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Subject: Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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  • From: "E. E. Mitchamore Jr" <emitch@att.net>
  • To: <ryalbinger@earthlink.net>, "Healthy soil and sustainable growing" <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] the ways that best sustain the farmer/Efficiency
  • Date: Thu, 27 Dec 2007 10:13:30 -0600

Looks good.  Your numbers are self-explanatory, but I think we'd like to know what the "100 pounds of renewable fertility materials per acre" were.  If compost or manure, that doesn't sound like much.  Is that in addition to cover crops or other organic material?
 
E. E. "Mitch" Mitchamore
www.hillcountrynatives.biz
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Thursday, December 27, 2007 9:01 AM
Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] the ways that best sustain the farmer/Efficiency

** comments within.


> [Original Message]
> From: TradingPostPaul <tradingpost@riseup.net>

>
> Barb tossed out a couple thoughts on it I have to pass on. They weren't
> usually high paying jobs, true. But - and it's a big but - their cost of
> living in those communities was much lower. Few families needed more than
> one wagearner. They didn't have long commutes, and didn't have to shop all
> over a city for necessities. And most of what they earned was spent
locally
> and recycled through the town's businesses - a big plus to support local
> businesses.
>

*** They were "locally effcient"  They were achieving the same or more with
less.

> As for HOW sustainable food production can create lots of good income in
> local communities, the answer lies in methods that first sustain the
> grower. Not being locked into taking the middleman's price is numero uno.

** You're either a price taker or a price maker.  If you can get more for
your product marketing and selling yourself, that is the way to go for you.
If the wholesale margin is less than what it would cost you to market the
product resulting in the a higher net value on your production with less
risk, that is the way to sell.

> Next is cutting costs. Gross minus expenses equals profit.  Retailing to
> the locals gets the whole dollar for the grower.

** If the cost of retailing is less than the wholesaler's margin.  It is
very possible to get more money for your product and make far less money.

Holding costs down comes
> from recycling free organic wastes to build healthy, pest resistant soil,
> and avoiding the rising cost of fossil fuel-derived fertilizers and
> pesticides.

** Couldn't agree more.  Utilize what resources you have available and
create a growing system supporting a high nutrient, fertile soil.

For vegetables it may mean avoiding high land costs by growing
> intensively on small acreages or plots and double cropping where climate
> permits.

** Profitable operations need not be limited to small acreages.  If it is
profitable, high costs are not the primary limitation.

Permanent, no-till mulched beds can cut the cost of amendments,
> water, and labor, and easily double production over larger fields. Season
> extension techniques can double your gross sales for the same land area,
> without increasing costs proportionately.

** Anything to increase gross sales with a profitable margin makes sense.
It's more effcient.

Don't go into debt for machinery
> - payments can eat up profits.

** If  Principle + Interest + a suitable return on assets is less than the
value that can be derived, it is profitable to own machinery.  Personal
example, I operate a little over 270 acres all organic, and I do not own a
tractor.  I own other equipment, but not a single tractor. The tractor
doesn't generate a good enough return.  It is not capital effcient in my
operation.

 For cane and tree crops it may mean
> perpetual cover crops like clover to feed nitrogen to berries or peaches
> and conserve soil moisture. With small livestock for example, it may mean
> space for free range and  growing grains for poultry to cheat the
> feedstores out of outrageous chicken feed prices. The list goes on.

** Yes, it comes down to the correct diversity of enterprises and crops for
the correct situation.  It comes down to managing resources to achieve the
objective and maximize resource utilization.

>
> PLUS these approaches also protect the land, air, and water and rural
> prosperity. That's the beauty of it. Contrary to all the gobbledygook from
> armchair experts, the ways that best sustain the farmer also sustain the
> earth.
>
> paul tradingpost@lobo.net
>

** Conservation of resources is a dependent of not depleting resources of
fertility and function and the continual renewal of resources.  So much
time and energy is expended on talking about saving this or that, or doing
this or that to get this.  There is a distinct lack of doing from the
armchair experts.  I am proud that I can farm 270 without pesticides,
herbicides, fuel effciently, and earth consciously.  I would like to talk
with some others on this list to compare notes on what they are doing to
save the soil, become energy self suffcient (no fossil fuels), and promote
the betterment of the world.  Email me off list to discuss.  And on a last
note I have my year end numbers close to finished and here are some real
numbers I achieved this year: just over 500,000 pounds dry matter (no water
included to even the playing field and not including animal feed/forage) of
human grade food produced on just under 1000 gallons of fuel (yes, that is
under 4 gallons per acre), and using about 100 pounds of renewable
fertility materials per acre, and some other practices that are moving to
greater effectiveness for the next year.  Those who say it can't be done,
shouldn't get in the way of those doing it.
Rya

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