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Saving Mallee SoilsAnthony Sheldon runs a 1,000 hectare sheep and cereal farm in the Mallee in north west Victoria. The Sheldon family have farmed this area since it was opened up for selection in the 1910's. This Mallee landscape is dry and prone to wind erosion. The Big Desert scrub lies only two miles away. However Anthony believes that, if worked responsibly, the Mallee is good, reliable farming country.Anthony has been working beside his father on the farm since he was six years old. He has a deep understanding of and passion for the Mallee, watching and learning from the landscape. After the death of his father in 1985, Anthony began to change his farming practices and is now watching the land improve and productivity increase. The farm is now one of the most productive in the district. Anthony works closely with friend Kim Kingdon, a Murrayville permaculturalist, who has helped Anthony plan and plant the farm. In 1992 Anthony began ‘chemical free farming’. He no longer applies superphosphate, other fertilisers, herbicides or pesticides. In 1986 he began applying gypsum to the low lying clay areas of the farm to break up heavy soils and make the land more fertile and workable. He is now experimenting with alley farming: planting rows of Saltbush at 200 metre intervals and cultivating cereals between these rows. Anthony has modified his seeding machinery and sows cereals densely to discourage weeds. When mature, the shrubs will provide shelter and have a beneficial effect on the water table. Anthony has returned to the four year rotation system used in the Mallee by earlier generations using wheat, barley, pasture and fallow. Anthony no longer tills the sand dune areas of his property which are now reserved for sheep. With Kim’s assistance he has planted ‘living haystacks’- rows of Acacia, River Saltbush and Old Man Saltbush- which provide shelter and sustenance for the sheep and stabilise the dunes. Between the rows Anthony is encouraging deep-rooted perennial pasture such as lucerne, evening primrose and clover.
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