In article ,
phorbin wrote:
In article ,
says...
I recall the soil being pretty good in the small farm oriented dairyland
where most of my relatives lived when I was a kid. Small herds of dairy
cattle, crop rotation including legumes, some farms growing feed for the
farms with the bigger herds. I wonder how such a model can be mapped to
beef herding. What comes to my mind is - grass fed beef rather than lot
fed beef, mixed with a smaller heard strategy where the feed is closer
to local than it is with modern large beef cattle herds.
If you haven't, have a look at "A Farm for the Future" on youtube.
Boy, you don't see them at all, and then you look, and they are
everywhere. Thanks for "A Farm for the Future".
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=a+farm+for+the+future&aq=0
Seems the first two installments were just setting the scene. The last
three were very good.
Thicker grass to prevent damage to the pasture by the steers, perennial
crops, like nuts, replacing grains, increasing production by reducing
size and increasing diversity, working smart instead of working hard, to
re-ruralization, and a return for many to agriculture.
Excellent little video.
Britain already imports 40% of its food. If they can double their
agricultural out-put, they can be self sufficient. Here in the U.S., our
problems are the health effect of the grains that we grow, and the
tenacity with which grain processors will exert to hang on to them.
--
- Billy
"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the
merger of state and corporate power." - Benito Mussolini.
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/7/2/maude
http://english.aljazeera.net/video/m...515308172.html