Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

permaculture - [permaculture] (FWD) Eric Kindberg on Keyline System, cropping with nature & other innovative methods.

permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: permaculture

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: "Lawrence F. London, Jr." <lflj@bellsouth.net>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [permaculture] (FWD) Eric Kindberg on Keyline System, cropping with nature & other innovative methods.
  • Date: Thu, 29 Dec 2011 15:19:43 -0500


<>
Some of my own work:
I have used on my 6+ acre farmland Yeoman's plows, a giant hiller bedder
cultivator (https://picasaweb.google.com/103223907782626104592/TractorEquipment), rotavator, hundreds of tons of several types of rock dusts, hundreds of tons of manures and compost, greensand, azomite, rock and colloidal phoshate and assorted other natural soil amendments. I did a once for all time massive soil building program then sold all the equipment and now work my beds by hand, basically no or minimum till (https://picasaweb.google.com/103223907782626104592/GardenTools). I am now in the camp of no till with minimum till when absolutely necessary, let weeds or crops take care of weed problems. It works. You would be surprised at how naturally-occuring stands of goldenrod, ragweed or daisy and lambs quarter will create bare ground underneath them.
<>
Eric's implements can be seen here; the green & yellow ones were mine:
https://picasaweb.google.com/103223907782626104592/TractorEquipment
<>
My comments on Eric:
I had some great correspondence with Eric in the recent past about
farming, tillage, weed control and both our efforts to design,
fabricate and use bed forming tractor implements.
We both came up with different solutions, his for smoth accurate
dimensionally beds for automatic seeding, mine for tillage,
subsoiling and bed forming for maximum width and height and
appropriate drainage with no attention given to mechanical seeding,
just tilth the dirt and make a raised bed that can be maintained by
hand. I have the bulk of our email correspondence on my computer but
put excerpts from that online with the photos of his implements.
<>
Eric also endorsed the use of a "finger weeder", an implement
made by Lely or some other manufacturer (might start with a "G")
with a fan arrangement of arms with rubber "fingers" that you could adjust for ground pressure, used for uprooting small weed seedlings in early season. I have correspondence with him where he describes this process in detail - will try to find and post all his notes on this subject. His method was for timely weed seedling eradication with this finger weeder, barely breaking the surface of the ground being careful not to disturb the weed seed bank any more than possible; in other words, frequent or whenever possible, shallow tillage or scarification to remove weeds as they emerge from the ground. He may well havve used a second implement for his weed control program.

He was a real mover and shaker and deserves much appreciation from
the natural, sustainable and organic farming communities worldwide.

LL
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [permaculture] Fw: Re: [SANET-MG] Eric Kindberg Dies in China
Date: Fri, 19 Dec 2008 17:49:55 -0500 (EST)
From: Steve Diver <steved@ipa.net>
Reply-To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
To: permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org

Forward to Permaculture List -

Note: The late Eric Kindberg (farming in from
Arkansas, Iowa, China) and Guy Baldwin (farming in
California) were the two main U.S. farmers considered
"early adopters" of the Keyline system in the 1980s
and 90s.

Now I recall that the Yeoman's Plough / Keyline
Chisel Plow was known as the "Yeoman's Slipper Imp"
back then.

Steve Diver

-----Forwarded Message-----
From: Steve Diver <steved@IPA.NET>
Sent: Dec 15, 2008 4:40 PM
To: SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU
Subject: Re: [SANET-MG] Eric Kindberg Dies in China

Wow, this is really shocking news. Eric Kindberg was
a top notch organic farmer with advanced skills. Many
Sanetters also know he was an "organizer" with a bulldog
approach towards creating policy/standards on behalf
of organic farmers.

I first met Eric and Beth in 1988 when I drove
down from an organic farm in the Missouri Ozarks
to their the remote location in the Arkansas Ozarks
to pick up some untreated sorghum-sudan grass for
a large field of cover cropping. But then I ended
up staying for hours to listen and walk around the
farm and equipment yard.

Eric and Beth had school-age children back then.
They hosted several field days at their farm near
Bass, AR.

Eric was instrumental in the vision and organization
behind the tri-part organic movement in the Ozarks,
circa 1980s and 90s:

OOGA - Ozark Organic Growers Association
OSFVP - Ozark Small Farm Viability Project
FORGE - Financing Ozarks Rural Economy & Growth

In case you didn't know, Eric was an equipment wizard.
He was a distributor for the Keyline Chisel Plow,
also known as the Yeoman's Plow. This is the
unique subsoiler with paraplow points known as
the "Wombat" and the "Batswing" (olden day terms).
Eric used it on pastures to "slice" through sod and
in vegetable fields to work up beds. I think
he wrote a paper on how it works to create humus
at deeper layers in the soil by slicing,
root re-proliferation, and bacterial slimes.

He created a multi-purpose toolbar system that
could handle the Keyline Plow for working the
soil, then adapted to a precision seeder with
guidance wheels, and then adapted to precision
cultivators on guidance wheels, and then adapted
to a harvest platform.

At one point or another Eric planted every kind
of cover crop to see what grows well in the region.
Uniquely, he planted a buckwheat cover crop as an
intercrop on his vegetable beds.

He kept an old combine on hand to grow out
cover crop seed for harvesting, since the
expense of cover crop seed adds up. But he
also bought seed from all the wholesale seed
companies in the South -- like Kaufman Seed
in Ashdown, AR -- which is still around.

Eric and Beth grew large volumes of diverse
organic vegetables for OOGA, including water
cress which they raised in a coolwater stream
on limestone bedrock.

Just this fall Eric was corresponding by email
again so were shared some off-list resources.

Eric lamented the lack of farmer participation
on Sanet compared to the early days. He wanted
farmers to provide experienced-based input
to university and research programs (really he
wanted these programs to invite farmers into
their midst by way of realizing the value of
collaborating with grassroots organic farmers...
as well as pay the farmers for their time and
expertise; classic Eric commentary).

For your information, I will re-post his last
correspondence of Sept 21 2008 since it contains
his current thoughts and activities.

With respect,

Steve Diver
Texas

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Eric Kindberg:

--My thoughts were legume based rotations, how they are
designed and what was in them, 2-3 legumes always causes
larger growth of every species in the mix, especially
the individual appropriated legumes, was a breakthrough.

--Yeomans systems and practices far excell above anything
ever done in terms of an overall system--coincidently, its
great success in the field came with the introduction of
the Ley legume overseeded of hard seeded annual legumes
in 1948. Allan and P. A. said the same.

--The strip forest/forb, small plant area is still the best
of the best to maintain biological diversity on commercial
farms--never accepted outside of Australia.

--The Yeomans' subsoiler is so superior to any field preparation
tool, also applicable to renovating pastures, bed forming and
much else, nothing comes close--and that is straight from the
couple hundred of organic farmers--I quite selling to anyone
but organic farmers after a couple of years and only advertised
to organic farmers.

--Farms without livestock are fighting an up hill battle for
fertility and biotic enhancement, even down to the need for
saliva, let alone the feces/urine of the livestock on the field.
No natural plant life has ever developed, grown without being
oversighted by livestock at some timing. Livestock effectively
grazed, 25,000 lb per acres, computed no matter what size of
herd which then determines the size of the paddock to complete
in one to three days, or before any regrowth is identifiable
is A1. Poultry for insect control, especially in fruits, small
or tree, and nuts, are simple and work.

--On weed control, we are so effective using biotics, timing,
mechanical, and competitive soil building sequence, it is a
dream. For row crop or spaced row planting, our rubber finger
weeder made in China is unbeatable, copied after the Buddingh
which lacked bearings as noted before.

--Fertility can be created from almost anything as you know.

--Pest control is solved generally by fertility, eyes on the
field, some cases mineralization or biological then botanical.
We have neem everywhere. No one but us takes the seeds, crushes
and extracts the oil--but neem is there, for free, lining the roads.

--On the practical level of actual human interference with the
land, plant, animal, water natural resources and design,
the Keyline Scale of Permanence excels.

--Harvesting and post harvest handling among organic farmers
leaves the Central Valley handling as a very expensive alternative --
I could show you the mechanisms I have designed for hydrocooling
in the field in less than 1 minute after harvest, etc.

So, where does this lead one--to sustainable agriculture--un-needing
of synthetic fertility, purchasing off farm produced products
whether for feed or pest control--you do need some machines, most of
can be farmer built, systemic understanding, and close observation--but
these are the characteristics of indigenous peoples and the foundation
of all cultures.

And on to market development and sales, 60% of commercial farming is
marketing. Organic has excelled in that, far outstripping any consumer
based marketing sector in fewer years. Purchasing and marketing
cooperatives are of course the solution to sustainability.

In China I have refined and revised the subsoiler frame for less
expensive, closer connection to tractor, integrating bed forming,
pasture renovation and knife roller for green manure crops, which
incidentally as conveyed by 90 year old Illinois farmers should be
cut back or destroyed before the get above 14 inches.

Have a small acreage near town, some flat land, some side hill
planted to avocados, citrus, banana, pineapple. Row crop veges
on the slight drop land. Gone through all the Chinese tractors,
equipment for small farms. Two worthwhile other than the tractor,
an excellent bed width grain drill with double openers, back bar
roller and leveling board for less than $200 delivered within
China and a small single row, they have two row also pto driven
root digger for $800 delivered within China. Forget about the
rest of implements--rip offs. Only one tractor worth exporting
Dong Fang Hong, now called YTO, and perhaps Foton. Loaders are
outstanding $3225 USD, FOB China--bigger cylinders, but near the
same price as US versions say for my 70hp, 4 wheel drive YTO,
with loader cost FOB factory is $15,000--hard to beat that.
Organic farmers should be cooperatively purchasing in quantity
at even lesser price--more sustainable.

Farming in China is unsustainable--because there is no secure
land tenure, therefore areas row crop, bed farmed per family
is 1/2 an acre with from 1 to 3 acres of side hill for banana,
tree crops in the north, etc. My 4 years living in China has
provided many months of insights, which would take days to write
up on all sectors of society. My major interest is the Li people,
1.3 million who live around me, never defeated by any force in
3000 years, totally living with and of, and within their biological
and cultural biodiversity--there are actually 5 different none
communicable languages with the Li and yet the weaving, superlative
in comparison to any worldwide, relations to nature, many of the
traditions are similar between all 5 language groups.

Am now making an exhibit, 60 photos, 1937 silent movie, some
artifacts for the American Museum of Natural History--there
has never been an exhibit or even discussion of the Li peoples
3000 continuum of sustainabilty.

Where I am this day is defining the domains and the elements
of biological and cultural diversity to document for the
exhibit--perhaps, you have passed over some writings related?




  • [permaculture] (FWD) Eric Kindberg on Keyline System, cropping with nature & other innovative methods., Lawrence F. London, Jr., 12/29/2011

Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page