WHY GROW MEDIC? Training Kit No. 1

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1 Training Kit No. 1 WHY GROW MEDIC? Script: Brian and Lynne Chatterton. Photos: Florita Botts. Additional Photos: Brian Chatterton. Production: Florita Botts.

2 THE FAILURE OF THE CEREAL - FALLOW ROTATION Photo No. 1. Do you graze your sheep on weedy fallow? Look how poor the feed is for these sheep. Photo No. 2 Do you graze your sheep on fallow in summer? There is very little for these sheep to eat.

3 Photo No. 3 What do you do when the grazing on the fallow has been eaten in summer? Do you graze the parcour? Look how bare the parcour is in summer. Photo No. 4 Do you buy grain to feed to your sheep?

4 Photo No. 5 Do you buy or make hay because the fallow provides little feed for your sheep? You will be interested in a money saving solution to your problems of lack of feed and high cost... MEDIC AS AN ALTERNATIVE TO FALLOW Photo No. 6 This plant called medic can be grown on the fallow.

5 Photo No. 7 If you plant medic on your fallow land it will produce abundant green pasture for sheep to graze in winter and spring. You will save the cost of grain and hay. Photo No. 8 In summer dry medic pods and straw provide excellent grazing.

6 Photo No. 9 Sheep will grow to a heavier weight on the green medic and will continue to grow on the dry medic pods. You will be able to sell the sheep at a higher price. Photo No. 10 Medic like this pasture in Algeria grows year after year without reseeding. This saves you the cost of seed and preparing a seed bed. The medic only needs a dressing of phosphate fertiliser.

7 Photo No. 11 You can also grow a cereal crop in rotation with medic without losing your medic seed reserve. The medic will grow again after the cereal without the need to seed the medic again. Photo No. 12 Medic provides nitrogen for the next cereal crop. You will have a higher yield but the cost will be less.

8 WHAT IS MEDIC? WHERE DOES MEDIC GROW? Photo No. 13 Medic grows throughout the West Asia and North Africa region. You will find medic plants on the side of the road or on rough grazing land. You will find medic anywhere the land has not been fallowed and ploughed deep. Medic has a leaf similar to clover and produces a small yellow flower in spring. Photo No. 14 The yellow flowers mature into pods that contain seed. You will find these in summer.

9 Photo No. 15 There are thousands of types of medic. They are adapted to different climates and soil types. This medic is growing in an area with 450 mm of annual rainfall and cold winters. Photo No. 16 These medic pods came from medic growing on light textured soil in a rangeland zone that receives only 200 mm of annual rainfall.

10 Photo No. 17 Other medic types grow on heavy clay soils in rotation with cereals. Photo No. 18 You can buy medic seed produced from varieties of medic that have been selected as being the most productive and well adapted to different climatic and soil conditions. Among the many commercial varieties you will find some suitable for your farm. Alternatively you can grow your first medic pasture from pods that have been harvested off a neighbour's field.

11 Photo No. 19 Lucerne also called alfalfa, should not be confused with medic. The leaf is the same but the plant is a perennial not an annual. The flowers are blue not yellow. It is used in a completely different way on farms. Photo No. 20 Lucerne or alfalfa is often grown under irrigation. It is cut and fed to livestock.

12 Photo No. 21 Lucerne or alfalfa and other perennial clovers grown under irrigation are commonly cut for hay. Photo No. 22 Medic is quite different from these perennial legumes. It is an annual legume that thrives under natural rainfall conditions in semi - arid zones. It does not need irrigation. The medic pasture reproduces itself year after year from seeds (contained in these pods) that fall on the ground.

13 Photo No. 23 Medic will regenerate from its own seed even after a cereal crop has been planted on a medic pasture. This is due to the hard seed character of most medics. Hard seed does not germinate immediately after rain but requires one or more years to break down and become viable. GETTING STARTED WITH MEDIC Photo No. 24 Medic will provide grazing for your sheep all the year round at very little cost. Before you sow your medic it is worth making a budget of the cost of sowing medic,

14 the savings in grain and hay and the increased return from selling heavier sheep. Photo No. 25 In the first year of medic you will need to prepare a seed bed and sow medic seed. This cost should be included in your first year budget. Photo No. 26 To get the maximum benefit from your medic pasture you must graze it with sheep or cattle each day during winter and spring. Medic can be made into hay but not in the first season. If you intend to make hay frequently for sale it is better to sow oats and vetch.

15 Photo No. 27 You should plan the area of medic pasture to provide a rough balance with the size of your sheep flock. Too many sheep per hectare for the pasture can lead to overgrazing. Photo No. 28 Too few sheep per hectare for your pasture will lead to under-grazing. The medic will be shaded by tall growing weeds in spring. Production of medic and medic pods will be low. Later training kits will show you how to manage your grazing more precisely. Planning a rough balance between the pasture and the livestock before you start will make grazing

16 management much easier. Photo No. 29 In summer you can graze the sheep on the dry medic pods and straw. They provide a good summer feed and sheep will gain weight on dry medic. Photo No. 30 With the green medic pasture in winter and dry medic pods in summer you will not need to buy grain or hay to feed your sheep. This will save you money.

17 Photo No. 31 Medic does require an annual dressing of phosphate fertiliser. This is an additional cost. Photo No. 32 In the autumn the medic pasture will grow again from the seed in the pods. You will not need to cultivate the land and sow it again. Provided you manage the medic pasture correctly it will regenerate year after year.

18 Photo No. 33 If you decide to grow a cereal crop on the land instead of leaving it as medic pasture you must cultivate the land for the cereals in such a manner that the pods remain near the surface. Deep ploughing will bury the medic pods and they will not regenerate in future years. If you use shallow cultivation the medic will regenerate again after the cereal crop. SHALLOW CULTIVATION FOR CEREALS

19 Photo No. 34 Your present system of seed bed preparation, fertilising and sowing for the cereal crop takes many months. It is costly and the seed bed is often poor. First the land is worked with a disc plough which produces many clods. Medic pods will be buried deep in the soil. Photo No. 35 Alternatively a mould board plough is used which also produces many clods and rough ground. The mould board plough buries medic pods so they cannot regenerate in future seasons. Photo No. 36 The clods are broken down with other implements such as this tandem disc

20 or cover cropper. This implement is not good for medic pods either. They are not all buried but the top 10 to 15 cm is mixed and many medic pods are too deep to germinate in future seasons. A light cultivator is sometimes used. Photo No. 37 When you sow cereals after medic you must use a scarifier. The ploughs and discs will bury the pods so deep the seeds do not germinate in future years. The scarifier replaces the plough and the tandem disc. It will save you money. It is used to open the soil and to carry out further cultivations. Note the tines on the scarifier. They are strong to break open hard ground. They are closer together than a chisel.

21 Photo No. 38 The scarifier is used to cultivate the land to a depth of about 10 cm. Shallow cultivation saves time and money. Photo No 38 Harrows are used in combination with the scarifier. The scarifier dig the weeds out of the ground and the harrows knock the soil away from their roots so they die. The harrows also break down clods. Photo No. 39 You begin cultivating the land after the first rain in autumn. Two cultivation with the scarifier and harrows will produce a good seed bed.

22 Photo No 40 A good level seed bed with few clods will mean that the seed and fertiliser are sown at an even depth. This will allow you to use less seed. As less seed is wasted you achieve the same plant density. It is easier to apply herbicides to an even seed bed and the harvester can worker faster and more efficiently. Photo No. 41 Only phosphate fertiliser is needed with the cereal seed. The medic pasture in the previous year will supply the nitrogen. Sowing the cereal seed and fertiliser together will achieve a better yield.

23 Photo No 42 This simple, cheap and rapid cultivation program allows you to sow your cereal crop early and control weeds. Early sowing gives you a better chance of achieving a good yield. Shallow cultivation with a scarifier is essential to save your medic seed reserves but it also saves you money, time and effort. BETTER SOIL STRUCTURE AND LESS EROSION WITH MEDIC PASTURE

24 Photo No. 43 When the cereal crop has been harvested the stubble can be grazed by sheep in the usual manner. Photo No. 44 When the rain falls in autumn a new medic pasture will germinate from the seed in the pods that remained in the ground from the medic pasture that produced the pods 18 months before. This pasture replaces the weedy fallow. It costs you almost nothing. Just some phosphate fertiliser. The land is not cultivated. Photo No. 45. Here is the medic-cereal rotation in action in Libya. On the left is medic

25 pasture that regenerated from the hard seed reserve. Last season this was sown to cereals. On the right is a cereal crop. This was medic pasture last season. Photo No. 46 Next season the cereal crop is sown on the medic pasture. The medic regenerates in the cereal stubble. Farmers have been able to operate a cereal - medic rotation for more than forty years without reseeding the medic. Their pasture costs are very low. They only apply phosphate. Photo No. 47 Over the years as you use the cereal - medic rotation the fertility of the soil will increase, the soil structure will improve and the amount of erosion will decrease.

26 Photo No. 48. During winter and spring the green medic provides a dense cover of the soil protecting it from runoff caused by heavy rainfall. Compare this to the poor cover of weeds provided by the fallow rotation. Return to Photos No 1 to 5 for a description of the fallow. Photo No. 49 In summer the dry pods and straw protect the soil from erosion by wind and summer thunderstorms. Again compare this with the bare, cultivated fallow in Photos No 1 to 5.

27 Photo No. 50 The dry matter from the medic and the animal manure is returned to the soil during all the year round grazing. The organic content and soil structure is greatly improved. Rainfall is absorbed better into a well structured soil. Photo No. 51 The extra water and soil fertility available to the cereal crop will increase the yield.

28 Photo No 52 This is what happens when soil is poorly structured after years of continous cereal crops. It is unable to absorb rainfall. The water runs off and creates gutters. Photo No. 53 Poor soil structure also produces hard surface caps. Crops and pastures find it difficult to break through. Rainfall penetrates only slowly. Heavy rain runs off.

29 Photo No. 54 Again there is runoff and the crop is deprived of the moisture it needs. Photo No. 55. Here is a typical cereal crop grown on a poorly structured soil with low fertility cause by years of fallow and deep ploughing.