Holding Water: Working with Nature to Drought-Proof Your Farm

Across the world, farmers face growing challenges as extreme weather and climate change take their toll. At the Danthonia Bruderhof farm here in Australia - a land renowned for "drought and flooding rains" (and bushfires) - we're implementing Regenerative Agriculture practices, to work with nature to restore and improve our landscape. In this video, we showcase the efforts our community's farmers are making towards "drought-proofing" our farm by increasing the capacity of our land to hold water.

Further viewing:

The Mulloon Institute Landscape Regeneration | Regenerating the Australian Landscape

Further reading:
Chris interviewed Danthonia farm manager Johannes Meier for Plough Quarterly, May 2019:

About us: We're the parents of three sons and live at Danthonia Bruderhof, a Christian community in northern New South Wales, Australia, and enjoy discussing our faith, family, food (Norann's an awesome cook!), and the day-to-day adventures of life in "the bush".

#regenerativeagriculture #farmingvideos #bruderhof

[etiennelouw]

Cities also need to catch water too, fill up the aquifers down below. At my suburban home in Cape Town, South Africa, I dug a trench to catch the water from my roof gutters and soak it into the soil. I also planted 2 trees at the edges of the trench that as they get bigger will shade my water catchment area. Food forest in the future.

[brianvittachi]

Norann and Chris, I greatly admire what you are doing. Heal the land and it will reward you exponentially far into the future. Well done.

[BlueSapphire]

Well done ..Peter Andrews has a wealth of knowledge that definately works.

I like his method of slowing the movement of water down, by causing it to backflow or swirl around using boulders and the like.

When u look at a river system, often it turns around on itself forming billabongs, slowing its movement down.

[chessman]

Love this stuff. We only have a few acres but doing some stuff and it’s exciting to see it transform.

[jalbu]

Thanks for sharing, I really enjoyed the video, so educational and their commitment to the land is honourable and great to see. I'm an indigenous Australian and I commend you all. Great work. 👍🏾🙏🏾

[myarkalsaki-kamag]

Thanks.. I'm currently working with farmers in the Sahel where lack of water and desertification is a major issue. Its ironic that areas with drought and desertification usually also have cases of flooding. I guess the key for us is water retention to enable us to make maximum use of the water during the periods of flooding.

[TESLblog]

Hello from Germany, this is a very very impressive project and wonderful insights. Great to see people are able to heal Earth and make a living off of it. Big big thanks to all involved. I hope this knowledge would arrive back here where I live

[ChaLeoNelly]

I’m stunned by the “warning.” As our Earth continues to warm, every effort should be made to rehabilitate every square inch of current farm land. Anticipating changes to historical rainfall patterns is one complication. More and more land in the US is badly depleted of organic content, but starting efforts must be undertaken. This video was informative and enjoyable to watch. 🙏🏽

[cedriccbass-jpky]

Wow great video guys. I love videos like this. I noticed in the opening aerial shot lots of tree guards. Would also be great to know which trees, shrubs, reeds etc you planted and in what sequence.

[ednzou]

Very informative and brilliant video. Thanks for sharing and wishing you prosperity in your endeavors 🙏

[Drunken.Lyrics]

Hey, my bro in the black shirt, sorry i missed ya name...I can see you have worked hard n slogged it out, your effort shows my bro. stay tall

[Drunken.Lyrics]

Isn't it annoying that we actually lost touch with the plants around us.... actually, dissapointing...

[GreenJack]

Wonderful. What I admire most is that you have spent so much time and certainly a lot of money to carry out this restructuring. You must really love this land. I hope it will make you feel grateful. Not only for those who are there in Australia, but for the whole community.

[theresewelsh]

Fantastic. Thankyou for sharing this positive message of slowing the flow and holding water in the landscape.

[justindrew]

I love seeing these projects. First time I learnt that you could do this was when I learnt about Peter Andrews and Tony Coote on Australian Story, absolutely Amazing people ❤ this needs to be funded nationally. We can even start small and see how it goes. Commitment to restore 5000km of our most degraded creek systems.

[synappticuser]

It's just great to see what you have done with your farm. Creating the water catching areas is so good to see. 'How can we hold on to this precious thing...?' Not just the water, but the whole landscape and every creature that relies on it. I hope that many, many people will learn from what you are doing, and implement it in their own landscapes.

[honeybee]

Natural Sequence Farming was devised in the 1970s by Peter Andrews in Australia
For those who want to investigate Peter's work please research his methods..

[letsgetreal-dfpu]

Respect it, its Vital for Life isn't it with growing numbers as I can see you Guys do! Good work.

[Joan-oi]

I love you have ponds and they attract birds etc.

[IrisHerself]

Thanks Norann and Chris, I thoroughly enjoyed watching this (actually watched several bits a few times) I love how connected you are to the land!! Thanks for sharing 🙂😊