Organic works

[hobbyfrmr]

Our neighbor has been organic for 10 plus yrs.goes to a organic convention every winter. Tried all rotations.summerfallow..Wheat..bly..Clover. radish..
This yr his bly crop should do 5 to 10 b/a..Thistle heads will be another 20 b/a..
Sick of his weeds blowing on to my field..the RM should make him clean up his act..

You should buy him out. It sounds like he could use the money.

[furrowtickler]

If anyone will make it work , Klause will .
It's called thinking outside the box and not listening to the chem reps and fert dealers like and old woman to an Elvis record .

[hobbyfrmr]

QUOTE GDR: .....but I think the problem is lots of guys that have tried just think it means cutting out fert and Chem and all is good and don't put the effort in or understand how to meets the crop needs otherwise"


Couldn't agree more.

The practice has merit...it just has to be approached right.

WTF? Is it national Vodka for Breakfast Day or what?

[grassfarmer]

Farmers these days are treating sort like a medium devoid of life instead of a living breathing organism that is capable of doing a lot of work.

That's the part that baffles me. All about feeding "the crop" instead of feeding the soil microbiology. Saw a guy last week spraying wheat stubble and wondered what he was spraying for (or against). With the long growing season here a crop taken off 100 or so days after seeding is only using little over half the potential growing days of the year. Potential to grow some legume or ryegrass as well?

[farmaholic]

WTF? Is it national Vodka for Breakfast Day or what?

I had a chance to sleep on it(In other words, sleep it off) and now realize only a fool wouldn't want to ***** himself out to the entire conventional ag industry....

[blackpowder]

I am very interested in what Klause does. Not to follow an "organic" label. Just to grow good crops while paying the bills better. No one paying high rents on a high % of their acres can mess with organic.

[farmaholic]

Agreed BP....there might even be a synergy. Unless the constant onslaught of chemical assault would negate any benefits from some of the other practices.... in fact I'd bet the farm that would be the case.

[bgmb]

Oh here we go again someone's going to tell us all how to farm.

Wtf is your point Klause ppl have been farming organically for 1000s of years. This thread should be named "rotary dial phones work" or "a horse and buggy will get you to town"


No different than conventional farming there are good orgasmic farmers and poor ones. I chose to utilize technology on my farm for economic reasons.

[hobbyfrmr]

I am very interested in what Klause does. Not to follow an "organic" label. Just to grow good crops while paying the bills better. No one paying high rents on a high % of their acres can mess with organic.

Exactly. Fert and chem grow much more productive crops. This allows farmers to compete and pay more for rent and land buying in their area. Interrupting solid cash flow would really set back a progressive farm. Consider the population weeds that will be in the soil after spending decades of cleaning it up. Similar to a post above, thistles become evident, your neighbors get cranky, phone the RM, you may have to terminate that crop.
Stay the course, keep your powder dry, and buy out those organic farm neighbors. You know eventually they are going to be broke and have to sell. Even better, stop in on them for a visit, talk about the poor crop, yeild, dockage etc and make a respectible offer to cash rent. This area, public auction averaged $124.00/acre. You can clean that land up before you buy it.

[Partners]

You should buy him out. It sounds like he could use the money.

He wants to prove he can do it..lucky his wife has a good off farm job.
He won't sell.

[bucket]

Hobby

Do I sense a bit of sarcasm in your posts.....maybe those suggestions protect your market share?

Lol.

[biglentil]

Ive been renting "organic" land for five years. After 5 years of the best herbicides money can buy the thistles, wild mustard, buckwheat cleavers still flourish. The land is ruined no organic matter soil dead blown away. Best it has yielded is half my neighbouring land. Would take 50 years of expensive inputs to get it into shape. He offered to sell it this year. I would be crazy to offer anything. Renting it was an expensive lesson in the effect of badly managed organic farming practice.

[blackpowder]

Anyways....
Again, what could've been a learning thread became Statler and Waldorf.
Agriville has a higher than tolerable number of wieners.

[hobbyfrmr]

Ive been renting "organic" land for five years. After 5 years of the best herbicides money can buy the thistles, wild mustard, buckwheat cleavers still flourish. The land is ruined no organic matter soil dead blown away. Best it has yielded is half my neighbouring land. Would take 50 years of expensive inputs to get it into shape. He offered to sell it this year. I would be crazy to offer anything. Renting it was an expensive lesson in the effect of badly managed organic farming practice.

There you have it. Living proof.
Its not even worth running over.
All the kings horsemen and all the kings men could not get that organic farm back into production again!!

Changing to organic could be a very risky venture for some farms.

[jamesb]

We need more GOOD organic farmers. In the south east most who go into organic do so because they cant afford fert and chem. I had read that as many farmers that are transitioning into organics , as many organic farmers are exiting farmers all together. we have bought organic land on different occasions. prior to any work being done extensive soil tests are done and almost always the organic mater is extremely low. In many cases we farm the land across the fence and can see a vast difference. There are good organic farmers out there but if we can get away from the classic arguments thrown out there and stick to more of an economic theme regarding organic farming it would be more productive. Myself like most farmers want to be profitable and farm sustainably but have seen so many examples of such poor organic farms that we need to be educated and be convinced that there is a "sustainable" organic system out there. I KNOW that our land is more fertile after 30 years of direct seeding. Lets get proof that organics can do that too. Any one who reads of the civilisations over time started with good soil and fertility ended up destroying the land. This was under "organic" production.