Australian farmer fights soil erosion with geometric artwork

[photos: Brian Fischer/Facebook]

For one Australian farmer, saving his soil from erosion means using some innovative cultivating patterns by shaping his fields into huge geometric works of art.

Brian Fischer, the farmer behind the gigantic patterns at Ashmore White Suffolk in Adelaide, started to create them following recent bushfires that consumed everything on his land, including trees and vegetation, The Guardian reports. As a result, it made his topsoil vulnerable to gusting winds.

Photographs captured by Fisher from his son’s airplane, show the stunning images of his artwork but the best part is that his method has actually worked.

He told 3AW Radio the pattern took several days to plough but it’s saving him 15 cm of topsoil since the ridges are high enough to prevent wind erosion.

“Whichever way the wind blows it’s always at 90 degrees [to the furrows] so it can’t get started,” Fischer explained to 3AW Radio.

The farmer told the local radio station that his erosion-fighting technique came from his dad, who used it on the farm as early as 1944 during one of the worst droughts South Australia experienced.

“It’s really worked,” Fischer told 3AW Radio. “It’s stopped [the erosion] completely. You only get one shot at doing that. If you do it and don’t get it right, if you get it wrong, you can’t go back.”