Problem Case Study 14: Stofberg Soil compaction problems in a sheep kraal

➢ Russian Grass likes to have a 5 cm Organic soil horizon with lots of oxygen, with subsoil moisture below it from 5 cm deeper down.

➢ If you have good oxygen in the top 5 cm, the Russian Grass can pump it down to the roots and mine the nutrients deep under water in the waterlogged subsoil. If you don’t have good oxygen in the top 5 cm, performance is much reduced.
➢ Russian Grass like most wetland species has the ability to take up oxygen in the 5 cm deep soil layer above the moisture, and it also use adventitious roots to take up oxygen.
➢ Oxygen taken up in the top 5cm with adventitious roots is then pumped down the soil profile to its massive root system and then leaked out to soil microbes which convert ammonia and nitrite into nitrate. In plain English the Russian Grass take a deep breath on the soil surface, and dive deep to mine and extract leached nutrients in the muck.
➢ Aerenchyma is the name of the channels in the stems and roots which channel oxygen down to the roots.
➢ https://kids.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frym.2021.611887

The secret to increase livestock carrying capacity up to 5 x times is to plant Russian Grass in an area where it can take up oxygen in the top 5 cm of the soil to pump down to the roots and extract nutrients in the waterlogged soils. The secret to increase livestock carrying capacities by up to x 10 times is to also add pasture earthworms, appropriate soil microbes and lots of manure/urine during grazing in winter.
The secret to increase livestock carrying capacity up to 5 x times is to plant Russian Grass in an area where it can take up oxygen in the top 5 cm of the soil to pump down to the roots and extract nutrients in the waterlogged soils. The secret to increase livestock carrying capacities by up to x 10 times is to also add pasture earthworms, appropriate soil microbes and lots of manure/urine during grazing in winter.

When things go right:

➢ Breeder Seed Russian Grass Pioneer populations together with legumes on the backslope/footslope/toeslope of the hill lessen water run-off and helps drain the floodplain top 5cm of the soil with high population densities of Russian Swamp Grass.
➢ The oxygen in the top 5 cm of the soil then makes possible the extraction of nutrients below the water in the deep depositional sedimentary soil all the way down to the bedrock using the massive root system of the Russian Grass with the air pumped down for soil microbes.
➢ All the nitrogen, phosphate and other nutrients in the wetland soils that have been captured and deposited the last 1000 years is made plant available by the soil microbial life and earthworm action in the Russian Grass root zone. Manure droppings and urine intensify the rise in plant available soil fertility and the Russian Grass biomass edible fodder explode from year 2 onwards.
➢ With R10 000 for Breeder Seed/ha the customer is able to get to an increase in carrying capacity of up to x 5 with correct site location and manure droppings. This normally takes 2-3 years.
➢ For professional feedlot customers, an additional R10 000/ha pays for a range of appropriate wetland soil microbes and pasture earthworms that rapidly recycle manure, does nitrification of ammonia into nitrate and lives and thrives in Russian Grass roots in wetlands. This once off investment then cause a paradigm shift from the x 5 to the x 10 potential range by virtue of the amount and quality of oxygen it makes available in the top cm of the soil, and the amount and quality of soil microbes able to convert muck into plant available nutrients around the Russian Grass roots pumping out oxygen.
➢ We also license our technology to bigger customers in return for an ongoing royalty, similar to what we do in the Macadamia Industry. In such agreements, we become permanently involved to push the ecology to full potential.

This is the zone of earthworm action in the top 5 cm of soil, which earthworms cause to teem with soil microbial life.
This is the zone of earthworm action in the top 5 cm of soil, which earthworms cause to teem with soil microbial life.

Earthworm value and logic chain:

➢ 250 breeding worms per bag and 10 bags per ha of Russian Grass.
➢ We inoculate the worms with appropriate microbes and raise them in appropriate wetland conditions.
➢ The worms can incorporate up to 100 tons of manure ha year.
➢ The worms collect the manure from the soil surface and relocate it to the microbial population living next to the Russian grass roots. This triggers a soil microbial population explosion.
➢ More microbes mean more nutrients can be recycled into a plant available format and the Russian Grass growth improve and livestock carrying capacity increase.
➢ The earthworms eat fattened soil microbes and convert them into plant available humus as a liquid fertilizer stream.

When things go wrong:

Rudie Vorster Stofberg Case Study 14:

Note the footslope toeslope lands with shallow subsoil moisture year-round. Moisture from the mountain seeps down the bedrock year-round. This is where the customer was supposed to plant.
Note the footslope toeslope lands with shallow subsoil moisture year-round. Moisture from the mountain seeps down the bedrock year-round. This is where the customer was supposed to plant.
Note the depth of permanent moisture below a 5 cm oxygen rich top soil. Ideal for Russian Grass.
Note the depth of permanent moisture below a 5 cm oxygen rich top soil. Ideal for Russian Grass.
If you zoom in on this photo you will see a sheep kraal right next to the house on solid clay without any topsoil. For years sheep have been kept here. All the oxygen molecules have been expressed from the clay and the soil is so rock hard that an 85 KW tractor can not even level it with a disc. Disregarding our guidance and warnings, the customer decided that he wants to plant in the sheep kraal. He phones his black farm labourer to do it, and the man plants 4.5 ha worth of seed on 1 ha of sheep kraal after driving over it many very times with a heavy tractor and implements increasing the soil compaction problem exponentially.
If you zoom in on this photo you will see a sheep kraal right next to the house on solid clay without any topsoil. For years sheep have been kept here. All the oxygen molecules have been expressed from the clay and the soil is so rock hard that an 85 KW tractor can not even level it with a disc. Disregarding our guidance and warnings, the customer decided that he wants to plant in the sheep kraal. He phones his black farm labourer to do it, and the man plants 4.5 ha worth of seed on 1 ha of sheep kraal after driving over it many very times with a heavy tractor and implements increasing the soil compaction problem exponentially.

Problem Analysis and Logic chain:

1. Amateur weekend warrior hobby farmer.
2. Low potential site location without topsoil chosen for emotional reasons.
3. No oxygen in the 5cm topsoil, so no oxygen uptake possible with adventitious roots, no oxygen pumped down to roots, no soil microbial action possible and no mining of nutrient rich clay and 50 years’ worth of sheep manure droppings.
4. Customer refuse to add earthworms and appropriate soil microbes for R10 000.
5. Slow growth except in the location where a dead sheep lamb had been buried and the soil is teeming with microbes and oxygen.

Russian Grass doing well in area where a dead animal had been buried. Reason: soil microbial life and oxygen.
Russian Grass doing well in area where a dead animal had been buried. Reason: soil microbial life and oxygen.

Lessons learned:

➢ When you plant Russian Grass in a clay area that suffers extremely high amounts of vehicle or livestock traffic, soil compaction take place. This means that the Russian Grass is unable to take up oxygen in the 5cm A soil horizon, to pump down to its roots in the moisture, enabling soil microbes to work. This result in slow growth, slow establishment and it takes a while for the correct soil microbial population to build up, oxygenate the top 5 cm in order that the rest of the soil profile can be mined for nutrients effectively.
➢ Russian Grass is sensitive to severe soil compaction in the top 5 cm of the soil profile. In locations where we foresee or encounter this problem due to ultra-high livestock traffic on clay in winter, we inoculate the soil with appropriate pasture earthworms and soil microbial organisms and spread lots of soil organic matter such as manure, compost and a mulch layer. This takes care of the problem within a few weeks.
➢ This case study is an example of what happens when you have an inexperienced weekend farmer not following guidelines:

Essential air: Guideline values for soil air-filled porosity: >25% air means good aeration, 10-25% air can result in limitations in certain conditions, and <10% air is characteristic of oxygen deficiency.
Essential air: Guideline values for soil air-filled porosity: >25% air means good aeration, 10-25% air can result in limitations in certain conditions, and <10% air is characteristic of oxygen deficiency.

➢ For optimum growth just about all plants do best with an oxygen, water, nutrition ratio of 1:1:2.
➢ With heavy sheep movement the air is expelled from clay soil in a sheep kraal and the ratio change to 0:1:2.
➢ This result in poor growth due to the correct combination of air, water and nutrients not being plant available. It doesn’t help if you have 0:10:10. You need the right ratio. More water and more nutrients without air will not help at all.
➢ With Russian grass which is genetically structured to extract oxygen from the top 5 cm and pump it down the soil profile via its roots, soil compaction is a problem which retards growth and limit potential. It is the difference between taking livestock carrying capacity up from 1 x to 5 x to 10 x in wetlands.
➢ Optimum growth takes place when we have a 5 cm soil profile with a 1:1:2 ratio of water, oxygen and nutrition above nutrient rich paydirt/clay/wetland deposits. The gate through which we mine it is the top 5 cm of soil. We enter through this gate and then mine down to 1.8m and or the bedrock.
➢ Want to get what nutrients have leached down and become captured in your lower soil profile? Get oxygen into the Russian Grass roots in the top 5 cm of the soil.
➢ You don’t bend nature to your will, nature bends you to its will. Yield.

Further reading about Soil Compaction:

• https://extension.umn.edu/soil-management-and-health/soil-compaction
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regenerative_agriculture
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_manure

The Stofberg Sheep Kraal clay soils are so compacted that not even an 80 KW tractor can disc and level it. It is hard as cement. No topsoil, No 5 cm layer with oxygen.
The Stofberg Sheep Kraal clay soils are so compacted that not even an 80 KW tractor can disc and level it. It is hard as cement. No topsoil, No 5 cm layer with oxygen.
Note that the area furthest away from the kraal gate with less hoof traffic appears to have less clay soil compaction and better growth/yields. Look how the footpath right next to the fence once again has high compaction and low growth. Also see how the grass is very yellow, indicative of a low soil nitrogen status, a clear sign of soil compaction and lack of /oxygen nutrient uptake capability.
Note that the area furthest away from the kraal gate with less hoof traffic appears to have less clay soil compaction and better growth/yields. Look how the footpath right next to the fence once again has high compaction and low growth. Also see how the grass is very yellow, indicative of a low soil nitrogen status, a clear sign of soil compaction and lack of /oxygen nutrient uptake capability.

https://ecosoil.co.za/regeneration/

Livestock carrying capacity can either go up or it can go down depending on management of the 5 cm topsoil on which Russian Grass is planted above permanent moisture.
Livestock carrying capacity can either go up or it can go down depending on management of the 5 cm topsoil on which Russian Grass is planted above permanent moisture.
This is the exact same soil, with the soil on the left having had the benefit of Livestock grazing, with livestock manure and urine activating soil microbial life, and the soil on the right having no grazing livestock. What you see in this picture is the basic foundation of Silvopasture vermiculture – with manure as a soil amendment contributing to higher organic material, better plant growth, moisture retention, higher carbon, a better C:N ratio and much better soil microbial life populations and thus earthworm populations, causing a much quicker nutrient recycling rate.

If you want Russian Grass to grow exceptionally well, give it livestock/chicken/pig manure inputs on an Industrial scale, with pasture earthworms and appropriate microbes.
This is the exact same soil, with the soil on the left having had the benefit of Livestock grazing, with livestock manure and urine activating soil microbial life, and the soil on the right having no grazing livestock. What you see in this picture is the basic foundation of Silvopasture vermiculture – with manure as a soil amendment contributing to higher organic material, better plant growth, moisture retention, higher carbon, a better C:N ratio and much better soil microbial life populations and thus earthworm populations, causing a much quicker nutrient recycling rate.

If you want Russian Grass to grow exceptionally well, give it livestock/chicken/pig manure inputs on an Industrial scale, with pasture earthworms and appropriate microbes.

Example of Russian Grass Soil Microbes:

➢ When Russian Grass pump oxygen down to its roots in a wetland soil, a wide range of soil microbes become able to convert nutrients into a plant available form.

Russian grass is aided by nitrogen fixing legumes, which aid earthworms, which in turn aid soil microbes, which in turn aid the growth of the Russian Grass, which aid manure production which in turn aid soil fertility and carrying capacity.
Russian grass is aided by nitrogen fixing legumes, which aid earthworms, which in turn aid soil microbes, which in turn aid the growth of the Russian Grass, which aid manure production which in turn aid soil fertility and carrying capacity.
The difference between a 5 x increase in carrying capacity and a 10-x increase is this entire value chain of Russian Grass pumping air down, legume run-off, earthworms, microbes, manure.
The difference between a 5 x increase in carrying capacity and a 10-x increase is this entire value chain of Russian Grass pumping air down, legume run-off, earthworms, microbes, manure.
Once you have the appropriate soil microbial community living in the wetland soils Russian grass air leaking root zone, rich in nutrients, clay, deposited sediments and leached minerals and organic material, then Bio-fertilisation become possible and the captured nutrients become plant available for the first time in a millennium/thousands of years. This triggers the Wow factor and eye candy effect in winter. Livestock graze this as high plant protein and convert it into red meat daily weight gains. We create our own luck and our own little oil strike in this manner.
Once you have the appropriate soil microbial community living in the wetland soils Russian grass air leaking root zone, rich in nutrients, clay, deposited sediments and leached minerals and organic material, then Bio-fertilisation become possible and the captured nutrients become plant available for the first time in a millennium/thousands of years. This triggers the Wow factor and eye candy effect in winter. Livestock graze this as high plant protein and convert it into red meat daily weight gains. We create our own luck and our own little oil strike in this manner.
This is an example of one complex of microbes. We use many more from a variety of wetland and forest floor sources, which we feed our earthworms and then relocate to higher level customers willing to go the extra mile.
This is an example of one complex of microbes. We use many more from a variety of wetland and forest floor sources, which we feed our earthworms and then relocate to higher level customers willing to go the extra mile.
The more the Russian Grass root system looks after soil microbes, the more the soil microbial community look after the Russian grass in the form of plant available nutrients becoming available and pumped into the root system.
The more the Russian Grass root system looks after soil microbes, the more the soil microbial community look after the Russian grass in the form of plant available nutrients becoming available and pumped into the root system.
The advantage of Bio-fertilisers, soil microbes and earthworms are that
The advantage of Bio-fertilisers, soil microbes and earthworms are that

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