permaculture

[FranksFarm@aol.com]

Hi Larry,

Thanks for the good ideas.

However, I'm finding that farming is far more complex than imagined when it 
comes to details, labor, $$$ required to DO all the work.

For example I'm considering tearing up about 20 acres of one of my bottoms to 
plant corn next year. The idea is that after the corn is harvested, and the 
cattle been through the stalks that I would then disk it up and prepare a 
nice 
seed bed, and reseed forage grasses on a nice, level, prepared seed bed.

My bottoms seem to grow real good corn, and had been leased for same in the 
past.

But that means I must take 20 acres out of forage, which MIGHT leave me short 
on grass depending on weather.

Next I don't have a mechanical harvester, which means lots of additional 
manual labor.

Then, there's the cost factor for preparing the seed bed, planting the corn( 
no corn planter),cultivations etc. I use no chemicals. And if I need to 
fertilize I must add in that cost.

All in all I'm wondering if it's really worthwhile:)

I've planted both winter wheat, and cereal rye. Winter wheat grew real well. 
Cereal rye did not really pay since it was planted a bit late( late 
September) 
and conditions were not that great.
Cattle simply ate what little production I got. I didn't plow it back in.

The whole idea of tearing up the ground now that I've got a pretty good mix 
of white clover, fescue and clover is a concern. Doing it several acres at a 
time is perhaps feasible, but I'm wondering if it's worth the trouble and 
added 
expense.

Subsoiling

We haven't had much rain in the past month or so so the soil is fairly dry. 
No rain forecast for the next several days. Would this be a good time to sub 
soil wet areas or break up tight clay in back pastures?

Talk to you soon. Frank in KY ag Zone 6B