Ontario Grain Farmer June/July 2021

10 BILL CRABTREE, BETTER known as No-Till Bill, recalls two distinct moments that, for him, marked the beginning of a lifetime dedicated to improving soil health. His journey started on the family farm in southwestern Australia when he was just a boy and has taken him to Canada, Europe, South America, and now, Africa. Along the way, his mission has always been the same: to improve soil health, and to improve the lives of those who rely on soil for food and income. Crabtree grew up on a 3,000-acre farm in southwestern Australia where his family raised sheep and dairy cows and grew cereals. The family received the land through a special program that granted World War II veterans land. The program was unique in that dissemination was based on land quality. Veterans received 4,000 acres, for instance, if the land was poor, but received 2,200 acres if it was good. In 1960, the Australian government granted Crabtree’s father 3,000 acres of average-quality land. Earlier, he had been given a smaller farm at Pemberton, but it was in a region with high rainfall, and the soil was micronutrient deficient. The administration agreed to clear 1,200 acres, and left the family to clear the remaining 1,800 acres. Lifetime dedication INTERNATIONAL FARMER PROFILE: BILL CRABTREE Melanie Epp IN BURUNDI WITH THE FOUNDATIONS FOR FARMING TEAM. PHOTO COURTESY OF BILL CRABTREE. Industry News Like most Australian farming families in the 1960s, the Crabtrees raised sheep. At that time, wool was an economic powerhouse. “That’s where the saying ‘we rode on the sheep’s back’ comes from,” says Crabtree, colloquially. His strongest memories of that time are tied, quite literally, to the land. On land where soil ranged from small areas of clay to waxy sand that repelled water it was quite difficult to ignore. Most soils were duplex in nature — being sand at the surface with over 40 per cent clay subsoils. In one of his earliest farming memories, Crabtree remembers crawling into muddy dams to free sheep that were stuck in heavy clay. The youngest boy of 10, Bill was the smallest and ideal for the task, according to his siblings. Around the same time, he remembers pulling mallee roots (local slang for the roots of eucalyptus trees) from the paddocks. Mallee roots, he said, can be as big as a football and have 30 centimetre long, fingerlike roots that hold fast to the subsoil, which make them tough to remove from the soil. In the second memory, Crabtree is 15 years old. He is on his way to school when the school bus cautiously and slowly drives through sand that has swept across the sealed road. He remembers the driver being surprised to see a thick layer of drifted, windblown soil — much like the 1930s dustbowl experience. This is the first time he remembers thinking there must be a better way to farm. NEW SYSTEMS Australia’s reliance on sheep reshaped the landscape, and so did the wool sector’s collapse in 1988. Many farmers practiced a ley pasture system, adopting a three-year cycle that included self-regenerating annual legume pastures based on subterranean clover. The system worked well with sheep grazing the