Soils before inorganic fertilisers, pesticides, herbicides and all those other ‘…cides’ – before World War 2 – abounded with microbial life and worms, their confederates. Fields and plains naturally grew healthy, year-round pasture and forests. No need for hay gathering or even fear of fires. Permanent pastures, much higher in available crude proteins for animal health and growth. Less need, if at all, for veterinarians or medicines.
An important ‘element’ missing from today’s soils is sequestered soil cardon with its associated sequestered nitrogen too. Only soils protected from excessive tillage, with well structured cover crops year round and an active soil microbiome – microbes and worms – can anticipate growing these assets.
Plants absolutely need microbes and worms, soils need all three. When harmony is achieved then root systems stretch deeper into the soil. Not just centimetres but metres down into living, developing and constantly renewing soil life.
“For every tonne of sequestered soil carbon, the soil can hold 10 tonnes more water…” for extended years. What an amazing difference plants would experience with deep well fed and watered root systems feeding plants, and microbes sharing minerals between species. How much better would they fare in extended drought, flooding rains, freezing frosts and destructive fire – all too common here in Australia.
How much healthier would animals be feeding on nutritious, well-fed pastures that potentially can produce from 12 to 48% crude protein without any added inorganic chemical fertilisers or poisonous weedicides, pesticides or the like? If the expense of all these chemicals and the equipment, fuels and manhours were vastly reduced, would that not be a range of wonderful and most desirable benefits?
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