Sabbatical Fallowing
Here at Mangapiri Downs, we are proud to have used a genuinely sustainable farming method since 1988.
Sabbatical Fallowing at a glance.
Sabbatical Fallowing is a farming technique with ancient roots, being referenced in texts such as the Bible (with Exodus & Leviticus promising bountiful harvests), Koran, Torah and other historical documents as the main method used at least four thousand years ago, to retain and build up fertility in soils.
The technique itself is relatively simple but important to get right, just requiring you to not graze a 7th of your land from late Winter to early Spring the next year when it can be trampled and eaten off, then rotating this process on another 7th of your land the next year. The critical stage in the process is the end of winter and Spring when you clean up the fallow blocks with hoggets or calves, followed by lambing ewes or calving cows,
This process allows the grasses and plants, such as clovers, herbs, to grow unhindered even up to 2 metres tall and then composts and decomposes throughout the year, sequestering carbon back into the soil, making biologically rich and thicker topsoil, also leaving a huge amount of standing hay in winter.
How we started.
In 1988 on 90 acres of land, we trialled sabbatical pastoral fallowing, which I had seen on my travels in Asia, the Middle East and Israel. We have now nearly finished the 5th 7-year cycle on that 90 acres. That’s 34 years now with NO fertiliser.
In 1993, an Invermay scientific research survey on this block showed we had the best soil structure, root density and root depth in the research survey of 19 farms with the same soil type. That was very encouraging and all results looked good, so we continued sabbatical fallowing. Since 1995, we have used the system on the entire 469 hectare farm, 1/7th of the farm at a time. We have now nearly finished our 4th full cycle.
The Benefits.
The paddocks grow to look like an untidy, uncut, very tall hay paddock, but beneath that are many different types of clovers and plants that provide more nutritional value to your stock. 40-60% of the fallowed grass becomes a rich, biologically active, vitamin and trace element enhanced, deep humus layer over the blocks. It gives you a HUGE feed bank of standing hay for the winter. The paddocks perform much better in droughts (better grass growth and moisture in all paddocks) and paddocks drain better in wet conditions.
There are about 11 tonnes a hectare of organic compost that feeds the worms and increases microbial activity, improves soil structure, increases soil aeration, drainage and water holding capacity. The pastures’ root density & depth of penetration is also improved. Due to additional food supplies, earthworm numbers increase enhancing the rate of nutrient cycling. It also enhances trace elements and fertility, increases nitrogen accumulation and conservation, gives a new covering of seeds and organic matter and gives the paddocks a rest too. I’ve learnt to treat the soil as active biology (kind of like a yoghurt bug) and as a large bank of carbon.
Sabbatical Fallowing Worldwide.
Sabbatical fallowing is written about in the Bible (with Exodus & Leviticus promising bountiful harvests), Koran, Torah and other historical documents as the main method used at least four thousand years ago, to retain and build up fertility in soils. It was the main system used up to 117 years ago and is increasing rapidly in many parts of the world now.
The Israeli Government is financially encouraging farmers to honour the Biblical command to let their fields lie in pastoral fallow for one year every seven years (shmita). In 2013, about 400,000 dunams (40,000 hectares) was fallowed. Sabbatical fallowing is used in many countries to build up organic matter and can be used to convert to organics.