c-ray
11-02-2006, 06:31 PM
from http://www.yeomansplow.com.au/yeomans-keyline-system.htm
see http://www.yeomansplow.com.au/yeomans-plows.htm for info about yeomans plows
THE KEYLINE SYSTEM HAS CHANGED ONLY SLIGHTLY FROM THE ORIGINAL BOOKS BY P.A. YEOMANS. THIS EXPLAINS CURRENT THINKING.
Keyline planning is based on the natural topography of the land. It uses the form and shape of the land to determine the layout and position of farm dams, irrigation areas, roads, fences, farm buildings and tree lines. Keyline topographical concepts are often taught in university town planning courses.
Keyline is an agricultural system in which great emphasis is placed on processes designed to increase substantially the fertility of soils. Emphasis is placed on the creation of a soil environment that rapidly accelerates soil biological activity, thus vastly increasing the total organic matter content within the soil.
Keyline lay-outs of farm and grazing lands also incorporate designs permitting the storage of run-off water on the farm itself. This effectively spreads the often irregular rainfall patterns so common to Australia, and in consequence enhances rural production.
Keyline lay-outs and practices are designed and predicated to the concept that farming systems that improve the fertility of soils, and food production from these soils, must be profitable to the man who farms the land.
Keyline concepts are totally against the current artificial and dangerous practice of concentrating run off water into manufactured disposal drains designed to remove, as rapidly as possible, run-off water off a rural landscape. The rapid evacuation of rainwater to the nearest ocean, in this, the driest of the world's continents is particularly illogical. In addition, this practice can and often does create more disastrous erosion than it was ever expected to cure.
Keyline considers as totally erroneous the belief that soil creation is an infinitely slow process and soil once "lost" is lost forever. In fact soil fertility, and even soil itself can often be created faster than it can be eroded.
Keyline practices, once implemented, effectively eliminate soil erosion, even as a possibility. The battle against soil erosion and the concept of "soil conservation" as a significant issue becomes totally meaningless.
The name Keyline was given to the particular contour that runs through the point, in all small headwater valleys where the slope change occurs. This contour is the primary contour in Keyline planning. Among other things it delineates the transition contour for cultivation, above which all "contour" cultivation must proceed up the slope, and below which all “contour” cultivation must proceed down the slope.
The result of such "Keyline Pattern" cultivation is that an overall drift of surface runoff water occurs which prevents runoff concentration and the resultant gutter erosion from occurring. It increases the time of contact between the rain and the earth. It has the effect of turning storms into steady soaking rain.
The Keyline contour need not be on the individual farm. It is only necessary to know whether the contour to be paralleled is above, or below a relevant Keyline. In this way "drift" in either direction can be determined and implemented. Paralleling up, or paralleling down from a contour can direct the drift of rainwater away from erosion sensitive valley floors.
The inversion of soil layers is quite contrary to Keyline concepts and in fact contrary to almost every type of soil fertility building practices anywhere in the world. All cultivation, in fertility enhancing agriculture is best done using an adaptation of the "forked stick" plough of ancient times. Our own original cultivation experiments used a variety of earth moving rippers until we discovered the Texas built Graham Hoehme Chisel Plow. We redesigned the old Graham Hoehme Chisel Plow to suit the more extreme conditions usually found in Australia. The plough was developed and promoted. The acceptance and almost universal adoption of chisel ploughs has been one of the most beneficial and noticeable changes in Australian agriculture this last century.
We found over time that the chisel plow required more fundamental refinements. It was good but it was still not the ideal implement for rapid soil development type agriculture. It was virtually incapable of one-go deep tillage without excessive soil profile disturbance. The current Yeomans Plow thus evolved. And the modern subsoil plough was born. These implements achieve virtually the ultimate in Keyline cultivation requirements. They are able to operate well into the subsoil without the usual, dilution by mixing, of the shallow topsoil with the huge bulk of infertile subsoil underlaying it. The concept of the narrow tine subsoiler we developed is now receiving wide spread acceptance by both farmers and other manufactures.
This new plough has allowed for much accelerated Keyline soil development progression by eliminating the need for the time consuming, yearly increase in cultivating depth necessary with the chisel plow
Keyline layouts for rainwater collection, storage and irrigation has many advocates especially following the experiments on Keyline techniques by Sydney University and promoted as "water harvesting". The universities lack in not also realising the importance of fertile soil, as a most economical water storage medium, limited the worth of their studies, and to some extent also restricted its acceptance.
The refinement of Keyline techniques following P.A. Yeomans' the original books has seen a greater emphasis on determining the most economical planning sequences for larger water storage sites, and even more rapid fertility build ups. Larger farm dams have tended to prove more viable.
A development program and layout for a property, with a sequence of operations based on relative economic viability of the individual stages, and including the location of tree lines, road ways, water storage dams, fence lines and houses is now easy and so totally logical. It is now a simple matter to determine a complete farm or property design, often in a matter of a few hours
While Keyline designs are based on the topography and geology of the land, individual properties, unfortunately, are shaped by an historic location of survey lines, and such lines generally bear no relationship whatsoever to topographical land forms. In consequence idealised Keyline systems are usually hampered a little by the restraints of farm boundaries. A major requirement of Keyline designs is then to utilise the landform and topography, within the restraints imposed by these boundaries. But that's easy.
Co-operation between farmers to their mutual benefit would eliminate these design restraints and make for huge economic savings and create viability for water harvesting and storage systems that otherwise, just possibly, could not exist. This coupled with correct cultivation and soil development techniques to enhance biological activity would more rapidly, vastly increase the fertility of all our soils, to all our benefit.
see http://www.yeomansplow.com.au/yeomans-plows.htm for info about yeomans plows
THE KEYLINE SYSTEM HAS CHANGED ONLY SLIGHTLY FROM THE ORIGINAL BOOKS BY P.A. YEOMANS. THIS EXPLAINS CURRENT THINKING.
Keyline planning is based on the natural topography of the land. It uses the form and shape of the land to determine the layout and position of farm dams, irrigation areas, roads, fences, farm buildings and tree lines. Keyline topographical concepts are often taught in university town planning courses.
Keyline is an agricultural system in which great emphasis is placed on processes designed to increase substantially the fertility of soils. Emphasis is placed on the creation of a soil environment that rapidly accelerates soil biological activity, thus vastly increasing the total organic matter content within the soil.
Keyline lay-outs of farm and grazing lands also incorporate designs permitting the storage of run-off water on the farm itself. This effectively spreads the often irregular rainfall patterns so common to Australia, and in consequence enhances rural production.
Keyline lay-outs and practices are designed and predicated to the concept that farming systems that improve the fertility of soils, and food production from these soils, must be profitable to the man who farms the land.
Keyline concepts are totally against the current artificial and dangerous practice of concentrating run off water into manufactured disposal drains designed to remove, as rapidly as possible, run-off water off a rural landscape. The rapid evacuation of rainwater to the nearest ocean, in this, the driest of the world's continents is particularly illogical. In addition, this practice can and often does create more disastrous erosion than it was ever expected to cure.
Keyline considers as totally erroneous the belief that soil creation is an infinitely slow process and soil once "lost" is lost forever. In fact soil fertility, and even soil itself can often be created faster than it can be eroded.
Keyline practices, once implemented, effectively eliminate soil erosion, even as a possibility. The battle against soil erosion and the concept of "soil conservation" as a significant issue becomes totally meaningless.
The name Keyline was given to the particular contour that runs through the point, in all small headwater valleys where the slope change occurs. This contour is the primary contour in Keyline planning. Among other things it delineates the transition contour for cultivation, above which all "contour" cultivation must proceed up the slope, and below which all “contour” cultivation must proceed down the slope.
The result of such "Keyline Pattern" cultivation is that an overall drift of surface runoff water occurs which prevents runoff concentration and the resultant gutter erosion from occurring. It increases the time of contact between the rain and the earth. It has the effect of turning storms into steady soaking rain.
The Keyline contour need not be on the individual farm. It is only necessary to know whether the contour to be paralleled is above, or below a relevant Keyline. In this way "drift" in either direction can be determined and implemented. Paralleling up, or paralleling down from a contour can direct the drift of rainwater away from erosion sensitive valley floors.
The inversion of soil layers is quite contrary to Keyline concepts and in fact contrary to almost every type of soil fertility building practices anywhere in the world. All cultivation, in fertility enhancing agriculture is best done using an adaptation of the "forked stick" plough of ancient times. Our own original cultivation experiments used a variety of earth moving rippers until we discovered the Texas built Graham Hoehme Chisel Plow. We redesigned the old Graham Hoehme Chisel Plow to suit the more extreme conditions usually found in Australia. The plough was developed and promoted. The acceptance and almost universal adoption of chisel ploughs has been one of the most beneficial and noticeable changes in Australian agriculture this last century.
We found over time that the chisel plow required more fundamental refinements. It was good but it was still not the ideal implement for rapid soil development type agriculture. It was virtually incapable of one-go deep tillage without excessive soil profile disturbance. The current Yeomans Plow thus evolved. And the modern subsoil plough was born. These implements achieve virtually the ultimate in Keyline cultivation requirements. They are able to operate well into the subsoil without the usual, dilution by mixing, of the shallow topsoil with the huge bulk of infertile subsoil underlaying it. The concept of the narrow tine subsoiler we developed is now receiving wide spread acceptance by both farmers and other manufactures.
This new plough has allowed for much accelerated Keyline soil development progression by eliminating the need for the time consuming, yearly increase in cultivating depth necessary with the chisel plow
Keyline layouts for rainwater collection, storage and irrigation has many advocates especially following the experiments on Keyline techniques by Sydney University and promoted as "water harvesting". The universities lack in not also realising the importance of fertile soil, as a most economical water storage medium, limited the worth of their studies, and to some extent also restricted its acceptance.
The refinement of Keyline techniques following P.A. Yeomans' the original books has seen a greater emphasis on determining the most economical planning sequences for larger water storage sites, and even more rapid fertility build ups. Larger farm dams have tended to prove more viable.
A development program and layout for a property, with a sequence of operations based on relative economic viability of the individual stages, and including the location of tree lines, road ways, water storage dams, fence lines and houses is now easy and so totally logical. It is now a simple matter to determine a complete farm or property design, often in a matter of a few hours
While Keyline designs are based on the topography and geology of the land, individual properties, unfortunately, are shaped by an historic location of survey lines, and such lines generally bear no relationship whatsoever to topographical land forms. In consequence idealised Keyline systems are usually hampered a little by the restraints of farm boundaries. A major requirement of Keyline designs is then to utilise the landform and topography, within the restraints imposed by these boundaries. But that's easy.
Co-operation between farmers to their mutual benefit would eliminate these design restraints and make for huge economic savings and create viability for water harvesting and storage systems that otherwise, just possibly, could not exist. This coupled with correct cultivation and soil development techniques to enhance biological activity would more rapidly, vastly increase the fertility of all our soils, to all our benefit.