Advance Sowing

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Advance Sowing is a cropping method developed by Bruce Maynard in 1996 in NSW, Australia that allows the production of annual crops from perennial grasslands. It consists in dry-sowing crops directly into existing pastures without using tillage, fertilizer or chemicals.

[edit] Principles

Advance Sowing has 5 major principles:

Sowing is done when the topsoil is dry.
Coulter type ploughs must be used.
No Herbicides are applied at any stage.
No Fertilizers are applied at any stage.
There is no change to the grazing methods practised on the area.

The rationale behind the method is to produce crops without simplifying the biodiversity. All other commonly used sowing methods of cropping rely on eliminating some or all of the plant and animals present to create an advantage for the growing crop. Advance Sowing relies on complementarity of plant/animal interactions to produce biomass that can be utilised directly for human consumption or fed to animals.

[edit] External links

Bush Telegraph, The Innovators Series #4: Working Off Farm ABC Rural, ABC Radio (Australia) 2004.
Landcare Farmer. On Earthbeat ABC Radio National, ABC Radio (Australia), August 8th, 2003.
Keynote Speaker Australian Academy of Science's Fenner Conference, 2002
Rosnay Organic Grazing. Land management service that advertises the use of this technique.
Perkins, I., Gleeson, T., Keating, B. (2003) Futures: Review of farmer initiated innovative farming systems, Land & Water Australia, Canberra, pp. 17, 19-20, 22 and 50.
NSW Farmers Association Sustaining the Land: Case studies of farmers working for our future In Conservation farming for increased profitability, pp. 30-31.
Standing Committee on Natural Resource Management (2005) Standing Committee on Natural Resources Management: Better On-Farm Approaches to Salinity and Drought Management (Terms of Reference C and D)--Sustainable and Profitable Farming. New South Wales Parliament, Legislative Assembly, p. 71. Advance sowing recommended as a cropping approach.
Gray, L. (2003)Lazy farming' lowers salinity risk, improves farm health. In Salt Magazine, No. 9, National Dryland Salinity Program, State Governments of W.A., S.A., Vic., N.S.W., Qld. and Tas., pp. 14-15.