Advance Sowing (also known as "no kill cropping"
) is an
agricultural method developed by Bruce Maynard in 1996 in
NSW, Australia
)
, nickname =
, image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, e ...
that allows the production of annual
crops from
perennial
A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives more than two years. The term ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the years") is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. The term is also wid ...
grasslands. It involves dry-sowing crops directly into existing
pastures
Pasture (from the Latin ''pastus'', past participle of ''pascere'', "to feed") is land used for grazing. Pasture lands in the narrow sense are enclosed tracts of farmland, grazed by domesticated livestock, such as horses, cattle, sheep, or swine ...
without using
tillage
Tillage is the agricultural preparation of soil by mechanical agitation of various types, such as digging, stirring, and overturning. Examples of human-powered tilling methods using hand tools include shoveling, picking, mattock work, hoein ...
, fertilizer or chemicals.
Principles
Advance Sowing has 5 major principles:
#
Sowing is done when the topsoil is dry.
# Coulter type sowing equipment must be used.
# No
Herbicides or pesticides are applied at any stage.
# No
Fertilizers
A fertilizer (American English) or fertiliser (British English; see spelling differences) is any material of natural or synthetic origin that is applied to soil or to plant tissues to supply plant nutrients. Fertilizers may be distinct from ...
are applied at any stage.
# Grazing management must be good.
The rationale behind the method is to produce crops without simplifying the
biodiversity
Biodiversity or biological diversity is the variety and variability of life on Earth. Biodiversity is a measure of variation at the genetic (''genetic variability''), species (''species diversity''), and ecosystem (''ecosystem diversity'') l ...
. All other commonly used sowing methods of cropping rely on eliminating some or all of the plant and animals present to create an advantage for the growing crop. Advance sow relies on complementarity of plant/animal interactions to produce
biomass that can be utilised directly for human consumption or fed to animals.
No Kill Cropping offers opportunities to expand the grain crop production throughout the world as an addition to the grazing resources that people depend upon. By using No Kill in areas that are already grasslands or are arid or highly erodible, grain can be produced without risking ecological damage. Other advantages include the low capital costs involved and also low needs for outside energy intensive inputs.
No Kill Cropping is mentioned in the book "Here on Earth" by Tim Flannery, 2010. It is described as 'Zero Kill' or 'Zero Till' on pages 264 and 268. Flannery confuses the method by including the use of ploughs and also of the term pastures rather than grasslands that the crop is sown into. He proposes that the system has possibilities to promote "coevolution's capacity to increase biological productivity and ecosystem stability".
References
*
*
External links
Bush Telegraph, ''The Innovators Series #4: Working Off Farm''ABC Rural, ABC Radio (Australia) 2004.
On ''Earthbeat'' ABC Radio National, ABC Radio (Australia), 8 August 2003.
Australian Academy of Science's Fenner Conference, 2002
*
*Perkins, I., Gleeson, T., Keating, B. (2003
''Futures: Review of farmer initiated innovative farming systems''
Land & Water Australia, Canberra, pp. 17, 19–20, 22 and 50.
* NSW Farmers Associatio
Sustaining the Land: Case studies of farmers working for our future
In ''Conservation farming for increased profitability,'' pp. 30–31.
*Standing Committee on Natural Resource Management (2005)
Standing Committee on Natural Resources Management
Better On-Farm Approaches to Salinity and Drought Management (Terms of Reference C and D)--Sustainable and Profitable Farming.'' New South Wales Parliament, Legislative Assembly, p. 71. ''Advance sowing recommended as a cropping approach.''
* Gray, L. (2003)''Lazy farming' lowers salinity risk, improves farm health.'' I
''Salt Magazine,'' No. 9
National Dryland Salinity Program, State Governments of W.A., S.A., Vic., N.S.W., Qld. and Tas., pp. 14–15.
'No Kill Cropping - Sowing into Grassland by Bruce Maynard', Vimeo video
{{DEFAULTSORT:Advance Sowing
Organic farming in Australia