I had never seen a dung beetle but soon learnt much about them and many other aspects of land care during our local homeschooling group's visit to a Fig Tree Organic Farm yesterday. Again I think it was the parents who took more from the day than the children. Late yesterday I sourced some organic kale at the supermarket for last night's salad and bought some organic sugarcane mulch and added it to our meagre vegetable garden. Both are things I've done before but am even more conscious of their importance now.
* It appears that most dung beetle species in Australia have been relatively recently introduced by a carefully monitored project, including strict quarantine measures. You can read more about it here.
18 comments:
Interessante tema e belas fotos! bjs, chica
There seems to be more desire to know about gardening and organic farming at the moment as I see the endless stream of tv programs on Dutch television about this subject. Well its not bad to learn about it as most people here live in the city and have no idea were their food comes from.Also the craze to build a vegetable garden on flat roofs is booming. You can't start early enough. Thanks for showing.
It is a good trend for sure. It was interesting to hear the farm manager so excited about organic farming. It is primarily a beef farm, about to expand into pigs also, with around 400 head of cattle on 1000 acres (400 hectares), all operated by one man. His aim is not only for sustainable farming but to help restore the land to be more like it was originally.
We don’t have any flat roofs locally but I guess with an abundance of land in our area we don’t need to resort to rooftop growing.
I am pretty sure I was first introduced to dung beetles when hiking in India and coming across elephant dung!
Interesting post for the day, Karen! Great captures as always! I've never seen a beetle close up before! Hope your week is off to a great start!!
very beautiful images, Karen!
It's great to go to the source with where our food is produced and to confirm why it's good to go organic when possible. I'm very lucky to have a weekly delivery of organic veg from a local farmer, I'll ask him about dung beetles when I see him next.
Interesting!
There should be field trips for adults...I'd be first in line...great post!
very very cooL! good on you having a vege garden!
Very interesting post!
How interesting. I have heard of Dung Beatles but really don't know much about them. Fabulous photos Karen.
Hugs~
WHat an interesting place.
very beautiful photos !
A interesting side of the life on Country.
Wish you a very fine weekend, Heidrun
What an interesting trip! I've never heard of dung beetles. I'm curious about what's in those blue bins?
Hi Preeti, good question. The blue bins contain mineral salts and pink Himalayan salt blocks which are rich in minerals (we use ground pink Himalayan salt in our kitchen). I was surprised to see it used on this farm as it costs a bit more but they also know it is better!
I had a government school education my whole life. Never once did I get to experience such a hands-on excursion as you've just shared.
Nowadays, I work in a job doing environmental management... and I've never seen a dung ball and beetle like your kids have!
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