Reference Document Permaculture Report 131998 98121 5

Sustainable Agricultural Practices

In order to follow sustainable Agricultural Practices we recommend the cycling of natural
materials onsite and following best practice management for Agriculture. Any clippings,
tree branches and other organic waste can be chipped and added underneath existing
food production tree systems or can be further composted with the help of other
biological resources like chickens.
A properly designed permaculture system will not need any external inputs, and healthy
and rich compost can be produced onsite.

We recommend three main chicken systems; one is the Integrated Chicken Composting
System above the Syntropic Market Garden; one follows the cattle in their grazing
paddocks; and one follows the pig tractors in the existing orchards.
We recommend the chickens following the cattle to have roosters and be allowed to
breed for succession. The chickens above the Syntropic Market Garden and the chickens
following the pig tractors will not need any roosters (to eliminate any noise pollution).
The Integrated Chicken Compost System helps with compost making so that there will be
rich compost available for the nursery and the market garden, and as it is above the main
system any nutrient run o will go directly into the market garden via a swale harvesting
the nutrients.

We recommend that the groups attending the site are educated on separating food
scraps so that there is a bin with meat scraps and a bin with vegetable scraps. The
vegetable scraps can be used to feed the chickens, whereas the meat scraps can be
processed by making biochar. The biochar can be made in the nursery compost area and
can then be added to compost. The pathogens of the meat scraps are neutralised by the
no-oxygen burn method of biochar making, and the biochar can then be added to
compost or directly under fruit trees.

As these methodologies provide a closed cycle, the site will be completely sustainable in
its food production, not needing to purchase any external inputs to grow their food.
At a later stage seed saving areas can be appointed in order to save seed to grow their
own vegetable seedlings.

We recommend that the cow paddocks are divided into 11 grazing paddocks to ensure
rotational grazing or holistic grazing management practices (see image A). The cows will
need to be in each paddock for 4 days, giving each paddock 40 days of rest. The rest
period is the most important aspect of rotational grazing, as this period ensures the
paddocks can regenerate and regrow. We recommend permanent electric fencing for
these paddocks. This is based on an initial stocking rate of 25 cows, however with re-
establishment and improvement of paddocks due to the rotational grazing methods, this
stocking rate will increase over time.
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