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EMAU FARMS- SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE

A blog created by EMAU FARMS LTD, a small farms business to produce healthy plant foods, livestock and poultry, and promote healthy living through sustainable agriculture, creating and preserving a healthy environment consistent with nature

EMAU FARMS - PASTURED GOATS SEPTEMBER 2019

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- September 21, 2019

By Peter Emau

Today, we go we walk through goats in Pasture in EMAU FARMS LTD.

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Dry Gardening: A Modified Soil Sedimentation Method for a Garden with Gravelly Sandy Loam Soil

- December 29, 2021

As part of overall goal to establish simple methods for dry gardening in Sustainable Agriculture, our goal this winter year 2021-2022 is the establishment a garden that is resilient to climate change (i.e retains moitsure from winter rains to be used in the 2022 growing season without additional watering or irrigation during summer). As a first step, we have determined the profile of soil texture (i.e.% gravel, sand, silt and clay) at multiple sites throughout the garden. For each site, we determine % gravel, sand, silt and clay in two soil horizons ( topsoil and subsoil). We used a modified method of soil sedimentation using mason glass jars to allow determination of gravel, sand, silt and clay separately. The modified method is illustrated in the Figure below: The results are shown in the table below: These results show that the soil throughout the garden is gravelly sandy loam and are consistent with public soil records for our area- due to glacial till. The percent clay ...

Predicting Onset and Duration of Rainfall Seasons in Amukurat-Samuk Villages, Uganda

- September 25, 2022

For people in Amukurat-Samuk villages, the ability to predict or estimate the onset and duration of rainfall seasons is an essential skill for sustainable agriculture. One way is to use the migration of the tropical rainfall belt located along the equator, which migrates following the thermal equator (i.e. the location along the equator where solar radiation, and thus the temperatures are highest). Amukurat-Samuk villages are located at latitude 1.9185° N from the Equator, and longitude 33.3009° E of the meridian at Greenwich, England. The villages experience two rainy and two dry seasons as the thermal equator, and thus the tropical rainfall belt pass over the vilages twice each year; one when the thermal belt moves northwards and one when the thermal belt moves southwards. The duration of each rainy or dry season can vary greatly depending on local climatic conditions. During the years 2012 - 2013, we followed the migration of the tropical rainfall belt across Africa from So...

Effect of Table Salt (Sodium Chloride) on Sedimentation of Sand, Silt or Clay in Soil Sample

- November 14, 2021

Our goal this year is to design a vegetable garden that is resilient to climate change by trapping water from the winter-spring rains into the soil. One step in that process is determination of soil texture by determining the percent sand, silt and clay in the soil present in the garden. Once the texture of soil is knwon, we can modify it accordingly to help trap water. We used simple method soil sedimentation test using glass jars to suspend soil sample in water, then allow it to sediment by gravity into layers of sand, silt and clay, which we can measure and use to calculate percentages of each layer. We conducted this experiment by suspending soil in water with (Jars 1 - 5) or without (Jars 6 - 10) dish soap. In addition, since clay particles are affected by sodium chloride to aggregate etc we determined the effect of adding sodium chloride at various time points during the sedimentation. Note: all Jars when shaken vigorously for 5 - 10 minutes, and set down on a flat table at...