1. CCRSPI Conference 2011
Soils
Restoring Soil Carbon and Landscape Function
will Require us to Change Ourselves
David Marsh, Boorowa. NSW
dmarsh1@bigpond.net.au

2. Looming Clashes
• Increasing fuel costs and scarcity
• Increasing input costs
• Dwindling biodiversity
• Rising human populations
•Water issues
• A more variable climate

3. High Intensity Agriculture is Heavily Dependent on Fossil Fuel Energy Imports

4. Capital in the Landscape
Complex Communities Require 33% of
Absorbed Solar Energy to Maintain
Structure and Diversity

5. The Simplified Agricultural Landscape Requires Annual
Inputs of Purchased High Energy Products to Keep it in this
Disturbed Early- Successional State

6. Humans have been Spectacularly Successful at Diverting the Product of Photosynthesis -this
has brought many Benefits, but also has Consequences

7. Dry Season 1982-83
My Decisions Caused This

8. Landscape Losing Carbon
Planned Grazing in Foreground
3-1-2008

9. 23 mm storm
13 -2-2008

10. Holistic Management and Planned Grazing
Making decisions that are Socially, Economically and Environmentally sound

11. Getting Control of Time is Fundamental to good Grazing Management

12. Plant Communities
Like this Make Soil
a Carbon Sink

13. Soil with high SOC and 100% cover of living
plants and litter, have high LFA
• Higher infiltration rates, lower run-off
• Larger mass and diversity of biota
•Not susceptible to wind erosion
•Lower surface evaporation
•Warmer in Winter, cooler in Summer
•Higher water holding capacity
•Becoming dominated by diverse perennials
• Stable productivity, resilient
•Higher effective rainfall

14. 14 . 1 . 2011
46 days recovery 158 days recovery

15. 8 . 2. 2011
71 days recovery 25 days recovery

16. Community Dynamics
49 plant species, 15 of them natives
February 2008

17. Fungi can pull Phosphorus out of the soil bank and communicate it direct to plants
They are an important agent in recycling plant material

18. Plants still Photosynthesising December 2008
Annual Communities stop Growing in Summer

19. Tree Cover has increased from 3% to 20%
Nine years of low rainfall, but no loss of soil cover
No feeding of livestock at all

20. Soil carbon in a 7cm soil test, comparing the effects of planned grazing disturbance for ten years
and no disturbance for 14 years in revegetation
Vegetation type pH soil/water %Total Nitrogen % Organic Available
Carbon Phosphorus
7 cm sample Colwell
Grazed Pasture 5.4 0.34 3.22 55.1
At BD 1.2 this
is 27t OC/ha
CO2e =100t
Grazed Pasture 5.9 0.24 2.76 26
At BD 1.2 this is
23.18 t OC/ha
85.7 t CO2e
Ungrazed 5.3 0.17 1.86 13.8
Revegetation At BD 1.3 this
is16.9 t OC/ha
CO2e=62t
Ungrazed 5.9 0.13 1.97 11.3
Revegetation At BD 1.3 this is
17.9 t OC /ha
66 t CO2e

21. Regenerative Farming The traditional approach
Planned grazing Set stocking
Pasture cropping Traditional fertilizing
No inorganic fertilizer Traditional cropping
on pasture, some with
crop
82.9% Native perennials 88.1% Exotic annuals
High fungi and bacteria

22. Observations
• We want to change everything, but not change ourselves
•The unspoken assumption behind every proposed solution to the dilemmas that face
humanity, is that when the proposed solution is applied we can go on living as we do;
but how we live is really the problem
• Relying on GM, modification of rumen function and a bit of other tampering at the
edges - is far too simplistic
• The natural world has adapted over the long lapse of ages to an ever changing
climate; this is where we should be seeking answers
• Collaborating with innovative farmers early in the development of research programs
would be an investment worth making
•Putting serious effort into learning how to practice agriculture without the reliance
on fossil energy subsidies is very important right now

23. We all need to learn to love our landscapes