This page is about capturing and storing Solar-Energy-Flow on your farm...

Solar-energy-flow is the capturing of sunlight through photsynthesis, and the conversion of this energy into re-usable plant material that powers every form of life and motion on the planet.

Green leaves capture the sunlight. The graphic above shows that a range of organisms, including humans, eat those leaves and grains etc. The creatures that eat the leaves and grains are in turn eaten by creatures further up the food chain.

You will also notice that some of the stored energy 'escapes' sideways. That is the energy every living organism (including us) needs just to respire and live, even before doing any physical work.

There is no waste of energy. It is all used in some form or another, and the waste of one level becomes food for another level in the energy pyramid.

Three factors drive the capture of solar energy:

• The volume of leaf material which is available at any instant to capture sunlight
The bigger the 'solar panel' of leaves, the more light energy that can be captured minute by minute

• The time over which sunlight can be captured
An effective water cycle allows growth to last for longer than in an ineffective situation.
A diversity of plants maintains green leaves for more (or better still, all) of the year, allowing much more sunlight to be captured and stored
• The rate at which sunlight is captured
Higher successional plants process more sunlight energy, and they do it faster. The net effect is a substantial increase in total stored solar energy

Indicators of effective solar energy flow
Some of the simple indicators are:

• An increasing diversity of desirable perennial plant species


• Soil covered in mulch and litter


• When using grazing animals, very short periods when the plants are exposed to grazing animals, followed by adequate recovery periods


• Grasses tend to be broad-leafed


• Grasses display vigorous root systems

Poor solar-energy-flow
This landscape has only a few winter growing annual species present, and a few very low successional perennial shrubs. In the event of summer rainfall there are only a very few plants that are able to spring to life and capture sunlight with green leaves. The photo, taken in a low-rainfall year shows how low on feed reserves the farmer is. His solar-energy-flow is largely ineffective.

Where you should start...
Storing more sunlight means maintaining a greater volume of healthy green leaves capable of photosynthesis, for longer. In a cropping situation that means getting the water cycle better, and adjusting the species of plants and their varieties to better match your environment. For graziers it means fostering a greater diversity of species, and this is best done by modifying the behaviour of grazing animals.

You should monitor...
Keep an eye on your grass species mix as you move through each season. Over time you would expect to see a greater and better mix of both cool season and warm season perennial species. When you begin to see these changes, you will see a marked improvement in your solar-energy-flow. Carrying capcity will begin to rise, as will profitability.

There are some excellent and very simple monitoring procedures you can use to assess species mix and also, soil cover. If you are using livestock, begin proper grazing planning, and be prepared to adjust stocking rate early, so that plant leaf area is maintained at a high level. If it is possible for you to plan that your animals exit a paddock before the overall plant leaf area is dramatically reduced, then both the speed and volume of recovery will be substantially increased.

Note:
It is not physically damaging for a plant to be very severely grazed during the time animals are in its paddock. However the speed at which the more severely defoliated plants recover is slower than that experienced by less severely defoliated plants, and it is imperative that the return of animals be delayed until proper recovery has occurred. Grazing management is largely the management of time between exposure and future re-exposure of the plants to the grazing animals.

Other things to consider...
Solar-energy-flow will dramatically improve as the other cycles improve, as it is one of the four linked cycles. Be watchful for evidence that any cycle is moving out of line, as deviation by one will eventually pull all of them down, dramatically increasing costs and reducing profitability.

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