Are You Farming with Resistance or Resilience?

New season, new you, new farm! Although the growth on your farm may be slow during these cooler months, now is the time for you to get creative and plan your management for what you want for yourself and your farm moving forward into the next season and beyond.

Ask yourself; am I surfing the wave or just trying to stay afloat? Am I having fun or am I just surviving? Am I satisfied and fulfilled or am I trying to ‘make it through’ each day and hurdle at a time? Ultimately, am I farming with resilience or resistance?

Resilience and resistance often get confused. Resilience is the ability to ‘bounce back’ or recover after a difficulty or disturbance event such as a drought or flood. And when we say bounce back, really we mean bounce forward in the direction we want to progress. Resistance on the other hand, relates to the ability to not be affected by something until everything comes to a ‘grinding halt’.

Often we think that we are farming with resilience. However we are actually farming with resistance. And we are currently witnessing the ‘grinding halt’; our current farming systems and management do not and will not cope with the progression of climate change and the culture and mindset of having to ‘be strong’ in the face of these challenges is a heavy load for you farmers to carry.

Well, time’s up! How it has been, need not be. Said another way, just because things are the way they are now, doesn’t mean they have to stay that way! Let’s start farming with resilience rather than resistance. Let’s choose to bounce forward rather than come to a grinding halt. Let’s be proactive rather than reactive. Let’s be in action rather than hopeful that things will turn out okay. No more band aids - let’s try something NEW.

First you may be asking, how do I know if I’m farming with resilience or resistance? There are a few things you can look at;

Are your soils ‘constipated’, do they have ‘diarrhoea’, or are they biologically active and healthy? ‘Constipated’ or bacterially dominant soils typically occur where compaction or cultivation has occurred. Weeds are also a great indication that your soils are bacterial. These soils are poorly structured and are therefore prone to drought, flooding, erosion, and nutrient lock up, especially nitrogen. Soils with ‘diarrhoea’ lack biology altogether causing nutrients to be washed away into waterways, significantly contributing to the decline in water quality we’re seeing nationwide. Resilient soils have a soil food web that’s in action, and within that a bacteria:fungi ratio of 1:1. A functioning and thriving soil food web creates good soil structure and porosity for aeration, water retention and drainage, opportunity for carbon sequestration, reduced greenhouse gas emissions, greater nutrient retention and provisioning to plants, nitrogen fixation…the list goes on!

In events of drought and high rainfall, how does your soil respond? Resistant soils will typically be bone-dry in periods of drought and water will pool and flood on the soil surface in response to high rainfall, causing stress on your pastures, crops, animals, and yourself! Resilient, well-structured soils are able to continue growing crops and feed for your animals due to their ability to store water for when it’s needed. When water is in excess, resilient soils can freely drain, limiting erosion and loss of topsoil.

Get curious about your input programme. If your farm is heavily dependent on inputs of synthetic fertilisers, you’re farming with resistance – and your bottom line is only going to get narrower the way that fertiliser prices are going up… If you’re weaning your farm off those inputs, have eliminated the need for them entirely, are somewhere in between, and/or are using biological stimulant products such as those from Southern Humates or Effective Microoraganisms New Zealand, you’re farming with resilience! The key here is a shift from being dependent on synthetic inputs to fostering soil biology to provide nutrients for free! For example, there are 78,000kg of nitrogen above every hectare of soil – let’s start using it!

How deep are your roots? How diverse are your roots? At the crux of any natural function is diversity. Our current ‘resistance-focused’ management causes low diversity and shallow rooting in our pastures and crops, inhibiting natural soil functions and cycles such as carbon sequestration, and creates vulnerability and risk in drought and high rainfall events. Diversity in our pastures and crops causes natural cycles to function and creates resilience to extreme weather events due to its positive effect on soil structure and roots taking up water and nutrients from greater depths.

Is your soil covered all year round or do you have bare patches and periods of uncovered soil? The most resilient soils are covered all year round to keep them insulated from dramatic heat and cold fluctuations, and protected from wind and water erosion, and livestock compaction. Just like us humans, biology want a warm house with food to live in so they can carry out their functions.

Can you increase the capacity of your farm’s solar panels? i.e. your farms green leaves! Shift your mindset from pasture utilisation to pasture recovery, aka. from resistance to resilience; think about the feed you want in future rather than the feed you have now. This shift will allow you to increase your ‘wedge’ of feed and reduce the need to supplement too, all whilst maintaining and improving feed quality. Your animals (and your underground livestock – biology) will thank you for it through their health and performance and you can stop worrying about whether or not you’ll have enough feed to give your animals throughout the seasons.

Looking a bit further into animal health, the animals’ environment plays a large role in their health and performance. Is your farm management dependent on chemical sprays and drenches etc? Our current pastures are like eating lettuce all day, every day; bring resilience into your farming system by introducing diversity into your animals’ diet in the form of diverse pastures and perhaps some free choice minerals on the side, allowing your livestock to self-medicate and prevent illnesses and diseases - give them a buffet!

It’s clear that farming with resilience rather than resistance is the way forward – the way to bounce forward rather than hope for the best and then come to a grinding halt. It’s time for some new thinking and creativity so that you’re not left in the dust in this rapidly changing world. We’re here to support and empower you in creating a new way forward and to work with you in making your vision for your farm become a reality. We don’t believe in the one size fits all approach to regenerative farming and our custom annual coaching plans are a great way to move forward with your vision, being supported every step of the way.