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Marty he is just unaware of the new tools available
to organic farmers. One doesnt use a disk to knock down the covercrop or a
chemical kill. It is very i
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Sunday, December 23, 2007 8:03
AM
Subject: [Livingontheland] Fwd: NO-TILL
FARMING OFFERS A QUICK FIX TO HELPWARD OFF HOST OF GLOBAL PROBLEMS
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:
Date: December 23, 2007 3:05:02
PM CST
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:
Date: December 22, 2007 3:20:05 PM CST
Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] NO-TILL FARMING OFFERS A
QUICK FIX TO HELP WARD OFF HOST OF GLOBAL PROBLEMS
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
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:
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