So I say!
I've said so before. But then found it easier to post to Facebook - which I do regularly. I make mainly public posts so anyone can look at what is there by searching for Graham Holdaway or the group called Carmyllie Forest & Farm.
But we have a special reason also just at present.
Related to something that happened not far off 50 years ago.
One of the things I love to do while working is to just stop and listen. Often towards the end of the day. Find somewhere to sit quietly ... and let the some of my place seep into my soul.
Often it is then the birds I hear.
Denis Glover's poetical take on the Magpie's call is "quardle oodle ardle wardle doodle". It's not a bad representation of what they sound like. They are always at Carmyllie. I notice them in the morning - and, particularly, on a still late afternoon. I can't see them, but I can hear them.
I do often see the magpies searching for grubs out from my study window. It's rough old ground, but they seem to be able to find something.
Magpies are nicer to listen to than the Sulphur crested cockatoo's squawk. We get plenty of them as well. Nearly always in flocks. I have searched for suggestions for a collective noun. Amongst the mainly perjorative options ... perhaps a pandemonium of cockatoos?
They wheel around and perch too high in the tops of trees to be stable. The branches bend, they fall off, wheel around screeching at each other.
We hear (and less frequently see) Kookaburras. It has a 'harsh' call as well, but it is so much a part of the Australian bush that it sounds better somehow.
I always feel happy listening to its laugh.
Along with the Magpie, my favourite bird is the Fairy Wren. We get whole families of them that flit around us as we work. I assume it's because of the insects we disturb for their browsing convenience.
They very much remind me of the Fantails of my native land.
A less noticed (unless you look carefully) bird is the Red wattle bird. My son John drew it to my attention - and now I notice it quite often. Always solitary and often just flying by.
We also see Crimson rosellas. So many juvenile ones (green rather than red) that they must nest nearby.
I wish I had my own photos to show you, but I've had to download ones from E-bird. Not time for bird photography.
As of May 2020 Graham is not working off farm. This means, for the first time in his life, he can call himself a full time farmer.
It also means he has met Kristina's criteria for being allowed to (again) have cattle. "You buy them - I look after them." has been the objection up to now.
It is not a trivial undertaking to 'have cattle' responsibly. Carmyllie has been wholly devoted to plantation forestry for just over 20 years now. The infrastructure that previously supported livestock is long gone.
There are really 5 elements to the cattle farming future of Carmyllie:
Fencing
Four years ago we substantially completed the replacement of boundary fencing that had fallen into such disrepair as to be practically non-existant. We have a kilometre (of 5.6 km in total) to finish where there are old fences we will have to replace - in concert with neighbours. Then we will have to do the internal fencing that will allow us to cell graze what we (aspirationally) call The Meadow.
Water
Cows also need water. We have a 130,000 litre tank of rain water which we installed when we built the house - specifically to provide high quality reticulated water for livestock in future. We now have to put in the pipes and troughs.
Yards
Old farmers need good yards. Graham is a big bloke, but a cow still outweighs him by a factor of 3 to 5. Good yards and (particularly) a good crush makes looking after cattle properly much less stressful - for cow and farmer. Graham has, with the help of ArrowQuip, designed a very functional set of yards (he thinks). The plan that came with the quote is shown below.
Pastures
Twenty years ago The Meadow was a degraded, salt affected area through the middle of the property where it was not possible to grow trees. Now the salinity has receded and we have made a start to reestablishment of pasture. Graham has been mowing and slashing what he can, brushcutting some spiny rush and spreading a lot of horse manure. There is a lot more spiny rush (Juncus acutus) that will require heavier equipment to mulch it and allow pasture species to re-emerge.
Here Graham is slashing with his Apollo 110 HP tractor. There are a lot of thistles and young spiny rush plus other species of reedy grasses we don't recognise. It all becomes mulch that will compost in place. We think there are enough eadible grasses volunteering to graze cattle. As we go on we will broadcast other species to establish a better pasture mix.
A system
For now the thought is that we will run what is known as a cow calf system. That means we will have cows and breed our own young stock. This is what we did at Moora and we (Graham at least) enjoys the challenge.
So this is the plan. It is not a trivial undertaking ... and it is underway.
Last week Cassie and Mike made a big push and, except for some Redwood trees which are (apparently) still in Tasmania, the 2016 planting is done. Here are the stars of the show.
Cassie came to Carmyllie as a WWOOFer earlier this year- and showed a capacity for hard work when we were clearing the central race. We invited her to come back and help with the planting. Good decision!
Mike is a friend of (now) very long standing - more like family really.
We started with the planting of a 'fire break'. If that sounds a bit strange ... the idea is that we plant trees along the edges of our plantations that are less vulnerable to the ember attack that often spreads in front of an Australian bush fire. We've planted tagasaste, poplars, oaks and blackwoods in 4 rows.
What we've done then is plant 9 other species into spaces in a coppicing Euc. globulus plantation. That plantation was originally planted at (I think) 1,100 stems per hectare. If we assume that about 900 of them survived to harvest in 2010. I would guess that then about 800 have coppiced and only a half of them have had a coppice stem that is doing well enough to retain as a possible future sawlog.
That means we have a plantation with a stocking of about 400 trees per hectare - which I have been able to confirm with a few counts. I would think that the average DoB (diameter at breast height) is probably around 10 cm - which means the basal area would be a touch over 30 m3 / ha. With an absence of any canopy cover for some time ... should that be low enough to provide for establishment of the planted trees - none of which is closer than about 2.5 metres to an E. globulus tree.
Our objective is, over the next 20 years, to create a mixed species forest of saw logs. This year we've planted (or are going to plant):
The only reason we haven't planted the Redwoods is that we haven't been able to get them from the nursery yet. We have two spots selected and ready.
The tagasaste are a part of the ember protection barriers and will be a stock feed - as well as being a nitrogen fixer. I ordered too many really - and even planting two to every hole .... we got sick of planting tagasaste by the end. It will be valuable as a stock food though - high protein and available at a time when pasture growth can be a challenge.
The Blackwoods should do well on the basis that it is a tree that 'volunteers' across the property - and appears to do well. Blackwood is one of the great furniture timbers of the world. I am planning to have furniture made from Blackwood in the study at the new house.
Sydney blue gum, Spotted gum and Sugar gum are trees that are reputed to do well as an agroforestry crop in our region.
Red cedar, Silky oak, Brookers gum and Yellow stringybark are trees that might do well and are worth trialing - hence we've got a few in this year. Like everything, we will be watching what happens.
The year has been very, very wet. The weather station at Ballarat Airport has already recorded 65% more rainfall year to date than last year (which was not un-typical of recent years) and 16% more than the long-term average. We think of ourselves as being in 600 mm rainfall country, but not (unfortunately) for the last 20 years.
Today as I walked through the forest the ground underfoot was wetter than it has been at any time up to now. Water is not only lying around - its oozing out of the ground in random places. In many places, about 30 cm below the surface, the subsoil is what one local farmer called 'spew'. He also said that in summer the ground will be like 'rock' again. Although perhaps not this summer.
We certainly have to be very careful about moving around with vehicles. So far we have had the the Terios stuck once - but not too badly. Nothing else - touch wood.
In the past I (Graham) have blogged at moorafarmjournal. That was when we were at our previous farm.
It now seems appropriate to start a new blog on what we are doing at Carmyllie.
