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Natural Handmade Soaps

Hi, I'm Liz, welcome to Eight Acres. I live on a small farm in Kumbia, Australia, with my husband, Pete, and our dogs Taz and Gus. This website started off as a blog for sharing all the things we make and grow on our small farm. We keep a small herd of beef cattle and a few dairy cows. We also have lots of chickens, bees and a vege garden.

Now as well as sharing what I'm learning, I can share what we make through our virtual farmgate (online shop), where I sell natural handmade tallow soap and raw chemical-free honey and beeswax.

If you want to find out more about what we do on the farm and where these products come from, you can read more in my blog, follow any of my social links or send me an email, I'd love to hear from you. Please join my mailing list, then you'll never miss an update from Eight Acres.

Eight Acres - the blog — pasture

Forage crops, pasture, hay - isn't it just grass?

Jan 20 2020 3 Comments Tags: cattle, forage, grass, hay, pasture

Every year, no matter if it rains or not, we need decisions to manage our stock feed through the winter. We need to ensure that we have the right balance of stock for the feed available, whether that is hay or pasture, so that we can maintain healthy animals and healthy pasture.

Perennial pasture update

Dec 20 2017 0 Comments Tags: farm, pasture

After we tried growing forage crops on our cultivation areas we decided it would be worth trying to establish a perennial pasture instead. We planted about 10 acres out of 20 acres as a test two years ago using Rhodes grass, Creeping Blue grass, Digiteria and Wynn Cassia. It took a few months for that pasture to start growing and in the meantime we were worried that we had wasted a lot of time and money, but gradually the grass came up and got thicker and now we have a pretty good coverage. The Rhodes and the Blue grass are creeping, so they start to fill in the gaps.

Planting a perennial pasture

Feb 09 2015 0 Comments Tags: pasture, permaculture

Establishing a perennial pasture instead of ploughing and planting has been a goal for our property for some time.

Growing forage or perennial pasture

Jul 15 2013 0 Comments Tags: cattle, forage, pasture

The pros and cons of forage versus planting a perennial pasture for hay and cattle feed.

Splitting up paddocks for intensive grazing

May 20 2013 0 Comments Tags: cattle, grazing, pasture

Managed Intensive Rotational Grazing (MIRG), also known as cell grazing, mob stocking, holistic managed planned grazing and possibly other terms as well. There’s lots of different names for it and each method is slightly different, but whatever you call it, the idea is to split up your land into the smallest size paddocks you can manage and move your animals as frequently as possible. The opposite...

Managing pasture - is burning necessary?

Nov 05 2012 0 Comments Tags: cattle, fire, paralysis tick, pasture

This time of year (spring) we don’t get much rain. The tropical grass species in our pasture have dried out over winter due to the low temperatures and low rainfall. They are in a fully mature state, with relatively low protein and mineral content. The stock feeding on this pasture tend to lose or maintain weight, but rarely gain significant weight.

Eight Acres - the blog — pasture

Forage crops, pasture, hay - isn't it just grass?

Perennial pasture update

Planting a perennial pasture

Growing forage or perennial pasture

Splitting up paddocks for intensive grazing

Managing pasture - is burning necessary?

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