Discover ways to eliminated chemical costs while increasing yields in crops. We all want to grow healthier plants and animals while improving our soills. Subscribe here as we share our discoveries in biological and regenerative farming practices. We also jump into the technology that makes it possible to leverage those goals. We farm 1200 hectares of wheat soybeans and bananas here in Zambia in South Central Africa. We also grow avocados, citrus and other small crops. Don't forget the cows, sheep, goats and chickens!
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Phenomenal and inspirational!
This is great work you are doing. big up
Hi Craig, For rice water, you don't tight close it ?
No just a paper towel or cloth as it needs to breath.
@@CraigForChange Thank you
Hi Craig, where can i buy wood vinegar in Zambia? Thanks
Hey if you shoot me a WhatsApp message at +260971735679 I will send you the contact number of the guys who are the dealers here in Zambia for Natures Guard wood vinegar.
brilliant!
Thanks for the kind words!
Anxiously awaiting an update on this
We just posted a related one on Lactobacillus and then we will post on IMO2 shortly.
Are you still using your sheep tractor? Would you still recommend making one?
I don’t have sheep at the moment as we sold when prices were high but I would definitely do it again and plan to get sheep to use between bananas next year again
I pray for a school of this kind in Malawi
How do you get started farming in Africa?
Thank you
This is what we need more of
Got to adapt to your context!
Absolutely!
That is a great work !!!! One quick doubt: where did you buy those grass seeds?
Don't the wood shavings eat a lot of nitrogen during its decomposition? Another doubt: I did not quite understand the product you are pouring into the soil. I got the word hydrolysis but I do not understand the previous word. Is it soy? How do you produce it? Please do keep posting these fantastic short videos. They are great !!!!
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yay love watching the updates! cant wait to see more of your experience and info.
i have been brain storming of this concept of coursed tailored to my country and growing climate. i am so glad to have come across someone applying this concept. cant wait to watch how this will add nutricion and life to soil.
What’s the size of the sheep tractor?
It’s 12 meters by 12 meters in this large one. We made narrower ones for between fruit tree rows as well.
Very good professional job. And the density is really crazy !!!!!!
We have a friend that harvested almost 140 tons per hectare with this type of planting a year ago.
Aren't they eating the plants' leaves? Furthermore, won't compaction become a likely problem?
So no the cage keeps them from eating anything important. Frequently moving the cage and growing cover crops and perennials grasses with deep roots keep compaction completely at bay.
@@CraigForChange, I do hope that you are right because your project is very, very interesting. However, I would ponder replacing the cattle with the goats. My experience tells me that compaction may become a huge issue because they are likely to stay on the same spot for a long time. At least, you should survey this experience with a tool to measure the compaction. Meanwhile, I wish all the best to your project.
So we have a penetrometer we use and we do not leave them long at all. We make sure we keep 15cm of grass at a minimum so that takes care of it. We will add sheep into the mix at some point as well.
great job
I love animal tractors and ive never seen one for cows. How often do you move this per day typically with your stocking density? Do the cows test the tractor at all or push on it at all?
So we move it about 10-12 times a day so it only works well with a dedicated person doing several cages or we can shift and use the hot wire if someone is keeping close watch with a bat latch system or cross wires frequently set.
I forgot his name but richard something. we used that system because you can do around 500/1000 birds. if you have some shade cloth you can do more. you start out with them in the lil house then move them out as they get older and they only sleep in the house. Once they are really old they sit outside all day and night under the shade and you don't really need the little house anymore. you can put them out super late in the season and super early. honestly here in cali you can get away with doing it that way all year long if it's ducks. wonderful system :)
plus, parts of the mullberry can be chip the branches can be feed whole to rabbits / goats or you can strip and chip to feed to cattle (or let cattle browest the vertical branches then cut them later for chipping. mullberry is really under used world wide. clumping Bamboo as well.
that would work really well with hops. also with mini cattle. two high value items. they oddly sell well and mini cattle work really well in solar farms. but it's hard to really use them well other places. but they sell nicely as pets and this is really nice to put them near people and use to people combine with high value crop. like wine or what not. i'd probably not put this on a solar farm though. because moving this around. but for creators that need to be near people ie urban farming would be huge. a lot of time you got stock and you don't know what to do with all those extras to spread them out when they do there paid grazing. and get them use to humans at the same time. clumping bamboo would work nicely as well.
Thats a very brilliant idea. Making and saving the most from that space. And the cows seem to like it in there😀
That's a fantastic idea great job
Thanks! We are definitely excited with what we see so far!
You should put a solar panel and a creeper motor on the tractor so it creeps forward a certain amount every hr.
Yah it’s a good idea to play with. I hope my field lines are straight enough. :)
Could you share a design for that? I’d like to build it…
Beautiful
Hi Craig. With your grass there, say in winter, would you be able to estimate how many moves you make before coming back to the same patch?
In this spot we were only about three weeks as our other pasture spaces hadn’t been developed yet. We have a great video coming out later this evening showing a mod with dairy cattle instead of sheep that really unlocked a bunch of irrigated land for us. Check it out tomorrow once it’s uploaded. :)
Are you talking American dollars or Zambian?
USD
Great Video Craig. After seeing your forest, I was motivated to redesign my orchard and it’s coming . Will visit you again.
Sounds good! That’s awesome!
Respekt
kzread.info/dash/bejne/g6ic26Opms-rhKg.htmlfeature=shared Almost the same place in Pakistan
inspired
Do you know the species of mulberry you are using for biomass?
Morus mesozygia
This desrves more detailed videos...interested for more
We will add more this year!
Very good project, lets agroforestry 🙏🌴🌳
Absolutely
Good lesson This is incredible
Nice one Good lesson
Good job! Always good to see results without the poisons.
Good job... I'm a wildwood graduate (1995) i wouldn't mind teaching at Riverside
Looks awesome, ours is a year old but a little behind you I think. We had a few dying but established bananas and they are the only thing a little ahead. But I’d be proud if my food forest looked as good as yours. Congratz.
Greetings from the LooseNatural farm in Andalusia Spain where we currently live through a drought and we enjoyed watching your video. Well done!
Thanks for the kind words! It’s been some wild weather all over this year for sure! What are you guys growing?
@@CraigForChange We started a year ago. Still building swales, ponds and storage tanks. The interest is to produce raisens
hey can you shed more light on the feeding program like when to change from starter to grower, from grower to pullet developer, pre layer and layer phases
Great video!! May I ask how you established mombasa?
By seed.
Superb ! Would love to visit. I operate a small soil spectroscopy and health laboratory in Lusaka.
You would be very welcome. That would be very interesting. I am back in Zambia the end of August!
Good work Craig, like to see the side by side data trials on the 2ha. What kind of water application did you do?
We did water them with microjets two times per week. Maybe 2-4 hours depending on need.
Very nice, if you ever pass in Morogoro Tanzania, please pass by to exchange ideas!
I get up to Mafinga every yearas I sit on a board for a big avocado farm there. I can’t remember how far that is from there. I think it’s a ways though.
@@CraigForChange thats like 400 km
Ever thought about running some meat chickens down the grass rows in some salatine pens?
Definitely would boost the nitrogen. We are working to put some layers and Jersey cows down the rows in the next size up we are building. I think it will be the missing piece to boost up nitrogen to make production come on faster. We will see! Excited about the possibilities to stack enterprises on it.