The promised stories
April 30th, 2014 → 1:09 am @ Shanti
The promised stories:
- Joe, a 300 acre grazing farmer and as a regular visitor to our Tuesday lunch meetings we held, to get information out, was a sceptical man in many ways, but after a while coming to us, he realised we were fair dinkum (Australian for honest and true). He started asking questions after he sent out soil samples to 6 different companies for analysis and the results varied drastically. He could not believe what he saw and said to his wife, what am I to do? One quote was for $25,000 for lime treatment alone and there was more than lime to be used on his land. He told us this and we said to him to use Bio-dynamics. It took us a while to convince him, but he came to do a workshop and was very impressed. Immediately after that, he started to use this science and within 3 years, the production of his grazing grasses was trebled. He sometimes could not find his animals, as the grasses were so tall.
He also used to cut silage for winter feed for his cattle as well and the contractor, who always did this work for him, could not believe, that he only had to use 1/3 of ground, to make the same amount of silage, compared to previous years.
Not only that, but Joe found that the cattle were eating every last sprig of grass in the field and the silage from now on, where before they would leave a lot and tramped it down.
The total amount of money he spent on Bio-dynamic preparations over 3 years was $1240, a big difference to the above quotes from the chemical companies.
His neighbour Allan came over one day and asked him about the silage and Joe told him everything.
- Allan’s story. A very sceptical man as well, as so many farmers can be, due to the fact they have always done their farming the same way and it seemed to work for them, till they are told a better way.
Allan came over to us and started asking questions for himself and described his own situation. He was a lot harder to convince than Joe was, but he at least allowed us to help him, spread out some “BD 500”, the “cow horn manure” as it is sometimes called. After one year alone, we pulled some weeds from the treated paddocks and also some from the untreated pastures. We examined the root systems and he could not believe the difference. The BD treated weeds, had long roots and many fine side shoots on them, while the ones from the untreated pasture were short and without these side roots, which are the feeder roots. The weeds from the treated paddocks came out easy as well, but the untreated ones had to be dug out. He stood there scratching his head and had to admit that something had happened. We continued treating his paddocks and when he decided to put the cattle in the first paddock, they grazed a most unusual way, something he had never experienced. They started from the gate and systematically grazed their way down the paddock over time, not leaving a single leaf of grass behind, where usually cattle quickly run all over the paddock, trying to find the sweetest pickings and then graze all over. He rang us up and asked what had happened. We told him, that the grasses were ALL sweet and they did not have to compete with the other cattle for the best grass. He was really impressed and was converted as well.
3.Animals know what is good for them. To prove that, the following story will make you understand what I am trying to convey.
In the days when I was a young man, back in Holland, the gypsies used to roam the country lanes and graze their horses on the road side at night. These horses never needed veterinarian care, because they were using the natural herbs, growing wild along these country lanes. They knew what to eat at the right time to keep healthy, while the animals inside the boundary fences, only grazed on grasses, a fairly monotonous diet and therefore needed attention regularly, by getting supplements and injections to keep them “healthy”. We had that instinct as well once, but nowadays we rely completely on the professionals, who prescribe chemicals, mostly UNNATURAL for us. It would be good if we all became more aware of these facts again and did things well and be truly healthy again.
Well folks this is it for another 2 weeks. I hope you are enjoying my work. I love telling you all this. Bye for now, Shanti.
Please take me seriously as times are getting closer to very difficult. It won’t hurt to be prepared anyway, will it?
