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Self-Sufficiency Acreage Requirement? (getting fuel)
Strider wrote: On Sat, 27 Dec 2003 22:30:07 -0800, Jim Dauven wrote: Strider wrote: Sorry. It didn't connect. Can the waste plant matter in your process be reused as animal feed or fertilizer or does the process contaminate it somehow? Strider All waste material is valuable, you just have to find a use for it. The planting of alfalfa in wheat serves two purposes. One is fertilization the other is animal feed harvested in late fall. The alfalfa and wheat stubble provide cover and feed for pheasant and quail which can be harvested in the fall with a shot gun. Wheat stalks and chaff from the thrashing process is almost pure cellulose and is perfect for making nitrocellulose which can be a plastic or smokeless gun powder. The planting of flax for flax seed and flaxseed oil (linseed oil) is an ideal crop because the flax seed is a food source, linseed oil can be used in preservatives, and the flax stalk is the source of linen fiber for making long wearing clothes. The vines from vegetables such as beans, peas and corn stalks can be used for animal feed. Plants such as potatoes and tomatoes are members of the nightshade family and can build up dangerous alkaloids that are toxic. These plants should be used for composting with animal dung. With the no-till strategy of farming it is advisable to run a disk harrow over the harvested land as soon as the food crop is removed. ( I disagree with this where alfalfa and grain are planted together) but for potatoes and tomatoes this chops the plants up and turns them under into the soil to decompose. The been and pea plants can be left laying in the field as cattle and goats will readily eat them. Of course goats and cattle also leave piles of fertilizer in the same fields. What I am trying to do is take the old technologies of horse drawn farming (which may be the only way to farm if there is a collapse of the energy production and distributions systems) coupled with the advances made in farm technology and organic farming of today. Remember if the energy production and distribution system fails, there will be no herbicides, pesticides, fertilizers, and fuel for equipment. That means that we will have to use natural fertilizers such as animal dung and nitrogen fixing plants to a maximum extent. The pesticides will have to be replaced by natural pesticides such as the toxic Rapeseed oil, (You can buy that stuff at most nurseries today as a house hold pesticide, and I am told it makes a good insect repellent also). Planting Rapeseed around the edges of a food crop will also discourage pests from entering the food crop. (Rapeseed border will have to be 50 to 100 feet wide however). While a lot of what I have been thinking and researching is not really that economically feasible with today's reliance on chemical, mechanized farming, if the crunch comes it will provide a source of abundant food, fiber, leather, and some fuel to start a rebuilding process. Hell even in the advent of a major war in the middle east when our oil supplies are shut down, the production of biodiesel by individuals to run their own equipment will be of a economic benefit. The excess fuel can then be sold to energy companies. (I like the idea of Texaco buying diesel from me) The Independent Have you calculated how much fuel it will take per acre to produce Rapeseed? Strider -- Robert Sturgeon, proud member of the vast right wing conspiracy and the evil gun culture. |
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