Conclusion
This discussion expands the debate of carbon from being a resource for industry (modern society is based on a carbon economy), to it also being a resource for rural production. Farming and grazing systems with low carbon stocks in the landscape are less productive than those managed to maximise this important factor of production.
Plants are the entry point of carbon from the atmosphere to the landscape. Therefore, animal management is critical to the maintenance of carbon flows. Reaching the understanding that pasture rest is timing and not time, cements an understanding of the importance of removing animals for a short time after rainfall to maximise carbon flows into the landscape. Contrary to popular belief, it is possible to remove animals from pastures without selling them.
While managing carbon has always been important as part of successful landscape management, it will be even more critical for the economic survival of rural producers, if the predictions of climate change prove correct.
The greenhouse outcomes of rural production, is a reflection of financial efficiency. High methane production reflects inefficient digestion due to low quality diet (high C:N ratio). Nitrous oxide is the result of inefficient fertiliser use. While on the point of financial efficiency, it is the movement of carbon into the landscape part of the carbon cycle, which is the measure of how successfully we are in managing to capture the energy of the sun. If we are losing carbon from the soil to the atmosphere in an average year, then we are financially conducting a very inefficient grazing operation. Production systems can be modified to be more profitable while at the same time reducing the negative greenhouse aspects.
Before we can successfully manage a rural operation, we have to understand how both animals and plants function, as well as how the two interact in both the short term and the long term, and how this impacts on the soil. Understanding this partnership is the beginning of understanding carbon flows. Carbon Grazing is all about understanding carbon flows.
Stressed and dying plants lead to an unproductive soil.
It is what follows carbon that best explains the role of carbon. Energy, nutrients and water all follow carbon.
The purpose of initially discussing the carbon cycle was to highlight how the carbon pools are always changing (i.e. carbon is always moving). Carbon management is an ongoing issue, with the need to keep the carbon balance of rural operations in the black.
Nature has catered for the needs of animals under all conditions, except extreme drought. Nature achieved this by evolving groups of plants which are very different in what they supply and how they survive. Some producers are at a disadvantage by not having all the required plants.
Carbon Grazing looks at all the cycles and processes that occur in the landscape, and demonstrates how carbon is the common linkage between them. It is for this reason, that mismanaging carbon is in reality mismanaging all the cycles and processes in nature.
Carbon Grazing deals with how to maximise carbon in the landscape, in order to maximise profits for rural producers. At the same time, Carbon Grazing endeavours to reverse many of the environmental degradation issues that currently plague Australia, and the rest of the world.
There is a need to build resilience into the landscape. This applies to plants and the soil as well as animals. The landscape must be managed so that it can withstand whatever the hard times throws at it, be they wet or dry. In our sunburnt country I have always suggested that "the only time you can prepare for drought is when it rains". This is the only time the resilience of the landscape can be increased.
The importance of placing more emphasis on the "common denominator" carbon, is that it simplifies our response to what are currently considered a multitude of unrelated problems.
Reducing the frequency of drought, and the duration of drought is achieved by increasing carbon in the landscape. The good carbon managers often suffer a dry spell while others are in drought and have to make soul destroying decisions.
I have not set out to say what the cut off point for carbon loss is. It is the role of sustainability science to determine and quantify the critical thresholds beyond which natural systems rapidly deteriorate. The issue for rural producers at this stage, is not what the exact figure is, but rather the need to appreciate the importance of carbon management and not allow carbon levels fall too low.
To obtain general acceptance of any landscape management system, the system must achieve the outcomes society wants while at the same time increase the profits of rural producers.
As a rural producer I initially saw animals as my source of income, so I concentrated on genetics. Then I decided that pastures were really my source of income, so paid more attention to regenerating them. Over time I came to realise that it was the soil and its health that was my source of income as it determined the level of pasture production, all else being equal. Finally I realised that it was soil carbon levels that were responsible for the performance of the soil, especially harder soils with a tendency to seal over.
The South African rangeland scientists I have exchanged ideas with are focused on rest after rainfall. While visiting their country, they explained that with average pastures, 3-8 weeks of rest after rain can see an increase in pasture production of 50-80%. At the time when pastures are emerging from dormancy, there is the potential for so much lost production (and carbon introduction).
Just by allowing plants to grow when they wanted to, it was possible to let them help themselves, by building up more extensive root systems and energy reserves to become more resilient. It also allowed them to improve the soil they had to survive in. The survival process for perennial grasses is dormancy when the going gets tough. Going into dormancy can be fatal if they do not contain sufficient energy reserves to return to life later.
When groups of plants are missing, we are reducing the number of energy pathways, and thus the total efficiency of the system.
It is only recently becoming accepted overseas that landscape management has an influence on the actual rainfall that falls in any given area. It now appears that the stock of carbon in the landscape has an influence on the processes that deliver rain.
It is ironic that climate change is going to make us focus on what we always needed to do to run a successful rural operation, "manage carbon better".
"I trust you all now understand and appreciate that Carbon Grazing is the unification of all the carbon processes. Therefore the only logical conclusion is that the time to prepare for drought and a more sustainable world is the period immediately after rainfall. This is why pasture rest is TIMING not TIME."
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