Healthy Farming Healthy Food: Natural Sequence Farming Contours

We told ourselves that we wouldn't make any changes to the property until we'd lived on Serenity for 12 months. Well, we didn't quite make it! We've had trouble with ticks and flies since we've been here and think that the paddock and water placement has been partly to blame. For example there's 20 paddocks or more on the place but only a few of them have troughs. Most have laneway access to a dam, which means we can't get enough rest and therefore aren't able to break the tick cycle if the cattle are always watering on a dam.

Another problem we've had is the extreme rain events early in the year have created a lot of erosion around the dams and one dam in particular is likely to blow out. We needed to do some earth works on this and on the property in general to hopefully prevent this.

These photos top and bottom are two different dams. The bottom one, we'll do more work with if it survives the wet season this year. We did a bit, but I haven't taken photos of it.

In 2020 we did a Natural Sequence Farming workshop with Stuart Andrews and we have finally put this in to practice at Serenity. We had a little play with the concept out at Cherhill last year, but this time, we've had Stuart bring is machines and put the contours in for us. He's also done some remediation around the dams.

This contour is coming off the dam and going across where it would normally bywash. It was then taken out through the boundary fence and continued on the neighbours place. Picture below shows this contour on the neighbours side.

At this stage we have one large contour that goes almost the length of the property - about 1.5km. This contour has been fenced off, which means that we have a lot more paddocks. We have also put in a water pipe-line and will eventually get a tank and then troughs put in so that we don't need to use the dams. Because the contours are fenced to prevent stock damaging them while they are so new, it's a perfect opportunity to plant trees. The property has been over-cleared in some paddocks, so it will be good to get more trees going. We will plant a mix of trees - fruits, both exotic and native, timber trees, nut trees, livestock fodder trees and also some natives to encourage the wildlife.

One section of the contour. It's really hard to get a photo of the entire contour! We need to get a drone in and take a video.

We're even recycling fence posts. You can see the top and bottom fence and this will have gateways as there is also a sill where the water can off load - we can also drive across this area when it's dry. A sill is a ground level area without a bank. The contour is completely level and so the water spreads out along it. In very heavy rain, it will gently overflow the contour and spill out in these areas. Sills are usually put on ridges.

Three wires - one for pigs, one for cows and three hopefully will keep in the sheep and goats.

Our very good friend Mick, who used to work with us on the pig farm, has generously offered his time to help us establish trees and also a small syntropic plot. Mick is incredibly knowledgable about trees and is very keen to use this as a case study for future jobs etc.

Sophie, Mick's partner who is also helping, planted a few packets of seeds, which included a lot of pumpkin seeds. These are planted on the actual contour as they are currently bare of grass and so the plants will help protect the bank until pasture grows. We've planted so many pumpkins that we may even make some money out of them!!!

We hired a rotary hoe to prepare the ground below the contour for planting. You can utilise the moisture better with plants below the contour as there is a natural irrigation action that happens with the water being slowed down and held in the contour for a few days - it then seeps through the bank and into the soil below.