Scary, third of arable land lost in only 40 years

[Tibbs735]

Almost all farmers practice crop rotation to some degree, even if it is just cereal crops broken up by occasional Oil seed rape or sugar beet. What I was alluding to was the top 10% of farmers who are seeing the writing on the wall and are experimenting and adopting techniques that were once considered old fashioned or slightly weird John Seymour type ideas. For example, growing mustard before chopping it and incorporating it into soil to combat nematode infestations (as the Mustard decays it has aa natural fumigation effect.) Another method is growing a cover crop, Rye for example, before rolling and chopping it before drilling the next crop directly into the soil under a nice layer of Rye mulch.

The rotational grazing thing I mentioned has been used in many parts of the world to restore land that has lost up to a foot of topsoil. It works even better when mineral salt blocks are provided. It involves penning in high numbers of grazing animals on a small area for a short time before moving them on. In this process, they eat what little vegetation is growing whilst also tramping it down against the soil, adding manure as they go. They are then moved onto the next area, simulating the action of wild herds of migrating grazing animals.