North Africa used to grow trees and wheat. Now most grows nothing.
The locals cut trees for firewood and never plant any so the Sahara desert
has been spreading south at an average of 6 km a year for hundreds of years.
Any seedling trees are eaten by their goats.
Flying over Madagascar shows trees removed and nothing planted so just red
soil for hundreds of miles.
In Korea the sky is often red from dust from erosion in China.
No wonder we are getting climate change and it is not from cows belching as
our politicians (fed by bureaucrats) tried to tell us.
On 27/1/06 05:48, "Bill and Alicia Patterson" <redmill@cfw.com> wrote:
> As a general observation, it does seem that high rainfall areas are covered
> with trees. With less rain the area seems to have grass and ends up going
> more to desert as the rainfall decreases. Sort of a chicken or egg
> question. Do the trees follow rain or does the rain follow the trees?
>
> Bill Patterson
> Virginia, USA
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Elaine Trevilyan" <elainetr@bigpond.com>
> To: <vicdairy-l@unimelb.edu.au>
> Sent: Wednesday, January 25, 2006 7:40 PM
> Subject: RE: Dairying
>
>
> The removal of large numbers of trees to make way for pasture was relevant
> 50yrs ago. On our farm at Myponga [SA] the rainfall dropped from 55" to 40"
> after significant clearing. I think that the last 10+yrs is about climate
> change. When I was a kid [long time ago..] our opening rains were in
> march/april at the latest. Most years now it's may/june.
> Last year we had opening rains June10th, & it kept raining till the end of
> the year to give as above average rainfall.
> Dairy SA is running a dairy innovations day on climate change & how it
> affects the dairy industry. It will be at Murray Bridge racecourse on 9th
> March starting at 10am.
> We would love to welcome some interstaters.
> Elaine Trevilyan
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: leon [mailto:leon@grazinginfo.com]
> Sent: Thursday, 26 January 2006 8:25 AM
> To: vicdairy-l@unimelb.edu.au
> Subject: Re: Dairying
>
> I remember reading about 50 years ago that rainfall had dropped in parts of
> Israel so they replanted ³dark green² trees and rainfall increased.
>
> I donıt the significance of ³dark green².
>
> An old time farmer near Taihape, NZ. roughly in the middle of the North
> Island, told me that rainfall there had decreased because so much bush had
> been cleared.
>
>
> On 25/1/06 23:14, "David & Barbara Clayton" <barbclay@dcsi.net.au> wrote:
>
>> Hello everyone,
>>
>> I have been amazed at some of the newspaper articles that have been
> written
>> about the lack of increased milk production lately.
>> Reading said articles one would think that green grass was up to the tops
> of
>> the fences across the whole of the State. Just because one part of the
> State
>> is having a booming season it doesn't mean that the rest is in the same
> boat.
>> On our farm we a struggling to survive our nineth year in a row with below
>> average rainfall.
>> In 2005 we recorded 757mm which is the lowest in the 19 years we have been
>> here. The 19 year average is 1056mm, the first 9 years average was 1145mm
> and
>> the last 10 years av. 975.
>> There is absolutely no way that we could increase production with these
>> weather conditions. Our farm is mostly red soil and for the last 4 years
> we
>> have had to buy in all feed from Christmas through to May. This last
> spring is
>> the first time in 4 generations that no silage or hay was made.
>> If there is no good autumn break this year we will be joining all our
>> neighbours and nearly all others within a 5km radius and throw the towell
> in.
>> I don't think that Dairy Australia realises that when then next down turn
> in
>> prices comes that we will probably see the biggest exit from the industry
>> ever. There are a number of farmers in the 55+ age bracket who are only
> still
>> milking because we like the job. There again I might just sell out and
> move to
>> another, hopefully wetter area.
>>
>> What are other areas of Gippy like re rainfall?
>>
>> Regards,
>> David Clayton
>> Warragul
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Vaughan Jones
> Hamilton
> New Zealand
>
>
>
>
>
Best wishes,
Vaughan Jones
Hamilton
New Zealand
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