Homestead mailing list

[Bill Jones <billj AT harborside.com>]

I borrowed my friend's copy of the Coos County Soil Survey.  I compared 
the aerial photos very carefully to a more recent aerial photo from a 
webpage, where I already knew how to find my place, to make sure I had 
the right soil type area.  Here are some relevant quotes:

"If this unit is used for pasture, the main limitations are the 
susceptibility of the surface layer to compaction and *droughtiness* in 
summer."

"In summer, *droughtiness* on south-facing slopes limits the choice of 
forage plants and limits production."  Luckily (or not, in winter) mine 
faces north.

I also found the table of AUMs per acre-year for irrigated and 
non-irrigated units of each soil type.  It says "8" for non-irrigated, 
which exactly equals the 1.5 ac/au that I predicted based on observing 
my sheep, but "25" for irrigated.  I think the latter number is actually 
a misprint.  The next largest value is "15"; who ever heard of an acre 
keeping over 2 steers?  I think it really should be "15", but that's 
still awesome.  This is no trashland.

"Grass-legume pastures respond to sulfur, phosphorus, and molybdenum."  
I threw in this last one to show the importance of knowledge.  Do you 
know how many soil tests and other crap it would take to find that out?  
Apparently after going to City Hall to take care of all the Man's BS, 
the next stop had better be the library, to check out the Soil Survey, 
when buying a property.  It's funny, because the people at the extension 
office seem completely unaware of this.  They will flatly lie to you, 
saying that the only way to know anything about your soil is to have an 
expensive test done, and practically meet you at the door with a 
courtesy soil bag and a list of test labs.  To me it really demonstrates 
the failure of our make-work gov't programs.

I should mention that I never put any sulfur or molybdenum on the 
pasture, and the white clover and strawberry clover that I had 
established all died out.  There's a logic to it.  They made it through 
the summer with no water, so that's not it.  Sulfur is no trace mineral 
to begin with.  Every plant that produces high-quality proteins, like 
legumes, needs to synthesize large amounts of sulfur-containing amino 
acids.  Molybdenum is the atom found at the active sites of bacterial 
enzymes that turn atmospheric nitrogen to soluble form: the so-called 
"nitrogen-fixing" capability of legumes.

Next stop: When I find the time, I'll go to some weather graphs with a 
Google Image Search on "monthly rainfall" AND Atlanta, to see how it 
goes on raining another *2 feet* at Bev's place, after it quits raining 
altogether here in June.

Now if I could only find cheap bags of gypsum!

Bill
S. Oregon coast