WATER AND HEALTHY LAND
Guardians of the Karoo Rangelands - Karoo Spacehttps://karoospace.co.za/guardians-of-the-karoo-rangelands/South African farmers were some of the first in the world to run livestock in regenerative manner, inspired by Allan Savorys and John Acocks early work.
This article points out the significant improvements of the watercycle that healthy land can provide.
To obtain water-security in the future, it will require us to understand and use the tool of livestock. Rivers and wetlands can appear where never seen before and aquifers will recharge as land is regenerated.
Having the main focus on our water usage is like rearranging the deck chairs on a sinking Titanic.
Excerpt #1:
"Here, bare earth that was once crusted and impenetrable to seed and water is steadily being covered with vegetation, the soil soft, carbon-rich and moist. Climax grasses that haven’t been seen in decades are popping up, along with vleis and springs of good clear water.
All this in the midst of the worst drought in living memory."
Excerpt #2:
"In an interview with Landbou Weekblad magazine in 2015, McCabe said one of the incredible benefits was the rising of the water table.
“We used to drill down to 100 metres to get water. Now it is mostly only six metres below the surface. Acocks predicted that would happen. He also said the old dried-up wetlands would return, and they have. Vleis are incredible natural sponges that store water until it is needed.”"
Excerpt #3:
"On Klipdrift was a huge strip of land that was in particularly bad condition, riven by great dongas and huge bare patches.
“My dad couldn’t drive on it at all,” says Sholto. “We could barely traverse the dongas on foot. But now the veld has flattened and it is ‘vlei-ing’,” he says. Vlei-ing?
He explains: “We are managing to catch the seeds, retain the soil and water, and the dongas have filled up. The bare patches are steadily disappearing. We have watervleis (small wetlands) popping up everywhere.”
In some places, at the base of a fence, he can point at an old fence post poking up, barely shin-high, nearly covered by new topsoil. The new fence is atop a full metre of newly settled soil."
Excerpt #4:
"He takes us to a valley that was once bare and exposed, the soil hard. Now a herd of cows grazes contentedly, surrounded by thick grass, near a small dam of water that is gin-clear. A watchful frog floats just above the vlei grass in the trough.
“About ten years ago, if we had as little as 10 or 20mm of rain, it would run off and form washaways and floods. If you leave soil bare, more than 87% of the water runs off. You have to stop a raindrop where it falls. If it moves, it takes soil with it.”
Now the land is thickly covered in a luxuriant cover of grass and dwarf shrubs."
Excerpt #5:
"Trenly set about using Holistic Management principles to regenerate the grazing on his farm for his Nguni cattle. When he started, the carrying capacity was one large livestock unit for every 28 hectares. Now thanks to the work he had done on the veld, it is around one for every 8 hectares."
Excerpt #6:
"“Thanks to all the work my dad did to restore the veld using Holistic Management (HM), we have been given this massive gift: a fountain popped up two years ago, in the middle of the drought, and has been flowing constantly ever since. We were able to install a weir and use the water to grow lucerne for ewes and lambs.”"
Excerpt #7:
"“We were on the brink of organising feed for our livestock. Then the rains fell and these top-class grasses sprang up: Digitaria, Panicum maximum, blue buffalo grass – plants that haven’t been seen here for decades.”"
-Read the full story here:
Guardians of the Karoo Rangelands - Karoo Spacehttps://karoospace.co.za/guardians-of-the-karoo-rangelands/-Another good article about one of the farms featured:
Restoring South Africa's desertified Karoo | Managing Wholes
http://managingwholes.com/klipdrift.htm -About the Herding Academy:
Shepherd's Delight - Karoo Spacehttps://karoospace.co.za/shepherds-delight/