permaculture

[Toby Hemenway <hemenway@jeffnet.org>]

on 11/4/00 5:45 AM, FranksFarm@aol.com at FranksFarm@aol.com wrote:

> "Keyline"  Ranch....Would  you please be so kind as to explain this in more
> detail. 

Sure. There was a rancher who lived near me, Marvin Hegge, who bought 250
acres and converted it to a keyline system: a series of catchment terraces
feeding into numerous interlinked ponds, which then could flood-irrigate
sections of the grazing land. He'd put his cow-calves into tight moveable
electric-fence paddocks (I think about 100-200 in an acre, or was it a half
acre?) and move them once or twice a day, so they'd feed on the "cream" of
the grass/clover/alfalfa and other goodies, bust up the crowns a little so
the plants would tiller and grow, and put just a little manure on the ground
without fouling things. The cattle fattened up faster than anyone else's,
and he didn't need to pump water to the grass. Cheap. Built up soil too,
that's part of the deal. Marvin's moved to South Dakota now, and is looking
for projects.

By all means check out the keyline website
http://www.keyline.com.au/ Another one is Australia Felix, Darren Doherty's
business, http://www.australiafelix.com.au/ where there are a few photos of
keyline being done. One nice feature of keyline plowing (plowing not with
the contour but with the keyline--the infection point-- all up and down the
slope) is that it directs water out of the gullies and onto the ridges,
allowing infiltration. I think the Keyline site has a drawing showing how
that seemingly gravity-defying stunt works; study it for a while. And get
"Water for Every Farm" by Ken Yeomans.

And Darren's got a good article on earth dams in the next Permaculture
Activist, http://www.permacultureactivist.net out about Thanksgiving (I just
shipped it to the printers). There are other useful articles on earthworking
in the issue, too.

Unfortunately, I don't know a US source for tagasaste; I think the ones I
got were from NZ seed.

Toby