keyline

Landwirtschaftliche Produktionssysteme sind  zunehmend von Extremwetterereignissen betroffen. In seiner Abschlussarbeit untersucht Diego Gil, ob die Wassermanagementstrategie Keyline-Design ein möglicher Lösungsansatz ist, um die Auswirkungen von Dürre und Hochwasser sowie das Ausmass der Umweltbelastung durch die Landwirtschaft zu reduzieren.

Interview mit Diego Dil: IUNR Magazin
Abschlussarbeit: Keyline-Design als Wassermanagementstrategie in der Landwirtschaft
Praxisbeispiel: Wasserkultur Katzhof
Beratung: Baumfeldwirtschaft; Ondaka
Bücher von P.A. Yeomans:
1.       The Keyline Plan
2.       The Challenge of Landscape
3.       Water for Every Farm
4.       The City Forest

Weitere Infos: www.agroforst.ch

Kontakt: podcast@agroforst.ch

AGROMIX: https://agromixproject.eu/

Join me this week as we look at the basic types of water storage elements used in designing a functional broadacre water system.

Nearly all broadacre water systems include some form of water storage, either as groundwater (aquifer storage), retained soil moisture (accessible by living plant roots), or bulk water (ponds, lakes, tanks, cisterns). Water storage elements function to:

• cover peaks in demand (production from the water source cannot meet peak demand)
• smooth out variations in supply (seasonal changes in availability and ease of obtaining water)
• provide water security in case of supply interruption or disaster (supply buffers)
• save structures from wild fire
• meet legal requirements (firefighting, fire suppression sprinklers etc.)
• improve water quality (clarification, filtration, settling etc.)
• provide thermal storage and freeze protection (thermal mass of water modifies local microclimate)
• enable a smaller pipe to serve for a distant source (cost savings on water infrastructure)

In this show, we're going to talk about the four main types of water storage elements that you might encounter while optimizing your homestead hydrology!

• Soil Storage - we always start here - soil storage is the cheapest form of storage, especially if you're trying to grow something.
• Ponds & Dams
• Tanks & Cisterns
• Aquifer Storage

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WHAT I DO:

Design:

On-Site Consultation

Online Site/Project Consultation

Holistic Ecosystem Design

Implementation:

Water Harvesting Earthworks

High-function, Low-Maintenance Access

Living Systems

Spring Development

Courses:

Minimum Holistic Goal

Media:

The Sovereign Homestead Podcast

YouTube

Instagram

Music by Alex Grohl

Grant Schultz joins me to talk about developing a perennial polyculture in the middle of row-crop corn and soy country Iowa.

He discusses a lot of the innovation and developments taking place on his farm, including some really innovative ways of doing GPS keyline design.

We spend a lot of time talking about the business of farming. The importance of monitoring cash flows and being cash flow positive. And how Grant is using USDA funds to help pay for pieces of his system and getting moving in the right direction.

Key Takeaways:

Importance of making your operation cashflow the whole time. Expenses will pile up so start getting cashflow and a customer base early.

Consider buying rootstock and graft it over later. It is much cheaper to go that route and grafting isn't that hard.

Get plant systems going early on. It is fairly inexpensive and gets the system starting to advance.

Have a plan but evolve as you go. Having an end in mind gives you a goal and a direction to head in, but things will change along the way as you learn the intricacies of the system.

Plant the earliest maturing fruit trees downslope. That way when you are browsing them the manure runs downhill.

How do you want your system to look at maturity and what are the action items to get you there? Then the thing to do is the one with the most impact. What has the earliest yield to get you to the move to the next impact item.

Do not underestimate the importance of monitoring and planing out cashflows.

When you are farming on broad acres you have the same advantages that conventional farmers have. Crop insurance.

Consider using a nurse crop that also cash flows. Grant's example of raising oats for cover crop seed.

Consider the balance of high value versus high labor. Is the value worth the labor?

There is a huge need for more local genetic permaculture plant material.

Recognize the importance of planting dense. Buy trees in mass. It gets cheap and doesn't cost you more to plant at high density. You take advantage of genetic selection and protect yourself against losses.

Irrigate your trees if possible - think keyline, swales. Growth rates of trees that are irrigated versus those that aren't is huge when the trees have consistent water availability. Consider the economic impact of the yield with water versus no water. The work now can make you a lot more money down the line.

Take advantage of all available resources: USDA, NRCS, EQIP. When starting out pre-sell as much as you can. Build a local customer base from Day 1.

Show Notes: www.permaculturevoices.com/34

Darren Doherty of Heenan Doherty and Regrarians joins me from Australia to fill in some of the gaps surrounding Keyline design.

While the whole Keyline design system is complex and way beyond the scope of this podcast.This episode should give you a brief introduction into what Keyline is, where it can be used, and what it can accomplish. Like all other design systems Keyline isn't the be all, end all, it is another tool in the tool box help design a regenerative landscape.

For those that want to learn more check out Darren's work, some of it below, and P.A. Yeomans books. Darren recommends The Keyline Plan and The Challenge of Landscape.

Keyline design is a foundation of technique and planning using a scale of permanence. It's focus is on reacting to a climate of an environment, a site, and then using the landscape's shape to maximize the possibility of a sustainable, regenerative environment.

Show Notes: www.permaculturevoices.com/16