Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["E. E. Mitchamore Jr" <emitch@att.net>]

To me, the most interesting aspect of this synergy is that the manure and urine of ruminants is pre-inoculated with beneficial microorganisms - it's like regularly dosing your land with compost tea.

 

E. E. "Mitch" Mitchamore
www.hillcountrynatives.biz

----- Original Message -----

From: mdnagel@verizon.net

To: Healthy soil and sustainable growing

Sent: Thursday, July 03, 2008 6:14 PM

Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Future Organic Farmers of America

I recently subscribed to The Stockman Grass Farmer (www.stockmangrassfarmer.net) and have found its advice to be unequaled in common sense.

The editor -Alan Nation- in the last volume stated that one has to view one's operation as profit per acre (accounting for each separately used/managed acre) and not output per acre.  Also, and this will make people here happy, he stated that the goal is to maintain or improve soil fertility.

The more I read up on what these grass farmers are doing the more I'm convinced that a symbiotic environment in which crops (grass or otherwise) and animals work together is the way to go.  Clearly, however, it takes a little bit of land, though not necessarily as much as one might imagine.


-Mark Nagel
Everett, WA


>From: Tradingpost <tradingpost@lobo.net>
>Date: 2008/07/03 Thu PM 02:49:33 CDT
>To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
>Subject: [Livingontheland] Future Organic Farmers of America

>
>I see what you've answered to Ken there, but I'm going to throw cold water on it. You want to grow several acres of organic vegetables, but you don't have the equipment for that much area, you don't want to use manure, you don't have the rainfall for cover crops to build soil OM, and you can't take it out of production to build soil. I'd say you've answered all the questions. You're asking how to do it when all options are ruled out in advance.
>
>So you're dryland farming acres of vegetables conventionally, using machinery, fertilizers, and probably herbicides and pesticides, without replenishing organic matter in the soil, losing topsoil to wind erosion, and most likely your costs are eating up your sales. I'd sell out and move somewhere better for growing. There are plenty of places in this country where people simply shouldn't farm at all. Farming in those places just degrades the soil and bankrupts the farmer.

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