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Ironically, weeds can be controlled through permaculture techniques and steering of the soil biology over time.
Ironically #2, healthy soil can support more vegetation due to better moisture management capability and higher productivity. What we delusional humans have come to believe is undesirable competition is actually biodiversity, a good and necessary thang.
Ironically #3, why do humans revere competition in business interactions, but strive to eliminate competition in plant communities?
You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the old model obsolete. R. Buckminster Fuller
I was very impressed by those Nordic studies where they showed that a directly mixed diversity of vegetation led to rapid formation of topsoil. It is hard to have mixed crops veggie crops, but it seems a perfect solution for grazing fields. Just plant a mix of suitable plants like my lettuce mesclun patch, no not Mescalin, you druggies. Then just let the herds loose to provide poop compost. I see rotation of such mixed flora fields with monocultures after soil regeneration, as the long term solution.
TAT
There's nothing wrong with thinking Except that it's lonesome work sevil regit
On Youtube, I like to watch Goldshaw Farm, and the farmer was just talking yesterday about what his new cattle will do for his soil with rotational grazing on his pastures. He even had video of their most important contributions: Cow pies and trampled grass. Turns out his ducks love the insects those bring, too.
That sounds similar to Michael Pollans farm where the chickens rotate following the cow rotation to eat the maggots out of the cow poop. Free range chicken sounds so much better than, cowshiet maggot fed chicken! They never mention who harvests the cowpie schrooms! TAT
There's nothing wrong with thinking Except that it's lonesome work sevil regit
We also have a paper mill. The last owner spent a LOT of money setting up a boiler supported with stuff like burning slash. it was really impressive. They brought the stuff in on trucks then the truck would drive onto a lift which would raise the entire truck up on edge so the stuff to burn just slid out of the truth. Then we got a new owner and the first thing they did is to take that and sell it off as well as a lot of the machinery inside of the plant. Now the mill is making cardboard and the new owners, basically, sold off enough of the mill to almost pay for their investment.
Ironically, weeds can be controlled through permaculture techniques and steering of the soil biology over time.
Ironically #2, healthy soil can support more vegetation due to better moisture management capability and higher productivity. What we delusional humans have come to believe is undesirable competition is actually biodiversity, a good and necessary thang.
Ironically #3, why do humans revere competition in business interactions, but strive to eliminate competition in plant communities?
In the last four decades the love of competition grew stale. Turns out the most powerful among us detest competition and would rather buy everyone out instead. I guess big business loves monopolies now.
All I know is, purity is something almost NEVER found in Nature.
"The Best of the Leon Russell Festivals" DVD deepfreezefilms.com
On Youtube, I like to watch Goldshaw Farm, and the farmer was just talking yesterday about what his new cattle will do for his soil with rotational grazing on his pastures. He even had video of their most important contributions: Cow pies and trampled grass. Turns out his ducks love the insects those bring, too.
The key is to keep them mooving.
You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the old model obsolete. R. Buckminster Fuller
Farmer Gold has no trouble getting them moving. They are pretty wild and wary of him and his 4-wheeler. His problem is getting them to go where he wants! They already have found a nice shady spot with yummy lush grass they like. Maybe once they munch the grass down, they will move on naturally to another spot. He envisions moving them from paddock to paddock intentionally, but I suspect he will discover it's far easier to just make the adjacent lush paddock available and they will move on their own. He could help them along by filling water troughs and putting out salt licks in the new paddock.
He's in Northern Vermont, so he's going to have an interesting time convincing them his barn is a nice place to hang out over the winter. I warned him cattle were going to be a whole new ball game from raising ducks and geese. He has all of his ducks trained to go in their house when he yells: "All ducks go to bed." at dusk. Dairy cows that want to be milked twice a day are trainable. Free-range beef cattle, not so much.
Waste Paper Derived Biochar for Sustainable Printing Products Staples Sustainable Innovation Laboratory Project
Here is an exhaustive study to determine if Biochar can replace Carbon Black for printing inks. Carbon Black was historically produced by burning hydrocarbons in low oxygen generating soot. I haven't followed up on this, but it seems reasonable if the demand for printed hard copies hasn't disappeared from competition by electronic media. Regardless, the article is a treasure trove with many cheerful facts about the chunks of micro-Biochar!
TAT
[quote][The Golisano Institute for Sustainability (GIS) at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) performed a research and development assessment in conjunction with the Staples Sustainable Innovation Laboratory (SSIL) to determine the potential of pyrolyzed waste paper as a novel, cost- effective, environmentally friendly and sustainable black pigment for use in common consumer and commercial printing applications (e.g. inkjet, lithography and flexography). To do so, the primary focus of the project was the creation and testing of a stable form of elemental carbon called “biochar†(BC) to replace the heavy fuel oil derived “carbon black†(CB) pigment ubiquitously used in inks since the late 1800’s. /quote]
There's nothing wrong with thinking Except that it's lonesome work sevil regit
