good and progress always coexist with other more malign forces. At age 18 I lacked the maturity and wisdom to sort the one from the other in a place where my roots went back more than a century. At 56 I find it a little easier to see the parallels and guess just who might be on the side of the angels - and when.

Today I have to look at the first cut of a capital program for the next few years. The question I'm expected to shine light on is whether it's 'bankable'.

Bankability is actually a very useful concept to apply to such circumstances, as it's more than just the sum of its parts. We're looking at four contributors to bankability - their governance, their reporting, their planning and their tariff policies. Then we are asking whether it all comes together in what I'm terming 'a good story'.

Bureaucracies everywhere love to define things in terms of their inputs - if all the inputs are ok - or have a policy in place to 'pretend' it's ok - then, by definition, the sum of it all must be ok! Not so .... !

The first number I heard late last night for the Kudus capital program was very high - bordering on the bizarre. I can hardly wait for the process we'll go through today (and over the next few weeks) to (hopefully) pull it together into a coherent 'good story' that a bank can consider supporting.

I'd love to show you some photos of the beautiful landscapes around here - of the fields of peanuts, sugar cane, beans and other dry season crops I don't recognise. Unfortunately my photographer is back in Jakarta - so you'll just have to use your imagination.

Bush fires

2009-08-09T11:38:00.012+10:00

I've been looking at submissions to the Bushfires Royal Commission.

There is one from the Australian Forest Growers that makes a lot of sense. The person who wrote it is measured and careful, but the recipe for disaster comes through:

Psuedo science + Politics + Bureaucratic caution = Disaster

This recipe for disaster afflicts us in multiple spheres. To avoid the charge that I'm either right wing - or left wing - let me use three examples side by side (and try to offend everyone equally).

Example disasters
Victorian bushfires	Industrial food	Global financial crisis
Underlying ‘pseudo’ science
Environmental sciences	High input, industrial agriculture	Modern finance and risk management theory
Politics
The green vote	Cheap food	Too big to fail
Bureaucratic failure
Inaction on fuel reduction	Skewing of the regulatory system in favour of industrial food	Deregulation and self regulation of financial sector
Result
Fuel build-up leading to catastrophic fires	Local food systems are disadvantaged by an excess of caution while industrial food systems are subsidised and their externalities socialised	The profits of excessive risk taking are ‘earned’ by the finance sector – while the inevitable losses are socialised

In each case there are alternatives to the psuedo science that has come to dominate the politics - but we've exercised our democratic choices or allowed stakeholder manipulation of our democratic choices - to the point of disaster. Bureaucrats follow the politics - as, to a degree, they must.

In each case the system turns out to be more complex than we though - ahhh - complex systems again.

More Wendell Berry - and go buy some wine

2009-08-09T00:18:00.009+10:00

I've been reading some more of the American poet and farmer Mr Wendell Berry of Kentucky. He makes a heap of sense. There is quite a lot of his approach to life on this page.

In another spot I found this extract from one of his poems:

I walk this ground
Of which dead men and women I have loved
Are part, as they
Are part of me

The place I think of when reading this? Here it is:

I built a tree house just back over my left shoulder. I picked up potatoes and later shovelled them into a potato grader, buried dead sheep, tried to shoot sparrows with a slug gun, weeded fodder beet and later fed it to pigs, cut corn to feed cattle, sewed up bags of barley on a header harvester, stapled droppers to fences, walked around mobs of sheep looking for any sign of flystrike - all in what used to be paddocks in the foreground.

Wine made with grapes from this vineyard (or maybe another one not so far away) is now available in Melbourne from Gisborne Peak Wines - see here.

Rather than just order on line - take the trip to the cellar door where Bob and Barb Nixon run a great little operation. Our Savignon Blanc is not the only good wine available. And the pizzas are great as well.

Dry, Dry, Dry

2009-08-08T15:12:00.003+10:00

We're heading into another El Nino. The warnings from home are for a fire season worse than last year - at least for those areas that did not burn last February.

The Macedon Ranges (where we live) have to be at some considerable risk. The last big fire was in 1983 - and everything is bone dry. Our year to date rainfall is less than half the long term average - and this comes after a decade without an above average year!

Moora would usually be considered pretty safe. We have no long grass anywhere on the property really. We have relatively little native vegetation. Our farm house is made of non-combustible materials - and we keep it well cleared.

What concerns me is the potential for a sustained ember attack from native forests several kilometres away to our west. The media reporting from the current Royal Commission is not so great (does anyone know a good online source of discussion and analysis?), but it seems that an ember storm is one thing that is changing people's assessment of bushfire preparedness.

I'm also concerned about our tree farm at Grenville (south of Ballarat). Our tenant is about to harvest their wood chip plantation. That will mean part of the land is clear and provide some protection for our trees from our north. There are a number of houses on that side anyway - so I guess there would be a lot of effort concentrated there in the event of fire. We're vulnerable from the south and west. We will do our fire protection work - and make sure the insurance is in place and adequate.

We have another tree farm on Kangaroo Island. We had a fire burn right to our boundary in December 2007 - so I hope that gives us some protection for a few years at least.

The guy who helps us manage our forestry interests has been in plantation forestry for over 30 years - and the 2007 KI fires were the first time he saw losses of forests under his management. The cost level for insurance also suggests plantation loss is a very rare event. I trust it stays that way.

Two soldiers of the Great War

2009-08-08T01:28:00.008+10:00

It has been reported that the last survivor of the trenches in northern France has died in England - leaving now only one surviving sailor of all those who served in the Great War 1914-1918 - at least on the Allied side.

Here are two other soldiers of that conflict. They are Leonard Stanley Holdaway and Harold Lee Spark - and they were my grandfathers.

Len Holdaway was a 30 year old farmer from New Zealand who served on Gallipoli and in France. He was a bandsman and played the trombone.

Harold Spark was a 17 year old Englishman when he enlisted. He served in France. Some years after the war he made his way to New Zealand - and eventually married a young woman called Margaret McCallum who grew up at

Riverlands on the southern side of the Opawa River near Blenheim.

Just across the river Len Holdaway and his wife Miriam Hammond were living on a farm settled by Len's father some 60 years before. I can feel the warm silty soil of that farm between my toes as I write now - as I remember these two men as I knew them in the 1950s, 60s and into the 70s.

The next two photos show them as they were then - as part of large, close farming families. Len gentle and self contained, Harold more in the centre of things, and almost always with a twinkle in his eye.

Actually I do specifically remember each of these occasions.

In the first photo Len was farewelling his youngest son Barry (in a very fashionable duffle coat) as he left the farm to attend Lincoln College. Barry was the first in our family to go to University. Today one of Len's great grandsons is a PhD candidate at Cambridge University - I wonder what my Papa would make of that.

Harold is at Waikuku Beach (maybe a little further north). Grandad is surrounded by family - and on the table is his then brand new Canon camera - that went on the record so much of the life of his family, their farming activities and travels.

Both these men marched each year on Anzac Day and responded to the questions of grandsons about their war experiences - each in his own way.

Just recently Barry and my brother Alan visited northern France and tracked their movements over the final days of the war. From various records and memories Alan has worked out that they must have passed within a few hundred yards of each other.

What could we who were not there ever know of what they endured?

Terrorism in Jakarta - and Melbourne

2009-08-04T23:09:00.005+10:00

If any of our friends in Melbourne are feeling terrorised - please come and spend some time with us in Jakarta until things settle down.

Oh - DFaT hasn't issued an alert about travelling to or staying in Melbourne? Why am I not surprised? They save such pointless, counter productive and destructive responses for Bali and Jakarta. It's good to see ordinary Australians ignore them - and sad to see companies covering their butts to no useful purpose.

Well done AFP and Vic Police for the work that led to arrests in Melbourne this morning - before something happened. Also well done to the Indonesian police for their work since the hotel attacks here 10 days ago.

We ought to be more realistic about these things. Terrorism exists because, on one level, it works - it's an high impact, low cost way to advance a minority view. Whether it's evil or not depends on your point of view - one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter. Consequently, it will always be with us.

Having watched what has happened over the last 10 years, I think the only rationale response to terrorism is police work within the rule of law. Because the threat is international, it now needs international cooperation - with the collaboration between Australia and Indonesia since the Bali bombings being a good model.

A year or so ago I read a book called Three Cups of Tea about a guy called Greg Mortenson and his work in Pakistan and Afghanistan. His work costs about the same as terrorism in input terms. But he truly does God's work. A few dollars in his hands achieves what millions in military expenditure cannot.

I just looked at his website - and its seems he's now having a wider influence - quite exciting really. It's worth a look.

In the mean time - keep safe and think clearly.

Mum - I still love basketball

2009-08-02T22:02:00.007+10:00

Forty years ago my dear Mum told me a time was coming when I wouldn't care so much about sport - that one day I'd grow up and be interested in other things. Well - even my Mum wasn't right about everything. I thought of her as I drove off to the kampung at 7-30 am this morning.

The numbers coming are down a bit lately, but we still had 7 there today - and there are even signs of emerging skill development.

This morning I saw Louie (on the left of the photo) dribbling the basketball down the right side of the court with her head up looking into the post - the ball tucked back by her right hip. She almost looked like Derek Fisher looking for the pass into Pau Gasol to initiate the Triangle - for just a moment. Now to get her to do that with her left hand on the left side!

My Pau Gasol equivalent (Vera - on the right) is still getting the hang of posting up properly, but she played much better defence this morning. She had to play on Faisal (bigger and stronger) - and she is slo..oo..wly learning to 'love contact'.

Louie is also becoming my translator. I noticed a few weeks ago that Louie, Widi and Ryan would try to listen and translate for the others. I've tried to encourage them. A little bit of practise with a native English speaker helps - but I suspect the recognition and interest means more.

At present I have two other teams to coach. The firm I work for is holding a basketball tournament and I'm coaching both a men's and a women's team.

My girls have played 3 games and we're unbeaten. We do have the best player in the tournament and another girl who is pretty good. But the reason we're winning though is less those two than it is the others - who are doing a great job with newly acquired skills.

Of course I love my point guard (yellow and blue) - my best since Bud (see earlier post) - all the more because she is playing with an injury. But any coach with a brain knows how good it is to have a 'big' who keeps her hands up - and I have two.

Then I have another girl who I discovered can go out on the court and guard the other team's best player one on one. She does it with smarts and concentration rather than great technique, but it was good enough to completely flummox the best player on the only team that had a good chance of beating us. Yeah Yani !!

My men's team - well 'rabble' is possibly a generous description.

Complex systems

2009-07-20T16:25:00.007+10:00

I've been becoming more and more interested in complex systems theory. According to Wikipedia:

A complex system is any system featuring a large number of interacting components, whose aggregate activity is non-linear and typically exhibits self-organization under selective pressures.

It seems to me that both economies and farms are best understood as complex adaptive systems. I have always understood this on an intuitive, common sense level. Complex systems theory puts an intellectual framework around it.

One of my Dad's favourite aphorisms (perhaps just when he was arguing something with me) was 'beware of people who give simple answers to complicated questions'. I would like to think I've spent a good part of my life since I left the farm trying to avoid the tendency we all have to look for 'simple answers'.

I've recently come across someone who is is using complexity theory to explain the wet rice agriculture systems on the island of Bali. His name is Prof. Stephen Lansing - and he is very special!

I first found him via a podcast you can find on this page. The lecture was given in February 2006 - so it's well down the page. You can just search for Lansing or Bali.

From there, I found a book he has written called Perfect Order: Recognizing Complexity in Bali. So far I've only managed to read part of the first chapter on Amazon, but it's very good.

There is also an interview with him on YouTube called Cycle of Rice, Cycle of Life.

Another favourite author / thinker of mine is Nicholas Nassim Taleb. He is a trenchant critic of mainstream capital markets theory. His best book is The Black Swan. The following is a quote from his website:

What I do: I am interested in how to live in a world we don’t understand very well –in other words, while most human thought (particularly since the enlightenment) has focused us on how to turn knowledge into decisions, I am interested in how to turn lack of information, lack of understanding, and lack of “knowledge” into decisions –how not to be a “turkey”. My last book The Black Swan (and the 4th Quadrant papers) drew a map of what we don’t understand; my current work focuses on how to domesticate the unknown "what to do in a world we don't understand".

I find myself wondering what my own response to the challenges presented by Lansing and Taleb ought to be?