Home |
Search |
Today's Posts |
|
#1
|
|||
|
|||
No Till Farming
If you are interested, you might want to look at the article on
no till farming in the July Scientific American (page 70, I think). It is mostly an industrial approach but the article finishes by saying that the problems with industrial no till farming (pests and weeds that arise from monoculture farming and the increasing amounts of agrichemicals needed to suppress them) can be addressed with organic farming approaches of crop rotation, interplanting, and the grazing of animals on the land. The more things change . . . -- Billy Bush and Pelosi Behind Bars http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KVTf...ef=patrick.net http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0aEo...eature=related |
#2
|
|||
|
|||
No Till Farming
In article
, Billy wrote: If you are interested, you might want to look at the article on no till farming in the July Scientific American (page 70, I think). It is mostly an industrial approach but the article finishes by saying that the problems with industrial no till farming (pests and weeds that arise from monoculture farming and the increasing amounts of agrichemicals needed to suppress them) can be addressed with organic farming approaches of crop rotation, interplanting, and the grazing of animals on the land. The more things change . . . The article does indeed start on page 70. I have subscribed to that magazine for many years. That will be one article I will read. But is this really new news? No-Till talk has been around for years has it not? I have not read this months mag yet. It is getting harder and harder to find time to read these days. The more people that get laid off, the more work gets piled on me. Enjoy Life ... Dan -- Email "dan lehr at comcast dot net". Text only or goes to trash automatically. |
#3
|
|||
|
|||
No Till Farming
In article
, "Dan L." wrote: In article , Billy wrote: If you are interested, you might want to look at the article on no till farming in the July Scientific American (page 70, I think). It is mostly an industrial approach but the article finishes by saying that the problems with industrial no till farming (pests and weeds that arise from monoculture farming and the increasing amounts of agrichemicals needed to suppress them) can be addressed with organic farming approaches of crop rotation, interplanting, and the grazing of animals on the land. The more things change . . . The article does indeed start on page 70. I have subscribed to that magazine for many years. That will be one article I will read. But is this really new news? Does refuting the industrial farming model pushed by Monsanto constitute news? For decades now, since WWII, agribusiness has propagandized that modern chemicals and equipment could better feed the world. That lie is slowly coming apart. As you will see, industrial no-till was introduced to combat the erosion and loss of top soil. But industrial no-till relies on expensive chemical inputs of fertilizers and increasing quantities of chemical remedies to combat pests (vegetative and insect problems) inherent in repeated planting of monocultures in the same place (Additionally this affects soil cohesion, as as microflora and fauna are killed.). The answer? Introduction of "organic farming practices such as crop rotation to prevent pests from establishing themselves, and reducing the eco-degrading in-puts of pesticides. Interplanting of pulses or "companion" crops. Using the land to grow animals which in turn fertilize the land with manure (see excerpt from "Omnivore's Dilemma" below). The net result is greater total out-put from the land, fewer costly inputs, and improved human and ecological health. This response is based on the article and "The fatal harvest reader : the tragedy of industrial agriculture" / edited by Andrew Kimbrell. I found no disagreement between the two sources. ------ "Omnivore's Dilemma" p. 126 "Grass," so understood, is the foundation of the intricate food chain Salatin has assembled at Polyface, where a half dozen different animal species are raised together in an intensive rotational dance on the theme of symbiosis. Salatin is the choreographer and the grasses are his verdurous stage; the dance has made Polyface one of the most productive and influential alternative farms in America. Though it was only the third week of June, the pasture beneath me had already seen several rotational turns. Before being cut earlier in the week for the hay that would feed the farm's animals through the winter, it had been grazed twice by beef cattle, which after each day-long stay had been succeeded by several hundred laying hens. They'd arrived by Eggmobile, a ramshackle portable henhouse designed and built by Salatin. Why chickens? "Because that's how it works in nature," Salatin explained. "Birds follow and clean up after herbivores." And so during their turn in the pasture, the hens had performed several ecological services for the cattle as well as the grass: They'd picked the tasty grubs and fly larvae out of the cowpats, in the process spreading the manure and eliminating parasites. (This is what Joel has in mind when he says the animals do the work around here; the hens are his "sanitation crew," the reason his cattle have no need of chemical parasiticides.) And while they were at it, nibbling on the short cattle-clipped grasses they like best, the chickens applied a few thousand pounds of nitrogen to the pasture-and produced several thousand uncommonly rich and tasty eggs. After a few week's rest, the pasture will be grazed again, each steer turning these lush grasses into beef at the rate of two or three pounds a day. By the end of the season Salatin's grasses will have been transformed by his animals into some 40,000 pounds of beef, 30,000 pounds of pork, 10,000 broilers, 1,200 turkeys, 1,000 rabbits, and 35,000 dozen eggs. This is an astounding cornucopia of food to draw from a hundred acres of pasture, yet what is perhaps still more astonishing is the fact that this pasture will be in no way diminished by the process-in fact, it will be the better for it, lusher, more fertile, even springier underfoot (this thanks to the increased earthworm traffic). Salatin's audacious bet is that feeding ourselves from nature need not be a zero-sum proposition, one in which if there is more for us at the end of the season then there must be less for nature-less topsoil, less fertility, less life. He's betting, in other words, on a very different proposition, one that looks an awful lot like the proverbially unattainable free lunch. And none of it happens without the grass. In fact, the first time I met Salatin he'd insisted that even before I-met any of his animals, I get down on my belly in this very pasture to make the acquaintance of the less charismatic species his farm was nurturing that, in turn, were nurturing his farm. Taking the ant's-eye view, he ticked off the census of a single square foot of pastu orchard grass, foxtail, a couple of different fescues, bluegrass, and timothy. Then he cataloged the legumes-red clover and white, plus lupines-and finally the forbs, broad-leaved species like plantain, dandelion, and Queen Anne's Lace. And those were just the plants, the species occupying the surface along with a handful of itinerant insects; below decks and out of sight tunneled earthworms (knowable by their castled mounds of rich castings), pocket gophers, woodchucks, and burrowing insects, all making their dim way through an unseen wilderness of bacteria, phages, eelish nematodes, shrimpy rotifers, and miles upon miles of mycelium, the underground filaments of fungi. We think of the grasses as the basis of this food chain, yet behind, or beneath, the grassland stands the soil, that inconceivably complex community of the living and the dead. Because a healthy soil digests the dead to nourish the living, Salatin calls it the earth's stomach. But it is upon the grass, mediator of soil and sun, that the human gaze has always tended to settle, and not just our gaze, either. A great many animals, too, are drawn to grass, which partly accounts for our own deep attraction to it: We come here to eat the animals that ate the grass that we (lacking rumens) can't eat ourselves. "All flesh is grass." The Old Testament's earthy equation reflects a pastoral culture's appreciation of the food chain that sustained it, though the hunter-gatherers living on the African savanna thousands of years earlier would have understood the flesh-grass connection just as well. It's only in our own time, after we began raising our food animals on grain in Confined Animal Feeding Operations (following the dubious new equation, All flesh is corn), that our ancient engagement with grass could be overlooked. No-Till talk has been around for years has it not? I have not read this months mag yet. It is getting harder and harder to find time to read these days. The more people that get laid off, the more work gets piled on me. The articles are short so I leave the magazine in the bathroom;o) Enjoy Life ... Dan -- Billy Bush and Pelosi Behind Bars http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KVTf...ef=patrick.net http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0aEo...eature=related |
#4
|
|||
|
|||
No Till Farming
In article
, Billy wrote: In article , "Dan L." wrote: In article , Billy wrote: If you are interested, you might want to look at the article on no till farming in the July Scientific American (page 70, I think). It is mostly an industrial approach but the article finishes by saying that the problems with industrial no till farming (pests and weeds that arise from monoculture farming and the increasing amounts of agrichemicals needed to suppress them) can be addressed with organic farming approaches of crop rotation, interplanting, and the grazing of animals on the land. The more things change . . . The article does indeed start on page 70. I have subscribed to that magazine for many years. That will be one article I will read. But is this really new news? Does refuting the industrial farming model pushed by Monsanto constitute news? For decades now, since WWII, agribusiness has propagandized that modern chemicals and equipment could better feed the world. That lie is slowly coming apart. As you will see, industrial no-till was introduced to combat the erosion and loss of top soil. But industrial no-till relies on expensive chemical inputs of fertilizers and increasing quantities of chemical remedies to combat pests (vegetative and insect problems) inherent in repeated planting of monocultures in the same place (Additionally this affects soil cohesion, as as microflora and fauna are killed.). The answer? Introduction of "organic farming practices such as crop rotation to prevent pests from establishing themselves, and reducing the eco-degrading in-puts of pesticides. Interplanting of pulses or "companion" crops. Using the land to grow animals which in turn fertilize the land with manure (see excerpt from "Omnivore's Dilemma" below). The net result is greater total out-put from the land, fewer costly inputs, and improved human and ecological health. This response is based on the article and "The fatal harvest reader : the tragedy of industrial agriculture" / edited by Andrew Kimbrell. I found no disagreement between the two sources. ------ "Omnivore's Dilemma" p. 126 "Grass," so understood, is the foundation of the intricate food chain Salatin has assembled at Polyface, where a half dozen different animal species are raised together in an intensive rotational dance on the theme of symbiosis. Salatin is the choreographer and the grasses are his verdurous stage; the dance has made Polyface one of the most productive and influential alternative farms in America. Though it was only the third week of June, the pasture beneath me had already seen several rotational turns. Before being cut earlier in the week for the hay that would feed the farm's animals through the winter, it had been grazed twice by beef cattle, which after each day-long stay had been succeeded by several hundred laying hens. They'd arrived by Eggmobile, a ramshackle portable henhouse designed and built by Salatin. Why chickens? "Because that's how it works in nature," Salatin explained. "Birds follow and clean up after herbivores." And so during their turn in the pasture, the hens had performed several ecological services for the cattle as well as the grass: They'd picked the tasty grubs and fly larvae out of the cowpats, in the process spreading the manure and eliminating parasites. (This is what Joel has in mind when he says the animals do the work around here; the hens are his "sanitation crew," the reason his cattle have no need of chemical parasiticides.) And while they were at it, nibbling on the short cattle-clipped grasses they like best, the chickens applied a few thousand pounds of nitrogen to the pasture-and produced several thousand uncommonly rich and tasty eggs. After a few week's rest, the pasture will be grazed again, each steer turning these lush grasses into beef at the rate of two or three pounds a day. By the end of the season Salatin's grasses will have been transformed by his animals into some 40,000 pounds of beef, 30,000 pounds of pork, 10,000 broilers, 1,200 turkeys, 1,000 rabbits, and 35,000 dozen eggs. This is an astounding cornucopia of food to draw from a hundred acres of pasture, yet what is perhaps still more astonishing is the fact that this pasture will be in no way diminished by the process-in fact, it will be the better for it, lusher, more fertile, even springier underfoot (this thanks to the increased earthworm traffic). Salatin's audacious bet is that feeding ourselves from nature need not be a zero-sum proposition, one in which if there is more for us at the end of the season then there must be less for nature-less topsoil, less fertility, less life. He's betting, in other words, on a very different proposition, one that looks an awful lot like the proverbially unattainable free lunch. And none of it happens without the grass. In fact, the first time I met Salatin he'd insisted that even before I-met any of his animals, I get down on my belly in this very pasture to make the acquaintance of the less charismatic species his farm was nurturing that, in turn, were nurturing his farm. Taking the ant's-eye view, he ticked off the census of a single square foot of pastu orchard grass, foxtail, a couple of different fescues, bluegrass, and timothy. Then he cataloged the legumes-red clover and white, plus lupines-and finally the forbs, broad-leaved species like plantain, dandelion, and Queen Anne's Lace. And those were just the plants, the species occupying the surface along with a handful of itinerant insects; below decks and out of sight tunneled earthworms (knowable by their castled mounds of rich castings), pocket gophers, woodchucks, and burrowing insects, all making their dim way through an unseen wilderness of bacteria, phages, eelish nematodes, shrimpy rotifers, and miles upon miles of mycelium, the underground filaments of fungi. We think of the grasses as the basis of this food chain, yet behind, or beneath, the grassland stands the soil, that inconceivably complex community of the living and the dead. Because a healthy soil digests the dead to nourish the living, Salatin calls it the earth's stomach. But it is upon the grass, mediator of soil and sun, that the human gaze has always tended to settle, and not just our gaze, either. A great many animals, too, are drawn to grass, which partly accounts for our own deep attraction to it: We come here to eat the animals that ate the grass that we (lacking rumens) can't eat ourselves. "All flesh is grass." The Old Testament's earthy equation reflects a pastoral culture's appreciation of the food chain that sustained it, though the hunter-gatherers living on the African savanna thousands of years earlier would have understood the flesh-grass connection just as well. It's only in our own time, after we began raising our food animals on grain in Confined Animal Feeding Operations (following the dubious new equation, All flesh is corn), that our ancient engagement with grass could be overlooked. All True, I stand corrected ... again The greater and more words against agribusiness and their chemicals the better. "Scientific American", "Omnivore's Dilemma" and others like Billy continues the good work towards the truth Enjoy Life and Independence Day ... Dan -- Email "dan lehr at comcast dot net". Text only or goes to trash automatically. |
#5
|
|||
|
|||
No Till Farming
In article
, "Dan L." wrote: Enjoy Life and Independence Day ... Dan Viva la revolucion -- Billy Bush and Pelosi Behind Bars http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KVTf...ef=patrick.net http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0aEo...eature=related |
#6
|
|||
|
|||
No Till Farming
"Billy" wrote in message news:wildbilly-
As you will see, industrial no-till was introduced to combat the erosion and loss of top soil. But industrial no-till relies on expensive chemical inputs of fertilizers and increasing quantities of chemical remedies to combat pests (vegetative and insect problems) I think your post is a bit too broad in it's scope. You might be interested to read up on P.A. Yeomans and his farming methods ie keyline. He was a broadacre farmer who really understood how to conserve and in fact improve his land with some mechanical tillage (of sorts) |
#7
|
|||
|
|||
No Till Farming
In article
, "FarmI" ask@itshall be given wrote: "Billy" wrote in message news:wildbilly- As you will see, industrial no-till was introduced to combat the erosion and loss of top soil. But industrial no-till relies on expensive chemical inputs of fertilizers and increasing quantities of chemical remedies to combat pests (vegetative and insect problems) I think your post is a bit too broad in it's scope. You might be interested to read up on P.A. Yeomans and his farming methods ie keyline. He was a broadacre farmer who really understood how to conserve and in fact improve his land with some mechanical tillage (of sorts) Thanks for bringing P. A. Yeomans to my attention. I'll be sure to read more http://www.soilandhealth.org/01aglib...010125toc.html How ya going? I trust you're in your usual good mood;o) In what way did you find my comments too broad? From the quote fro my post, I can only presume that you felt that my commenting on in-puts was going beyond the discussion of no-till gardening/farming. In truth the article, itself, broached this subject, so if there are any thrashing to be meted out, I would direct you to the authors of the article. My humble self, am only the messenger. You won't go all narkie on me, will you, if I ask what you see as the application of P. A. Yeomans principals to gardening? I really haven't read much yet. It seems as if he wanted to address the needs of soil organisms, which fits onto organic gardening, and that his principle efforts were in acquiring sufficient moisture for the soil. As I said, I haven't read much yet and I may have horribly misconscrewed everything. I would appreciate your take. If you care to give it. -- Billy Bush and Pelosi Behind Bars http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KVTf...ef=patrick.net http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0aEo...eature=related |
#8
|
|||
|
|||
No Till Farming
"Billy" wrote in message
"FarmI" ask@itshall be given wrote: "Billy" wrote in message news:wildbilly- As you will see, industrial no-till was introduced to combat the erosion and loss of top soil. But industrial no-till relies on expensive chemical inputs of fertilizers and increasing quantities of chemical remedies to combat pests (vegetative and insect problems) I think your post is a bit too broad in it's scope. You might be interested to read up on P.A. Yeomans and his farming methods ie keyline. He was a broadacre farmer who really understood how to conserve and in fact improve his land with some mechanical tillage (of sorts) Thanks for bringing P. A. Yeomans to my attention. I'll be sure to read more http://www.soilandhealth.org/01aglib...010125toc.html How ya going? I trust you're in your usual good mood;o) In what way did you find my comments too broad? From the quote fro my post, I can only presume that you felt that my commenting on in-puts was going beyond the discussion of no-till gardening/farming. In truth the article, itself, broached this subject, so if there are any thrashing to be meted out, I would direct you to the authors of the article. My humble self, am only the messenger. Since I don't have access to the Scientific American, I can't comment on how effective your extrapolation from the article is. However, it occurs to me that there are more than one way of doing something called "no till" when it applies to an industrial (aka farming) situation. Fukuoka would be one that you would know (although to both of us, his small patch of land would be a tad on the small size to be considered a farm, but then it is one for Japan). He certainly wasn't into increasing fert. or pesticide use. I didn't know if you knew of Yeomans so thought you might be interested. He is 'different' in his approach to farming and although his keyline may not exactly be no till, it is certainly minimal (if that) till. I thought he would be an example where using a tractor to improve soil fertility and to minimise use of chemicals may interest you. You won't go all narkie on me, will you, if I ask what you see as the application of P. A. Yeomans principals to gardening? Without having read it, would it be about the same as the Scientific American article? I figure all research/comment about soil/soil life/biota/plant life etc etc, should have some applicability to gardening but how much would depend upon the reader and their degree of interest. You and I might get excited about earthworms and fallen leaves and others might just see them as being a source of holes in their immaculate lawn or rubbish spoiling the immacualte greenness of their lawn. I really haven't read much yet. It seems as if he wanted to address the needs of soil organisms, which fits onto organic gardening, and that his principle efforts were in acquiring sufficient moisture for the soil. Yep. That is central to his work and given the situation in Oz (dry and ancient soils with low humus levels and lacking in phosphates) some of his work has had dramatic results. As I said, I haven't read much yet and I may have horribly misconscrewed everything. I would appreciate your take. If you care to give it. -- Billy Bush and Pelosi Behind Bars http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KVTf...ef=patrick.net http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0aEo...eature=related |
#9
|
|||
|
|||
No Till Farming
Charlie wrote in message
On Fri, 4 Jul 2008 17:35:24 +1000, "FarmI" ask@itshall be given wrote: "Billy" wrote in message news:wildbilly- As you will see, industrial no-till was introduced to combat the erosion and loss of top soil. But industrial no-till relies on expensive chemical inputs of fertilizers and increasing quantities of chemical remedies to combat pests (vegetative and insect problems) I think your post is a bit too broad in it's scope. You might be interested to read up on P.A. Yeomans and his farming methods ie keyline. He was a broadacre farmer who really understood how to conserve and in fact improve his land with some mechanical tillage (of sorts) Hmmmm......thanks for the reference, Fran. Just when one thinks he will retire for a bit, some bloody ******* comes along and loads his plate with another serving......I'll never catch up with all my reading and studies!!!! :-)) Us bloody *******s love to give other bloody *******s homework. I trust your travels were rewarding? Fabulous! Cambodia was rather distressing though. I came back energised and grateful for being born in a rich western country. I've been hauling major quantities of horse poop for the garden and making major inroads against winter weeds of which there are many. I should have paid more attention to certain parts of the garden over summer and done some major mulching and maintenance - I'm paying for my sloth now (but enjoying it). (One tip - never, ever fly Vietnam Airlines - walk, swim or use a donkey in preference - I wouldn't recommend that airline to people I hate). |
Reply |
Thread Tools | Search this Thread |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Forum | |||
to till or not to till? | Gardening | |||
Organic Farming Beats No-Till? | Edible Gardening | |||
Polycultures, Natural Farming and Continuous No-Till Cropping Systems in Living Mulch | Permaculture | |||
Till/no till | Edible Gardening |