> At 06:10 PM 8/6/1998 -0400, Karl Hakanson wrote:
> >
> >>We grow too much corn and beans! Get the cattle and hay and pasture and
> >manure back to places like, ta-da...Iowa. Was it ever that way once or
> >did we just dream it?
>
> Sure, it was that way once. Before a few billion people got added to the
> planet; fewer and fewer of them (at least in developed countries) stayed on
> the land to grow food for themselves and others;
In my opinion if we are to have a sustainable agrigculture it must be
that way again.
The first 2 generations of my family farmed with horses, and cattle were
a part of the operation. After the crops were harvested, the stock was
turned in to the fields to feed off the residues and add their precious
manure to the remaining stubble.
This is the way farming was practiced in most places before the advent of
tractors. It is my feeling that all organic/sustainable farms must return
to this practice.
This can be done on a small scale by practicing Fukuoka's methods. In
"The One Straw Revolution" he describes returning the grain straw to the
land after threshing. This by itself is not the whole story, he then
turns in 15 or 20 ducks per quarter acre to glean what they can and
innoculate the straw with their manure. This amounts to making compost
right in the field. The straw (carbon) is combined with the dung
(nitrogen) and humus is created. In this method, the products of the farm
are 1. the crop that was produced in the fields, 2. the ducks, 3. the
humus and soil fertility.
This is the same thing that was done on most of the farms in this country
before mechanization took over. I think in order to become sustainable,
all farms, large or small, must integrate livestock into their system.
Tom Armstrong toma@crl.com Sequera Ranch s.1892 San Gregorio, CA
Barnyard Technology--- Ideas for tomorrow -> from yesterday's scrap.
4th -> 5th gen. on family farm. Can Ag Sustain?
A ghost town fights its way back.. http://www.crl.com/~toma/
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