Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Marty Kraft <martyk@allspecies.org>]

I'm still learning and clarifying by being the middle person here. This is my friends response to Ken's and Paul's emails that I forwarded on to him. He knows little of the history of your various comments on the list. Thanks for taking the time.

Marty

Begin forwarded message:

From: "soaringeaglefarms@juno.com" <soaringeaglefarms@juno.com>

Date: December 23, 2007 3:05:02 PM CST

To: martyk@allspecies.org

Subject: [Livingontheland] NO-TILL FARMING OFFERS A QUICK FIX TO HELP WARD OFF HOST OF GLOBAL PROBLEMS

Marty,

I'll try to take this one step at a time

Ken is talking about knocking down a cover crop. What is he going to knock it down with? Most likely a burn down chemical, or maybe a disk.

Paul is talking about tillage bringing weed seed to the surface. That is correct, but if you do tillage after dark you will reduce weed pressure by 80 to 90 percent. Once again, if you have a weed supressing cover crop it will need to be killed before you plant the cash crop. If you don't kill the cover crop, the seed from that will be the next round of weeds.

One thing that might have lead the group a little off course is that I raise much more than just wheat. I do try to use covercrops aggressively between the row crops to enhance fertility and control weeds. Another point is that most of the weeds indicate an imbalance in the soil. If you get the nutrients back in balance, the weeds will go away. Another thing is that I must stay inside the confines of organic certification. I would guess that most of the persons that reply to you are not capable of that either.

Aloha,

Lee


Here is one email response.

Marty

Begin forwarded message:

From: Ken Hargesheimer <minifarms2@yahoo.com>

Date: December 22, 2007 3:20:05 PM CST

To: Healthy soil and sustainable growing <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>

Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] NO-TILL FARMING OFFERS A QUICK FIX TO HELP WARD OFF HOST OF GLOBAL PROBLEMS

Reply-To: Healthy soil and sustainable growing <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>

Marty,

 

As I have said before "The problem is in the farmer's head not in the field."

 

A no-till cotton farmer [7th crop] uses wheat for his winter cover crop.  Knocks it down and plants his cotton using a no-till planter.  If the farmer is growing winter wheat, plant a summer cover crop, knock in down and plant the wheat using a no-till drill. If he is growing Spring wheat, harvest it, plant the winter cover crop. Wheat is $8 per bushel, highest in many decades.  70 bushels@$8=$560x300=$168,000 gross.  His cost are: plant the wheat, harvest the wheat, plant the cover crop, knock down the cover crop, plant the wheat.  He can fish/hunt/volunteer work for 50 weeks a year.

 

The cotton farmer told me that his cost are so low, that cotton will never be so cheap that he will not make a profit. 

 

Ken H

 

TradingPostPaul <tradingpost@riseup.net> wrote:

My personal take on it: If the crop he's growing needs tilling or
herbicides, then why grow wheat or cultivate 300+ acres? I'd also be
interested to know if he's even making a profit. Cultivating also brings
more weed seeds to the surface to germinate. Probably he's never heard of
weed-suppressing cover crops.

paul tradingpost@lobo.net

*********** REPLY SEPARATOR ***********

On 12/22/2007 at 1:10 PM Marty Kraft wrote:

>I talked to my friend who grows organic wheat this morning. He says
>that he can't suppress weeds unless he tills. He farms 300+ acres. He
>believes that the promotion of no-till methods is a furtherance of
>chemical dependent farming.
>
>When I talk about no-till I'm talking about a much smaller scale than
>planting acres and acres of wheat. I have no experience beyond
>vegetable gardening. Does anyone know how to organically grow large
>acreage of wheat without tilling. I'm sure my friend would like to know.
>
>I also do not want to inadvertently be promoting the idea chemical
>dependent farming when I say no-till is good.
>
>Marty Kraft
>On Dec 15, 2007, at 7:38 AM, E. E. Mitchamore Jr wrote: