alternatives in land use

I had a feeling jim wouldn't like that as soon as he saw the new ager on the face of it
 
Damn interview references people exactly like jim, and he still doesn't like it
 
Why did you think I did not like it?


Oh its all good, no emoji, I thought you were fixing to be combative. Sorta like an earlier notion that seemed to be pro jimbo but you no likey, being all about buy local instead.

Yeah man, lets hope this dirt dirt keeps catching on.

I posted the following link elsewhere but here you go here cuz this guy seems to be tuned in to some good stuff: https://twitter.com/michaelpollan
 
No, I liked it a lot. Especially the recognition of what Gabe Brown and his son have done. Increased productivity, done with higher profits on less land is what is going save these areas that are SubRural.


We have been working on some ideas along the lines of what Rodale is doing. That square block does not fit into the round hole.....yet.
 
I know very little about twitter also, but I just treat that twitter link like a regular website and click on it periodically, usually find something interesting.

Michael pollan has written a lot about food production etc, I believe his general stance is eating low on the food chain is best but if you're going to eat meat, buy local and humanely raised.
 
Interesting article.

It actually might shed some light on why producers distrust companies that market their products.

I shouldn't be telling you this.....but you would not believe how phony the USDA "organic" cert is.

We tried to go the Gabe Brown route, but have not found the buyers yet.



I do hate buzzwords.....but I hate them more if they dont mean anything. How the hell could anyone come to an agreement on what "sustainable" means?

I wish it meant something. I kinda wish that people who are farming "against" nature would quit using the term. I guess they are better marketers than I am!



As far as my BUY LOCAL sermon goes........Gabe Brown does not claim to be "organic" or anything like that.

People come to his farm and buy all he can produce. They can see with their own eyes what "sustainable" means. They can smell the dirt. See the worms. Thats how he advertises.
 
http://www.weeklytimesnow.com.au/ma...l/news-story/9fe615746baab4fdc23281b5126669a9

Jim, check this out you could move your cows from your living room.

Hehehe....I dont like that one.


I wonder if "prompts" means a little tickle of electricity!



My biggest gripe with all this new technology is that it removes people. Man, you got to be out in it! Right smack in the middle.


You could travel the world on your TV.....but it sure as hell would not be the same as having your boots on the ground.
 
I hear you. although it seems if you could eliminate the fences somehow, that could make a big difference. Not only in the labor aspect but it would also allow for better movement of wildlife.

I agree with you completely about the organic label. it cracks me up to see organic baby greens from mexico. WTF!
 
Interestingly enough, ranchers have for years been building wildlife friendly fences.

The more wildlife friendly you can make a fence, the less often you have to fix it!


Not to mention redesigning cross fences and pasture layouts so the stoooopid Sage Grouse dont hit them.


We were at a grazing workshop a couple years ago and the fellow who owned the ranch told us to quit building permanent cross fences. Boundary fences yes, cross fences no.

Made good sense...a cross fence is never where you need it, and you can put up electric fence as fast as you can walk once you get set up to do it.




I am going to look into that technology in your second article.....mainly just to try and figure it out.


Must be like that "fenceless" dog enclosure folks in town have.
 
I don't know....maybe I am part communist or something....but when It comes to labor out here in the sticks, I would rather see more people than less.

More profit, more production, more opportunity for work and livelihood.

We are on the path to double our production while cutting our costs big time.

I would rather plug people into that equation than some computer.
 
I always think that the best way to create jobs would be to have oil cost what it really costs. what is the price where it would be more efficient for me to hire three guys than use my mini skid? India employs a billion people, they don't have a lot of hydraulics or even wheel barrows. you see lines of women carrying dirt in trays on their heads while teams of men fill them with rudimentary shovels. this blew me away while I was there. this was in 2000 so things may have changed but it definitly made me think about how you would go about keeping a country of a billion people busy. introduce a mini skid steer into that scenario and you would likely have a lot of hungry angry people. even a simple wheel barrow would have eliminated three or four jobs.

as for that Aussie technology they didnt really go into detail. My imagination leads me to believe that it works like the invisible fence for dogs that gives a "tingle" but instead of an underground wire its hooked up to GPS. you could basically draw on your computer where the virtual fence would be and change it at will. you could program your grazing rotation and the virtual fences would push the cows into the fresh grass. I can't imagine that calves still wouldn't end up on the wrong side of the "fence" you would still have to be out there monitoring all that. you would still need to be looking at your grass and feeling out how its working. "less time more time" but as time went on you could get it dialed in. it seemed to imply that you could include in the programming rainfall and weather to adjust the rotation accordingly. I can't imagine that outfitting each cow with a GPS connecting shock collar would be cheap. but it seems like a valid concept at least in theory.
 
These are helmetless sheep, but still a good picture, I think. sheep.jpg
 
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