Using regenerative farming to fight climate change

The use of regenerative farming practices has enabled Barry Meijer to restore the lifeless dust’ on his farm and turn it into productive pastures for his cattle. He spoke to Glenneis Kriel about the transformation.

- Glenneis Kriel

In 2010, when Barry Meijer bought Meijer's Rust near De Rust in the Klein Karoo, the soil was bare and depleted. Nevertheless, he managed to produce a small crop of barley and oats each year on the 14ha he had under irrigation, while he restricted his cattle to the hills and mountains, where they primarily lived off spekboom.

About seven years ago, Meijer realised he needed an 'intervention' to improve the water-holding capacity of the soil: "The soil was nothing more than dust. It was dead and compacted, resulting in poor water penetration and a lot of run-off."

This was a huge problem. The farm receives about 350mm of rain during a normal year but recorded less than 200mm per year for more than seven years, and below 100mm in one of those years, up until last year. The drought seemed to be broken last winter, but water reserves came under pressure again this summer, when thunderstorms were not accompanied by their usual rains.

Meijer ascribes the lower rainfall to climate change: "Climate change is real. It is resulting in lower rainfall in the Klein Karoo and shifts in the time we receive our rains. It is predicted to result in more extreme weather in future, such as droughts, heatwaves and floods, making it increasingly important to build a soil structure that can withstand these stressors."

REGENERATIVE FARMING

Meijer's search for a way to improve the water-holding capacity of his soil led him to a YouTube conversation between two regenerative agriculture pioneers, Buz Kloot and Ray Archuleta. In the video, they discussed the importance of having 'living roots' in the soil and how this could improve soil structure and, in effect, the water-holding capacity of the soil.