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  • From: "Betsy Levy" <blevy AT rsoc-slip.tamu.edu>
  • To: "market farming" <market-farming AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: stockless farming
  • Date: Thu, 18 May 2000 11:41:37 -0700


Of course, in the U.K. they have the kind of arable land that inspired such
systems in the first place - although Americans often fail to take that into
account when they try to practice agriculture as it evolved on the continent
or British Isles, in places like the Southwest where the landscape and
climate are utterly different.


-----Original Message-----
From: Wiediger, Alison <awiediger AT Hart.k12.ky.us>
To: market farming <market-farming AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
Date: Thursday, May 18, 2000 10:22 AM
Subject: RE: stockless farming


>We believe in the quote from 'New Farm' magazine of about a decade ago
>"animals make the farmstead sing". Although we believe it might be
possible
>to practice vegetable production without them, on our farm of 84 acres, we
>have about 60 acres of hills, 15+ acres of woodland, and less than 4 acres
>that are flat enough to be considered for cropping (the rest is homesite,
>barns, orchard, outbuildings, etc). We grow about 2.5 acres of vegetables
>each year and don't have the room to increase fertility solely through
>vegetative means. We have grown field corn after a summer of soybeans,
>soybeans, winter of hairy vetch/winter rye, all disced in without
additional
>fertilizer. It made a nice crop - but you could only do that every other
>year. We think, too, that it takes the same amount in soil building green
>manure crop that you have in vegetable production to do it without animals,
>although we continually experiment with living mulches, etc. And, then,
>what would we do with all those grassy hillsides ? The cattle and sheep
>take advantage of the forage, return manure to recycle nutrients, give us
>manure during winter feeding for applying to veggie growing beds, and are a
>significant addition to farm income (plus they are a joy to caretake).
>
>Can it be done - probably if you have enough tillable land. But for us, it
>is not the smartest way to farm.
>
>Alison Wiediger
>Kentucky, USA
>http://www.aunaturelfarm.homestead.com
>
>> ----------
>> From: Martin Cooke[SMTP:m.cooke AT dcs.shef.ac.uk]
>>
>> Is anyone out there practising stockless market farming (or what is
>> called vegan organics by some)? Here, I mean no inputs of animal origin,
>> whether or not they're generated on one's own farm.
>>
>> As a subsidiary Q, does anyone know of successful attempts at
>> *sustainable* stockless farming, where all fertility is generated on the
>> farm without animals? I'm particularly interested in the ratio of
>> productive to green manure land required. I've seen some putative ratios
>> in Coleman's book (1:1 for already fertile land), but does anyone
>> practise it?
>>
>> This question is inspired by a spate of letters which appeared in
>> today's Guardian newspaper (UK), including one from a certain Mr Avery
>> :-), attempting to link organic food with food poisoning, presumably
>> through the use of insufficiently composted animal manure. Not that I'm
>> accepting his claims (and don't want to start a debate on them here),
>> but its interesting to consider whether vegan organics is beyond
>> reproach to the likes of Avery.
>>
>> Martin
>>
>> ---
>>
>
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