Hall Forest Farm in Barfold, Victoria, Australia | Agricultural cooperative

Hall Forest Farm

Locality: Barfold, Victoria, Australia

Phone: +61 409 388 110

Address: Kyneton-Redesdale Road 3444 Barfold, VIC, Australia

Website: http://www.facebook.com/hallforestfarm

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25.01.2022 Dorpers grazing on Hay West paddock on the final day before their move tomorrow.

25.01.2022 Spring is here. Poplars are sprouting leaves.

25.01.2022 Sheep went into the winter mix pasture today for its second grazing. I’m strip grazing to get a higher density. 350 ewes and lambs in about 1/4 ha for half a day.

24.01.2022 A White-eared Honeyeater in Back Creek on the Farm. I installed 3 apps on my phone in order to identify this bird. The first 2 couldnt do it so they got deleted. The successful app is called "Bird Id" in case anyone is interested.

24.01.2022 Found a fox den on my walk this morning also just under the Wedgetail nest tree

24.01.2022 Grazing Dorpers beteen two Gallagher Smart Fences.

23.01.2022 Another facinating podcast on soil from John Kempf interviewing Jon Stika, an agronomist and former soil health instructor with the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). Officially retiring in 2015, Jon now spends his time as environmental consultant for those looking to gain insight on the biological systems of agriculture. Jon is also the author of A Soil Owner’s Manual: How to Restore and Maintain Soil Health, which was published in 2016, yet continues to have an impact on agricultural thought leaders around the globe. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xdn0gWm-0NU

21.01.2022 Wood duck and Sulphur Crested Cockatoo on the farm walk this morning

21.01.2022 Today I constructed my first Johnson-Su Bioreactor - very excited. This facility is the latest technology for producing the highest quality, biologically active fungal based compost from wood chips known to man. The compost is then extracted into a liquid solution to be sprayed on the fields as a biostimulant. After fueling I will install an automated watering system and a cover. Then its just a matter of waiting 6 months.

20.01.2022 Tillage radish flowering in the Winter Mix pasture. Time to put the sheep in.

20.01.2022 Soil temp is up over 14 degrees today. Almost warm enough for sunflowers!. It was a bit overcast for measuring brix but the oats from the winter mix measured 13 up from 8 a couple of weeks ago. The phalaris was still very low at around 4 but I figured better wait for a sunny day to get a better result when plant sugars are firing. I was hoping to see a difference between areas sprayed with K humate vs areas not sprayed.

19.01.2022 Echidna foraging in Back Creek on the farm

19.01.2022 Another great video featuring Gabe Brown explaining the principles of Regen Ag. I just find this stuff riveting to listen to. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJ_1oaf778k

18.01.2022 Today I ran the flail over an ungrazed phalaris paddock to take off all the dead material and let light to the green leaves below to make the most of the rest if the growing season. Will also make it easier to strip graze and remove cover for predators during lambing. Next spring I will cut it for hay before it goes to seed. This is a low paddock which holds moisture and accumulates nutrients so I can then spread those nutrients on the less fertile area of the farm via hay.

18.01.2022 Testing out the almost complete home built biological system spray rig. It will cover 10 meters. The arms are folding to fit through gateways and are made from specially engineered layers of top hat battons salvaged from the greenhouse structure which Im in the process of dismantling. Just need calibrate it then charge it with potassium humate and worm castings slurry. There are two boomless nozzles, 1 mounted on each side, powered by a fire pump which puts out a nice pressure at just above idle speed. Need the paddocks to dry out first though.

18.01.2022 Today I calibrated the seeder for 20 kg of Rooster Booster (organic certified processed chicken manure) and 20 kg of Calciprill (an engineered high purity lime product) per ha. I will mix these together and put in one of the seeder bins, leaving the other bin for the Spring Mix seed which will go in at a different rate. It will all go in the one disk slot together, the calciprill and fert giving the seed an improved microclimate in terms of nutrients and pH. Thats the theory any way. The seed arrives tomorrow from Down Under Covers near Echuca.

18.01.2022 https://iview.abc.net.au//australian-story/series/2020/vid

18.01.2022 Time for the next strip!

17.01.2022 Sun chokes coming up in the rip lines on some compacted ground.

16.01.2022 I ripped in some more 40 mm pipe to make another water take off point for the paddocks near the sheep yards and put up a section of fence and gateway to improve the laneway system

15.01.2022 Subdividing a large paddock (where the sheep would normally spend a week) in half so they will spend 3 days in each section. I added another water take off point to plug in a portable trough. I used 2 Gallagher Smart Fences connected to do this which took about 15 mins to set up. This way the pasture will get an extra 3 days recovery time plus the sheep will be leaving the pasture just when the parasitic worm eggs are hatching and crawling up the grass to a height of a couple of inches ready to be reingested by the stock. So healthier pasture and healthier stock with less chemicals and increased profit. Plus the sheep are becoming a lot more calm around me as I move them more often which makes it easier to observe how they are doing in the paddock.

15.01.2022 Bring back family farming. Here is another inspirational video with the legendary Gabe Brown and the enthusiastic Ray Archuletta on the growing phenomenom of Regenerative Ag. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXXicsRj47Q

14.01.2022 Was a glorious day for fencing. Finished the short section of a new subdivision and laneway.

14.01.2022 Magpie harrassing Wedgetail over Racecourse Paddock.

14.01.2022 Renovated one of the mineral feeders for the sheep today. Put new 40 mm poly pipe skids on it to replace the worn wooden ones. Fixed the broken roof caused by backing into it with the tractor, repaired the tow rope attachment, reduced the depth of the boxes by a third so the sheep can reach in better, added drainage holes to the boxes and siliconed the holes in the roof. 5 hour job! Good for another few years hopefully. Currently they have Bentonite blocks, a trace mineral block and a salt / seaweed mix.

13.01.2022 Spring mix has sprouted and Lady bugs on the prowl!

12.01.2022 Yesterday was a nice sunny warm day (good for soil biology and to minimise tractor wheel marks) so I took the opportunity to use the home made spray rig for the first time. Sprayed Hay North paddock which is about 3 ha with a mix of K humate and a delicious home made compost extract. The potassium humate from Vicmill Fertlizers www.vicmill.com.au is made from brown coal (much better use than burning it). Even at 30 litres in 900 litres of water it was black and you could see where it was sprayed on pasture. It should help with an identified potassium deficiency plus put more carbon and biology into the soil. This paddock was grazed about a week ago and is coming back nicely so be good to see how this boosts the growth. As its north facing it gets a bit warmer and dryer than the othe two paddocks on the south side of the hill.

12.01.2022 Another great video chat re Regen Ag. https://www.youtube.com/watch

12.01.2022 Magpie (bottom) and another as yet unidentified bird. I have a recording of its call, but havent been able to identify it.

11.01.2022 It’s a jungle out there. This is what a wedge tail eagle kill on a lamb looks like. The lamb was trying to navigate its way through a fence during a paddock change and the eagle saw its chance while it was separated from its mother. Happened 10 mins after I left the paddock and came back to find the eagle on the carcass. I love the eagles so it’s kind of a bitter sweet situation.

11.01.2022 The corella, galahs and cockies are making a feast of my newly sown winter mix. In their defence they are actually chasing the onion grass bulbs shown here but probably enjoyed the bonus oats, rye, peas and vetch. Hopefully the left some guano behind to compensate.

11.01.2022 Was waiting for some cover crop seed to be delivered before the big forecast rain tomorrow, so got a heap of jobs done in the meantime. Moved the sheep, and set up a trough on the new water point, straightened and sharpened the mower blades and mowed the lawn, brushcut around the trees, chain sawed up a dead tree for firewood, split the firewood and stacked at the house, used the bio spray unit to put out 900 litres of K humate and compost extract onto 3.5 ha of pasture wher...e the sheep had just been. The seed was not going to be delivered in time by the courier (TNT) so I had a personal visit from Grant Sims of Downunder Covers who drove an hour and 20 mins each way to deliver me one bag of seed - Legend!. https://spark.adobe.com/page/cX0wAnI9Jjaez/ Then I was able to calibrate the seeder and innoculate the seed with NutriSoil worm castings extract. Ready for seeding first thing in the morning if its not already raining! See more

11.01.2022 Larry checks out the latest addition to the flock, born last night in miserable rainy, windy conditions. Hopefully this week will be a bit warmer and dryer.

10.01.2022 Have a bit of sandy compacted ground that has never grown anything. So hard could barely get the shovel in and was bone dry an inch down. Decided to rip it prior to sowing a diverse spring mix. Planned to throw some artichokes in the rip lines also!

10.01.2022 Superb Blue Wren and Grey Fantail on the farm.

10.01.2022 The aftermath of grazing the winter mix. I think the sheep liked it. I saw one ewe walking from one broad bean plant to the next but some of them survived. I took delivery of a barrel of potassium humate today that Im going to put out as a foliage spray in the next couple of weeks. Keen to take some Brix readings with the refractometer also and try a few different biologicals to see what works. Just finished reading Nicole Masters book For the love of soil which was very interesting.

10.01.2022 I did some more foliar fertilising with the spray rig. Solubor 0.5 kg (boron), potassium humate 2 litres, plus a bucket of home made worm and compost extract in 250 litres of rain water per ha. The second mix was zinc sulfate 0.5 kg, copper sulfate 0.5 kg, Fulvic acid powder 250g, fish emulsion (power fish) 2 litres in 250 litres of rain water per ha. These are fairly low level inputs but should help address some deficiencies identified in soil tests. I’m worried about putting out too much zinc as my phosphorus levels are already way too low and zinc inhibits P take up. Hopefully planting buckwheat over summer will help rectify this as it is a P accumulator.

10.01.2022 Another inspirational Regenerative Farming success story in Australia. Ian and Dianne Haggerty farm 65,000 acres in WA and are leading the world with their natural farming techniques that seek to work with nature and restore the soil and landscape. https://www.youtube.com/watch

09.01.2022 Goats and Kangas in the Wilderness Paddock

09.01.2022 Waiting for germination

09.01.2022 Wood ducklings on Railway dam.

08.01.2022 I walked under the local Wedgetail nest this morning, not realizing that one of the eagles was in it. Maybe she has laid eggs? She took off and went to perch in a dead tree on the other side of the paddock with her mate.

08.01.2022 Silver Wattle (Acacia dealbata) and and our single Backwood tree (Acacia melanoxylon) in flower along Back Creek. Most of the wattles on the farm are Black Wattles (Acacia mearnsii) I have planted some black woods, but the black wattles seem to grow the best here.

08.01.2022 Sheep went into the winter mix pasture today for its second grazing. Im strip grazing to get a higher density. 350 ewes and lambs in about 1/4 ha for half a day.

06.01.2022 Fire stick farming. Burning the spiny rush to make room for more pasture. Paddock is still quite wet so when it drys out a bit will push out the rush stumps with the tractor before seeding a summer mix. This is the wettest paddock in the farm so hopefully i can utilise that moisture to support capture of all that sunlight to pump sugars and carbon into the soil and feed the sheep.

05.01.2022 Strip grazing 320 Dorpers with 2 strand poly braid. The ryegrass, phalaris and soft brome which make up most of this pasture has gone to seed. Hoping this high intensity grazing will knock it down enough for the seeder to get in to plant the summer grazing cover crop mix.

04.01.2022 This is the most important film ever made about agriculture and the future of the planet. Now available on Netflix https://www.facebook.com/kissthegroundCA/

04.01.2022 Lets get carbon into the soil where it belongs.

03.01.2022 Got the seed in the ground yesterday. New seeder performed well. Only ended up with 12 mm rain.

02.01.2022 Sowing surplus Jerusalem Artichokes in the rip lines of some compacted ground. After that I smoothed the rips with the tractor bucket in readiness for planting with the seeder. Some forest raised pastured pigs would go well here and Im sure they would dig up the chokes!

01.01.2022 Built a key line subsoiling ripper from a second hand toolbar and 4 new shanks. Gave it a good wire brushing and a new coat of paint and it’s good as new