Farming in Twelve Dimensions.

By Rob Campbell
Photographs by Debbie Baike

First published in the Permaculture International Journal Issue No. 60 Sept ~ Nov 1996

When people ask Ron Watkins to help solve a single issue or problem on their farm, he usually gives them a dozen or more other issues to consider. If they are talking of pumping water out of a farm to try and fix salinity, Ron will throw in factors such as microclimate, wildlife, slope of the land, creating biodiversity, aesthetics, wind. When tackling a problem Ron doesn't think in one dimension, or even three, it's more like ten or twelve. It's called integrated whole-farm planning and it's what earned Ron and Suzanne Watkins two major awards in 1995 for the redevelopment of their traditional wool and beef farm into a diversified ecosystem.

One of the awards was the United Nations Environment Program's prestigious Global 500 Award (known as the 'environmental Oscars') presented in South Africa by President Nelson Mandela on World Environment Day (June 6). The other was one of the first 'Saving the Drylands' certificates awarded at the International Conference on Desertification in 1995 in Kazakstan.

Ail over the world people are being forced off the land, but the Watkins believe that getting more people back on the land practising sustainable farming is the surest way of healing it.

The 550 ha (1350 acre) farm, 'Payneham', has been in Ron Watkins' family since his grandfather began clearing the Frankland district property in south-western Western Australia (WA) in 1908.

Ron took it over in 1973 but a few years later noticed the salinity level in the main house dam (which had watered his mother's vegetable garden since 1951) was reaching a detrimental proportion. It prompted him to embark on his process of integrated whole farm planning. Realising that water was at the root of the salinity problem, Ron set about redesigning his farm's layout to control and harvest surface and subsurface water flow to improve soil structure and create a large volume of stored water.

INGREDIENTS:

DRAINS, DAMS AND TREES

The layout owes much to the Yeoman' Keyline* system and the visit to the farm by P.A. (Percy) Yeomans in 1980. Since 1982, Ron has built 16km (10 miles) of drains to connect dams on his property. A similar number have been installed on cooperating neighbours’ properties in the same catchment. Drains are surveyed on the contour with a slight fall of about 1:400. They are carefully test dug with a backhoe to ensure the entire length lies in a clay layer and avoids sand or gravel seams. The completed drain is often quite deep and must be fully lined with clay to prevent leakages. The depth ensures the collection of surface run-off as well as seepage water flowing on the clay layer in the duplex soils.

The positioning of the drains is determined by what Ron calls 'significant landscape features' such as dam sites and changes in ridge and valley slopes. Drains are planted with up to 1000 trees per km (1600 trees/mile) in belts four- wide protected by electric fencing. Deep drains cost around $1700/km (SA2700/mile) including surveying, construction, leveling and tree plantings (fencing not included).

The impact has been considerable. Riding the back of a truck on a windy winter day, we could appreciate how much protection the cree belts give to stock and crops. Controlling water has led to improved soil structure while the increased water storage provides Ron with three ha (seven and a half acres) of irrigated lucerne and plentiful water supplies over the summer months - or droughts - when many surrounding farms are forced to cart water. Ron currently collects about 50 megalitres (10.5 million gallons) of water each year which previously ran off the farm. There is the potential to collect about 300 megalitres.

WORKING WITHIN THE ECOSYSTEM

For many visitors to Payneham, the drains, trees and dams are impressive enough, but the Watkins' visions for the future are far from being realised. "What I'm trying to do (and it may take many years yet) is to set up a system. I'm trying to work within the ecosystem to make everything a winner for me."

Working within the ecosystem is common sense for the farm but also accords with Ron's belief in an ‘imperative’ to repair the country. Ron remains convinced that, not only is it possible to farm and protect the ecosystem, but that the two must go hand in hand.

One key to this vision is the promotion of diversity through the development of a host of integrated farm activities and the protection of the natural elements of the ecosystem. A truly sustainable farming system, argues Ron, must improve and then maintain the health and vitality of the ecosystem as a whole. In an attempt to monitor environmental health - and thus the sustainability of farm practices - the Western Australia Land Management Society (LMS) has produced a Farm Monitoring Kit. Ron is a past president of LMS and instigated the development of the kit's accompanying Farm Monitoring Handbook which he also helped research and edit. The kit and handbook aim to give the farmer a simple set of replicable tests to build a database of environmental indicators and to monitor changes over time. The kit includes tests for soil structure, salinity, pH, plant diseases, earthworms and bird and other animal counts. In time it will provide data for each farmer to assess the impact of their sustainable farming practices and compile documented evidence of their success.

"I don't think a sustainable agriculture for the future is just wool growing. You've got to look at diversity, and a stable ecosystem is a diverse ecosystem."

BRANCHING OUT

The trees, drains and dams at Payneham not only protect and improve the current enterprises but have opened up a whole array of new farm activities. With so much water, Ron is keen to develop aquaculture and explore the potential of more irrigated crops. The tree belts need thinning and pruning to produce quality timber and poles and could be planted with a variety of higher value timber and fodder species. A small apiary enterprise could make use of the ample bee fodder with the additional advantage of perhaps improving canola yields through increased pollination.

Regular farm visits have opened the door to the growing industry of ecotourism. Ron plans to build chalets on the farm to allow for more extended visits.



(1) Every month, farm visits attract farmers from throughout the south-west of Western ,Australia (2) Fenced off remnant vegetation where native orchids are reappearing (3) More visitors (4) A30Ml (six million gal.) dam and the drain that fills it.


This notion of diversity and integration is something many visitors have difficulty grasping. "Someone said to me: 'It's hard to get people to think in three dimensions'. Well, yesterday when we had a group here, I said to them: 'Let your mind run because I'm going to try to get you into 12 dimensions'. By that I meant we have to look at the interrelationship of all things on the farm, not just single issues. If you're dealing with salinity, it's not just a matter of pumping water off the land to lower the water table. This does nothing for surface water erosion, wind control, microclimate effects, biodiversity and so on. It is difficult for people to come to grips with the process and to absorb all that the future might be for us.

Even the wool growing enterprise could be significantly improved through the development of a rotational grazing system and the establishment of perennial pastures. Under rotational grazing, stock densities are increased and rotated through smaller paddocks. The speed of rotation depends on the amount of feed available. The result is a more even grazing with a period of rest when the pasture can regrow. After heavy grazing, a pasture plant sheds many of its roots before growing new ones. If the plant is eaten again before new roots develop, the plant is severely weakened and may die. Rotational grazing protects against overgrazing with the added benefits of improved feed, reduction in parasites, increased organic matter through the shedding of plant roots and a more even spread of animal manure. It is early days, but Ron is confident rotation will allow him to carry a significantly higher number of stock when fully developed.

REBUILDING RURAL COMMUNITIES

One of the dilemmas of a pioneer farmer is the deluge of requests for time from people wanting to know more. "It's a real problem for me because. as I'm developing the farm, it's opening up whole new programs for me. I could be home here all the time and maybe three or four other families could be here, but I'm busy giving help to others."

While Ron and Suzanne look forward to the return of their son Brad from Muresk Agricultural College (from where Ron also graduated), their vision for Payneham and the region will come only with the with the return of more people to rural areas. Ron believes Payneham is capable of supporting two or three more families. And he believes returning more people to the land is essential for its future. As such, his farm planning system provides one answer to rural community decay - it allows more families to be maintained at a piece of land than fewer. “We need more people in the country to look after it properly. The reason why we've gone into chemical farming is because we’ve had this stupid idea of needing to get big or get out, and of course this has forced us to tear around at great knots with our cultivating equipment or chemicals to cover the country, and we 're just killing it."

At a time when others were 'getting big', the Watkins decided to get more out of what they already had and avoid going into debt. “That's our whole philosophy. That's why we didn't get big. We wanted to make more use of what we have here. We don't have an air-conditioned tractor or anything like that Instead of spending $60,000 on a tractor, we're saying we'll crank the old girl up for a year or two more and put some more trees and drains in."

'BACKWARD' FARMING

This approach underlines Ron's assessment of the economics of converting a farm to a sustainable and organic enterprise. While this price of change is often held up as the reason why many farmers maintain their status quo, Ron believes it is as much a matter of will and self-belief - and a determination to resist the pressures to not change.

"There's a couple of pressures. There's peer pressure because you are perceived to be a backward farmer; all the 'progressive farmers' - whatever papers or farm journals you read - are the boys who are getting huge yields, all pouring chemicals into no-till farming. So you fight against that sort of thing. And it questions your confidence. None of us really like to be left behind or to be perceived to be weird. Then there's the lack of research backing. There's just no research for non-chemical types of farming."

Market development is another crucial pressure. Ron points out that traditional grain pools and wheat boards market only traditionally grown materials. "So you're out in a really shaky piece of territory unless you have confidence or a will to go that way. For me, even after all these years, I still wobble sometimes and think: 'Good grief, maybe I've got this all wrong'."

Despite international recognition, growing local interest and enviable margins on his no-spray canola crop, Ron is not immune to the pressures facing today's pioneer farmers. While he has no doubt that current farming practices must change, Ron still finds it difficult to 'go the whole hog' and drop the last vestiges of chemical farming. However, as his system matures and confidence grows, the continuous use of 'imported' fertilisers will come under closer scrutiny.

For farmers wishing to make the change, properties like Payneham show it can be done. Although his system is still being established, Ron is able to show others a working example of what can be achieved in 14 years of redevelopment. "It's still scary, but when I started it was just an idea, a theory. Now it is a reality."

Although the wool industry is in the doldrums, the Watkins' future looks remarkably bright. Aside from healthy returns on canola, the improvements to be made to pasture and grazing management, and the myriad of potential enterprises to be integrated into the overall system, there are other indicators of a positive future. Less tangible but no less important are the encouraging words of visitors to Payneham and the return of orchid flowers in spring in a fenced-off patch of remnant vegetation. For Ron, these are not only a reminder of the past, but also a sign of a future in which farmers will learn to respect the great diversity of life on which they ultimately rely on.

Ron Watkins won a 1988 Churchill , Fellowship to study agroforestry and water use management, he was a finalist in the 1993 WA State Landcare Awards, and was the WA Rural Achiever of the Year in 1995.

Tours of Payneham farm can be arranged by contacting: Gaye Chambers, Land Management Society, Tel: Int +61 +(0)8 94506862

* The book Water for Every Farm' written by PA Yeomans in 1954 and revised in 1993 by his son Ken B Yeomans, sets out the principles of the Keyline system, It is available from the PIJ catalogue.