permaculture

["Lawrence F. London, Jr." <lfl@intrex.net>]

FranksFarm@aol.com wrote:

> However, I'm finding that farming is far more complex than imagined when it 
> comes to details, labor, $$$ required to DO all the work.
>
>  
Goes with the territory. You already knew that. :-)

> 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.
>
>  
Keep the cattle off that rich, valuable bottom  land. Use it for special 
cropping only. They will compact the soil.
Keep it for harvestable crops not grazing - use other land for that.

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

Right on with the corn.

> 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.
>
>  
Decide which land will be used for rotational grazing and which for 
harvestable cropping and stick with that;
map it out and keep records.

> 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. 
Leave that alone and keep it in permanent clover/grass mix - it will 
only get better - keep animals off it.

> 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?
>
>  
Take a shovel and dif to the lowest point accessable by the subsoiler - 
if soil moisture is just right then that it the time to subsil that area.
If it is too wet and you subsoil anyway you will end up with really bad 
soil compaction where you want it least - down deep. Take my word for it -
I have mad just this mistake - took years for remedial work to put it 
back in original condition.

LL