Yeo Farm - Keyline Plough

It was within the first week of living at our farm that Andrew put a special book in the bookcase given to him by his dad Mike. It was the PA Yeomans Book ~ The Challenge of Landscape - The Development and Practice of Keyline. This copy was printed in 1958! Andrew was keen to look at it straight away and was pleased when our local Landcare group, Karuah Great Lakes Landcare, was able to purchase one late 2018.

Keyline ploughing is one part of our regenerative farming practices and we were excited to be the pilot run for the new KGLL Keyline plough.
This practice developed by P.A Yeomans (Australian) is used all over the world and is helping us create top soil and slow water across our land. This paddock has been intensively grazed with our sheep and should respond well to being keylined. The nearby hill and road runoff onto this paddock over the years has compacted the soil from a fast flow that is was in much need of aeroration that the keyline allows. This video was the first cut at a depth of 8cm. We were extremely lucky to get 20ml of rain a few days later and Andrew was able to do the second cut at a depth of 10cm.

With more rain predicted the following weekend, Andrew and Mike headed up to Glouster to speak with a seed distributor about a winter feed crop that would work well for Bulahdelah.

What they came back with was a multi species rye crop with various legumes and forages mixed in such as sub clover, vetch, chicory, gland clover and turnips. 🍀🌱Check out the video - The ploughing pattern has come about from on contour aeration with the Yeomans plough, then dragging seed at an angle to that to avoid burying the light seed too deep in the rip lines.

This also helps to drag some soil across between rips to create a seed bed.

Next up this week we are hosting a Landcare Field Day this Thursday 21st March 9:30am to 1pm.

A free field day focusing on Keyline surveying, plus a visit to recent works on our farm

If you are interested Please RSVP to joel.dunn@glcr.org.au

For More Info: The KGLL Facebook Page is HERE

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