1- Outsides "are not authorized to access this page" for the link you listed.
2-When you remove the milk or the cattle from the land and eat them, do you remove soil nutrients??? In California, the average amount of fertilizer I need to put back, so that the native plant seedlings can survive to adulthood, is usually about 2,000 pounds per acre, costing about $5,000 for areas that have been grazed since the Spanish Rancho Grant period, starting about 1820s.
For 25 years, I have been using the Waypoint Lab in San Jose, California and test a one quart (one liter) sample taken from the top 2 inches (5 cm) after sifting through a 1/4 inch (7 mm) mesh screen to remove rocks and vegetable matter. Then, ask for the A-17 test ($50) and the A-19-2 test ($16) to test for nutrients and organic matter, and have the data only put into a bar graph format.
Using this process on individual species of native plants, have been able to set Soil Nutrient and Soil Organic Matter Thresholds, that are needed for that species seedling's survival. You can see the difference between not using fertilizers in grazing-depleted soils, and fertilizing at http://www.ecoseeds.com/good.example.html and the threshold for individual native species at http://www.ecoseeds.com/seed-thresholds.html
Sincerely, Craig Dremann, The Reveg Edge, California USA (650) 325-7333
Answer is yes the removal of meat and milk can deplete soil over time. Check the state extension you might be able to get more economical soil analysis. If you have a document I would give my assessment and recommendation as I have worked on that quite a bit in my career. All good things Paul Reed Hepperly
Definitely removal of meat and milk may deplete soil but while grazing some nutrient input also adding through dung and urine that may also consider while calculating the exact deplete of soil nutrients.
Based on what I am finding here in the Great Basin and the Southwest, New Mexico, the soil nutrient levels needed by our native perennial grass seedlings for survival, has dropped below those thresholds, so the European invaders with their exotic grazing animals in less than 200 years, have removed soil nutrients and reduced most of this continent's grasslands into "Zombie-ecosystems."
You can see two photos, where native grass seeds were sown in two boxes, one without in soils that are below the seedling threshold for that species, and one box with fertilizers at http://www.ecoseeds.com/good.example.html
We do not ever fertilize unirrigated grasslands here in the Americas, so nutrients can drop over time, especially areas that are used for dairy cows, because the calcium and phosphorus is removed when the milk leaves the land.
A "Zombie Ecosystem" is where a biome stops reproducing, and for certain species here in the arid West, it has been many decades to 100 years or more since seedlings have been produced. The nutrients that change first, is the soil organic matter in the top 5 cm., and the nitrogen, phosphorus, calcium, magnesium also fall below the critical nutrient thresholds in the top 5 cm.
The first thing to do, is find a reproducing population of a species of perennial grass, and test the soil from next to the seedlings in the top 5 cm., and then those test results are your Threshold Standards for that species.
I am setting up those thresholds for 100 species of natives for the Great Basin, and you can see the five threshold we have already set, at http://www.ecoseeds.com/http://www.ecoseeds.com/seed-thresholds.html
Because of the soil nutrient issues, grazing of domesticated animals will never be "sustainable" as a closed-system anywhere on the planet, because you always have to add nitrogen, phosphorus, and calcium from outside sources to balance off what is removed when you eat their meat or drink their milk and those nutrients get lost to the system when we flush our toilets.
Plus, the cattle usually focus on the bean family plants and seed plants, so can absorb the nitrogen for themselves, that normally would be sequestered into the soil. And then phosphorus is a huge issue world-wide, we flushed so much on that key nutrient down the toilet, or used too much on our crops si it runs off the land into streams, instead of recycling it--that will probably be the key element that will run out for our civilizations, even before the fossil fuels.
Sincerely, Craig Dremann (650) 325-7333
- Badges
- Science method
- Similar topics
- Biological Science
- Ecology