Milkwood is extremely excited to announce that we’re presenting Allan Savory, founder of Holistic Management, for a series of talks and seminars in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne this coming August.
Alongside our long-time collaborators Kym and Georgie of RegenAG, we’re charged with presenting Holistic Management for what it is: a key tool for reversing desertification and healing climate change. Right now. On this Planet Earth. Read More
It’s the pace of everything, that gets you most of all – everyone is busy – doing a task that needs to be done, right now, then walking purposefully to the next task, which also needs to be done.
Joel Salatin often describes the interaction between his rotational beef grazing and egg mobile systems as ‘ballet of the pasture’ – a slow dance of animals circling, shifting and moving in precise relation to each other, to create a symphony of regenerated land and outputs of ‘beyond organic’ protein.
What Nick witnessed in the time he was at Polyface this last week, however, was more a ballet of the entire farming system. But to a faster beat. Read More
The herdshare arrangement is one in which you own part of an animal or herd, along with others who hold shares in that animal or herd. Say, a cow, for example.
As a part owner, you are entitled to part of the outputs of said animal. Including things like its milk. And because it’s technically your cow, you can obtain and use that milk in its raw form.
Which doesn’t mean the cow has to actually live with you. You can hire a farmer to take care of your cow. And milk your cow. And bring your cow’s products to you. It’s all a relatively simple arrangement. Read More
Dovecotes are a great addition to any small farm (and possibly your backyard too). Keeping doves is like keeping chickens, in a way, except there’s minimal feeding involved if you take the traditional approach. The doves fly off every morning, forage within their natural radius, and come home each night to roost.
And when they come home, they deliver to the floor of the dovecote free nutrients, in the form of guano. So firstly there’s free fertilizer, with no feeding costs. Secondly. if you’re that way inclined, there’s a seasonal supply of dove eggs, and squabs. Wild protein, delivered to your door. Read More
Blood sausage is a central aspect of harvest day. Large-ish animal harvest day, that is. And it’s one of the central acts of honouring the animal’s life, as well as getting close to the act of the animal’s death, because it’s something you must make the same day you slaughter.
Blood sausage is a central dish of whole animal eating – it doesn’t get much more thrifty than this. Doesn’t get much tastier, either, if done right. And it’s not very technical to make, if you’re up for it…
**please note – this post contains photos of people making blood sausage, from start to finish** Read More
The Holistic Orchard site is now officially ‘tractored’. Our family of pigs have done a sterling job of turning this site from wonky pasture into well-plowed and manured soil.
Next up at the orchard site, we’re planting a green manure seedmix to fix nitrogen, generate lush biomass and generally ‘hold the space’ back from opportunistic weeds until the winter installation of this site begins.
So the pigs have done a great job of prepping this area. Thank you, ladies! Next up, they’re on to the market garden… Read More
Sadly a ‘pig tractor’ as we know it is not a pig in a jaunty hat driving a little red tractor. But the reality is even better. It’s an excellent low-energy, high return way of preparing ground for a new garden or an orchard: removing all grass, roots and weeds with the aid of a biological device. Namely pigs.
We’re just about to finish the prep stage for our new holistic orchard, which the pig tractor has been a central part of. We’ve all been really happy with how prepping this space from tough pasture to fruit-tree ready ground has gone, so I wanted to share the process with you.
Pig tractors are relatively simple to set up (once you have your pigs) and the returns of this system are many. You get happy pigs being moved onto fresh ground regularly, snuffling and rooting up the ground. You get a tract of ground cleared of everything bar the shrubs (and the soil turned over to boot). You get added nutrient inputs from the pigs manure. And at the end of it all, you get pastured bacon. This just might be the ultimate integrated system. Read More
Bit of a golden opportunity, this. Boxgum Grazing is looking for a paid farm hand near Young in NSW. And Boxgum Grazing happens to be a darn fine family-run, holistically managed, pastured beef and pork operation, who want to pass their knowledge on as part of it all. Excited yet?
The story goes that when Joel Salatin made his first trip to Australia in the 90′s, there was one small farm that he went to that he said was unlike anything he’d ever seen in terms of stacking animals and yields. That farm was Sam and Claire Johnson’s place. And Boxgum Grazing is the Johnson’s current farm. Read More
We’ve been wanting to introduce ducks to our integrated animal systems for some time now. We’ve been trying to decide which breed to start with and where they would best fit, so we can maximise the Power of Duck at Milkwood.
Random opportunity seems to have decided for us, for now. Friends down the road are moving on, and needed to find a home for their load of Muscovy ducks – 4 drakes, 4 ducks and a couple of clutches of ducklings. What a fantastic breed they are. They even perch to roost. Read More
Just a quick update on the Milkwood Farm piggies who are tractoring their way through our future holistic orchard site. You know that training technique I mentioned for getting them used to electric fencing so we can minimise their fencing and maximise their pigginess? It’s working. Read More
