Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture

LC Logo Drought-Proofing Your Farm Utilizing Keyline Design

Date: Friday, November 30th, 2012 to Sunday, December 2nd, 2012

Location: Department of Sustainable Living, Maharishi University of Management, Fairfield, Iowa

Contact: Molly Reiff, m_martlin@yahoo.com, (319) 594-0086; or Leanne Hays, sustainableliving@mum.edu, (641) 472-1174

The Department of Sustainable Living at Maharishi University of Management will host Australian expert, Darren Doherty, for a public lecture and weekend workshop on Keyline Design. Keyline Design is a technique to maximize water resources on a piece of land. Keyline Farming involves an integrated approach to broadscale landscape design and a practice that emphasizes soil-building and innovative water harvesting, with the resultant soils becoming the largest reservoir of water in a landscape. The workshop will also cover survey and layout methods including GPS (Global Positioning Systems).

Doherty has had extensive experience around the world in project design, development and management, with a focus on retrofitting broad-acre agricultural systems. He has presented his Keyline Farming course in more than 40 countries to about 5,000 people, and is a certified Whole Farm Planner, approved Keyline designer and Accredited Permaculture Training (APT) trainer. He is based in central Victoria, located in southeastern Australia.

The workshop is an blend of technical and practical sessions for farmers, professional land managers, consultants, designers, earth movers and anyone with a strong interest in sustainable land management and soil creation.

He will present a free public lecture on Friday evening, November 30, 7:30 p.m. in the Argiro Center.

The workshop will be 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday on the MUM campus. There is a fee for the workshop (MUM students are admitted without charge).

This is event is supported by a grant from the Leopold Center's Competitive Educational Support Program (CESP). Other sponsors include Practical Farmers of Iowa, the National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT), Backyard Abundance and solar-powered KRUU 100.1 FM.

Related information

Watch Doherty's Friday evening presentation [approximately 1 hr 30 min]

Report about event's success [MUM website]

Photos from the Iowa event [Backyard Abundance Facebook page]

More about Keyline Design with Darren Doherty [speaker's website]