Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["TradingPostPaul" <tradingpost@riseup.net>]

>From one of our local weeklies. We might ask, what's wrong with this kind
of farming? Yesterday we made it over to the Manzano apple farm where the
owner explained how he lost 70% of his apple crop. A farm just north of us
lost much of their bolita and pinto beans, and some of their fresh sweet
corn. It was early frosts the third week of Sept, about three or four weeks
early. That followed our driest six months on record, then unusually heavy
monsoon where we got most of our annual rainfall in only four weeks of
July-Aug.

paul tradingpost@lobo.net
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Nature Throws Harvest for Loop
Thursday, October 5, 2006
By Matt Gomez, Mountain View Telegraph
http://www.mvtelegraph.com/mountain/499086mtnview10-05-06.htm


    Being able to adapt to different conditions each year is an important
part of being a successful farmer in the Estancia Valley, said Robert Akin,
owner of Akin Farms in Estancia.
    And this year, with record monsoon rains followed by sudden low
temperatures, was definitely different.
    "The rain was really a hindrance this year," Akin said Friday.
    Akin, who grows pinto beans and corn, said the ground must be
relatively dry to harvest beans but late-summer rains prevented him from
getting machinery into the fields to harvest his crops when he would have
liked.
    The farm was also hit with an early freeze, Akin said, which could have
very negative effects on a corn crop. The corn Akin grows is used in
silage— a fermented product fed to livestock— and an important quality
of the corn is its moisture content, he said.
    "When the corn freezes, it loses moisture. It doesn't make good
silage," Akin said.
    Akin said his bean crop is usually harvested well before crews come in
to harvest the corn. But the rains delayed the bean harvest, and the early
freeze made it necessary to harvest both the beans and corn at the same
time.
    Typically, Akin starts to harvest beans between Aug. 25 and Sept. 1,
and he usually starts to harvest corn between Sept. 20 and Sept. 25, he
said.
    Both crops were harvested around the middle of September this year.
    Ten tractor-trailers, two 10-row choppers and one tractor were brought
in to harvest just the corn, Akin said. Crews are hired specifically to
harvest the corn, he said, because Akin Farms specializes in bean farming,
and it's too expensive to try to specialize in too many crops because of
the high price of equipment.
    One way Akin ensures that all the work around his farm gets done is by
hiring high school students to help, he said.
    "I pay 'em well, feed 'em well, but you kind of have to work your
schedule around their schedule," Akin said.
    Although the work the youths do is hard at times, Akin said, "they're
always eager to come back."
    When Akin says "hard," he means it.
    Mounds of 8,000 tons of silage must be covered within days of being
harvested, Akin said. That means the workers must unfold tarps that are 150
feet long and 40 feet wide to cover the silage. But the work doesn't end
there.
    After the silage is covered, the tarps are held down with tires—
5,000 to 6,000 of them— that are placed by hand to keep oxygen off the
silage to prevent the harvested crop from rotting, Akin said.
    The hard work pays off for the young workers, Akin said, and the manual
labor motivates them to get a better education. Seventy-five percent to 80
percent of the youths Akin has hired over the years have gone on to
college, he said.
    Akin usually has four to six younger workers during harvest time and
two or three during the rest of the year, he said.
    "If they show up and want to work, you can't turn them down," he said.
    The job also teaches them a good work ethic, Akin said.
    "The kids that work for us, nothing gets handed to them. They know they
have to work to get a dollar," he said.
    Working with young people also allows Akin to build camaraderie among
his young workers and himself, he said, which gives the teens a good place
to "talk about life."
    Akin's favorite parts about farming are working with the teenagers and
watching his crops grow, he said.
    "To me, there's nothing prettier than a crop coming out of the ground,"
Akin said. "You're not going to get rich, but it's a good way of life."
    Susan Teaney, a 17-year-old senior at Estancia High School, has worked
at Akin Farms for the past few months, she said.
    "I would rather do this than work at a store inside a mall," Teaney
said.
    Working at the farm helps her build strength, both physically and
mentally, Teaney said.
    "It makes you appreciate the money you make, too, because you earn it,"
she said.
    Billy Teaney, Susan's 16-year-old brother— a junior at Mountainair
High— also works at the farm.
    "I think it's great," Billy said. "I'd rather do this than anything
else, probably."
    Billy Teaney said he likes working in agriculture and learning about
the machinery and steps involved in farming.
    He said he thinks he wants to get into farming or ranching eventually,
but for now is considering what college he wants to go to after he
graduates from high school.