alternatives in land use

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I don't think it's all government policies that have caused the huge reduction in farmers over the years. It's kind of a natural thing as farmers trade labor for technology this naturally occurs. One tractor and the other equipment do now what four or five did only fifty years ago. But they take huge money and you need a lot of acres to spread those costs over. Out goes the small operator. The guy now farming what I used to farm rents that farm and four others. I didn't have a farm to inherit, (strike one) was under-capitalized, (strike two) and had a partner unwilling to expand.(strike three) So we stayed the same size until all our money was gone. Which after a short diversion down another path led me to the tree business. Which if nothing else got me in way better physical shape than I was previously. I once did a report for history class on the increases in productivity that farm equipment brought to people starting in colonial times to reconstruction. There was huge increases during that period, and today is just a continuation of that trend. I commend you in keeping your soil healthy. Hope you stay profitable and able to weather the inevitable disasters that are bound to happen.
 
I agree of course tractors reduce labor needs but they don't have much to do with soil health which is the key issue here, imo. It's the chemical and fert companies that appear to be the issue.
 
Thinking about it some.....the drive for production above everything else has done a lot to increase the size of farms. Production first, profits way last.


Anyway, thinking of ways to keep costs down and make the land I have more productive. I dont want to own everything.

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I understand it but wouldn't you lose the straw bales then? Or do you not mess with straw? Or maybe only some of your fields would go to winter grazing? And finally would this be of any value to soy bean fields?
 
Sorry I missed this Rich.

We wont have enough straw to bale this year Rich, wont make a windrow. We could however catch this straw and chaff and feed it on the ground.

We always put up straw when we can, or used to anyway. Now that we have pushed back our calving date to the 1st of May we will have less need for straw as bedding for the cows and calves.

You can feed a cow what she needs with good hay, and then fill her up on straw. Works well.

Only thinking about doing this on the wheat acres. The lentils are not producing enough straw to mess with and the safflower will probably be zeroed out and grazed standing.

Pretty much every acre will be grazed this winter, but if we can utilize some feed that we would normally waste it would help a lot.

Part of the appeal is keeping the straw and residue on the field where it came from. Its not a 1 to 1 deal, but it you can export as little nutrients off a field as possible you dont have to add as much the next year.

The cattle help with nutrient cycling too. We are trying to take the cattle to the feed rather than taking the feed to the cattle.


I dont know about soybean fields, but I know soybeans are good feed. I bet you could save the residue and do some good.


These chaff and straw savers are not very common down here anymore. They used to be. My grandpa used to save all the straw and chaff. He was set up to blow it into a Foster wagon that would make big dollops in the field or you could haul it away.
 
Straw is what is left after you run a crop through a combine. Wheat or some other crop goes in the front and the kernels get separated from the stems.

The stems and other trash gets spit out the back and that is what you bale up into straw bales.

Hay is an animal feed crop that is cut but does not go through a combine to be separated. it is cut and placed in a row. It lays on the ground and dries and then you bale it.
 
Not always.

It does have less feed value than the crop did before it was separated by the combine, but its not zero. The stems and the chaff have nutrition in them.

I should not have called it just a filler before, yes it fills them up but also has some protein, energy and fiber.

Straw is very valuable as bedding as well. Keeping the cows and calves off the cold ground. They burn less calories that way. Its like a bed you can eat in a pinch.

We have several straw stacks on the farm. If the straw is new then we use it for bedding. If we are going to feed the straw we like to let it sit in the stack for at least a year.

It breaks down some and tastes better to them. Not sure if the feed value increases with age, probably not, but palatability goes way up.
 
Good question re straw vs hay, thanks for the info!
 
I still believe that any positive changes will have to come from the ground up....not the top down.


Consumers will not be any better off with more "legislation". Farm income needs to rise...and people need to not be resentful of that.
 
you dont beleive the current policy of growing millions of acres for animal feed and fuel is a ground up strategy do you? that seems about as top down policy as it comes.
 
I'm trying to understand your point. did you have one? you seem to have opposition to this guys ideas. they seem reasonable suggestions that will never get anywhere as they don't really fit into the current top down system. How do you change current legislation without legislation? These proposals seem like they are taylor made for your situation Jim. What is your opposition other than the idea comes from a legislator in congress? how did these proposals get to him? do you not believe that there are a lot of people on the ground trying to figure out how to fix a system skewed to benefit wall street and super farms. how is a ground up change supposed to happen? the free market?
 
so my understanding is you fully support the current US ag policy and have no desire to amend it or care?
 
Kevin, sounds like your understanding isn't understanding at all. Your distorted viewpoint is affecting how you view other's words.
 
yeah lets just use our tax dollars to turn our top soil into ethanol and put that shit into our chainsaws. make a couple of bankers even richer. great trajectory we are on. buy local my ass.
 
Again, your distorted viewpoint is affecting how you interpret other's words. The more you post, the less sense you make.
 
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