[dominiquer60]

Temps forecasted 40 or above for as far as the eye can see. We are done sugaring and closing up shop, actually we will convert shop to a washing and packing shed. Besides, now we can do spring clean up/grease up and focus on the greenhouse, if we fall behind a week there, we could potentially fall behind for the year.

[dominiquer60]

It’s just a retired 196?ish 1,500 gallon fire truck that they bought from their department. It’s old but fires up every time, actually it was sold only because it was so old. All we do is fill from the creek that has clean head waters and put the nozzle on the gentlest setting and let her go. We can give a .3 A section a modest drink. We are working on setting up wobble lines for when we need them, but when you don’t have all day to figure that out, the firetruck works great.

The garden grew, but the parts that received dehydrated poultry manure grew better. We plan on using a lovely 2 year old stockpile of rotted manure on that piece as soon as we can clean it up.

Erika

[dominiquer60]

We turned over 1.7A of old hay field last year. Quack grass and dock were the worst, but once sod broke down it was doable. Cultivating with the quack was tough, we had to irrigate in May during a dry spell, we have a crude system that involves a old fire truck. On one .33A section we double cropped greens and by fall the soil was beautiful to work. It was not ideal, but our first year working together was his most successful yet, thanks to this new ground and a couple extra hands. We hope to give some of the old fields a rest with cover crops, and ideally we will have permission to crop the other 3A half of the flat, then we can really get into the cover crops and more proper rotations.

[dominiquer60]

Mitch, that is one of the ways that vets treat a Left Displacesd Abomasum. “Rolling a cow through a 70° arc after casting her on her right side corrects most LDA; however, recurrence is very likely.”- Merek

[dominiquer60]

How are the calves coming along?

[dominiquer60]

Thank you Robert, I don’t really have a style yet, but I know what I like from my 8 years on other peoples farms, I’m just getting started really. Hogs work great for tillage, as long as you move them in time, the ground can really compact under those little hooves quicker than you would think.

[dominiquer60]

Thank you for the good suggestions. I will try some of these when I get home next month, with my nearing yearling coed team. Hopefully if I can get them to do better, I will have an easier time when I finally get a pair of young calves. Even though I know that my team will get sold by the pound this summer, I am still trying hard to do my best with them. I know some of the mistakes that I made with these two and can’t wait to have a fresh start with a pair that will not be part of the beef herd.

Best Wishes,
Erika

[dominiquer60]

“Erika, I do not sense the same issues you mentioned from our university soil lab. Actually, their recommendations are modest compared to some I have seen from other places. The assessment should not change much from lab to lab, soil testing methods are pretty well standardized. Where folks part ways is on the recommendations based on the soil tests. So you need to be a little careful when someone is both testing your soil and selling you something (fertilizer, amendments, management, etc.) based on the soil tests.”

By poor recommendations I mean, they have little value to me because of the way that we farm with low inputs and 40 crops on very few acres. The are too vague and I don’t find them terribly useful. I have attended two years at one of these land grants, and although they are not directly trying to sell me anything, they do take a lot of money from some rather large corps. Then they teach methods that encourage the use of products that can be obtained from these large corps (BST, round-up, GMO’s, etc.) I gave them them too much of my money already to learn how not to farm, I would rather not support their soil lab too. So really, it is a personal thing against the universities.

I really like my current lab and certified crop consultant, we pay more but we get custom fit recommendations and a list of local/regional resources where we can find the amendments that we need. The university does not join us for a cup of coffee at our house and leave us with a sense of knowing where we need to go from here. I am not trying to say that we thrive on hand holding, I just like a more old fashion way of doing business with someone familiar with our needs and land.

“(clover, I’d probably go with crimson to get it to die back. What were you thinking, Erika?) and an annual small grain (oats, again to die back in the winter.) It seemed that Erika was plowing in the spring as the clover was still living.”

I want the clover to live for the next few years or more. What I am doing is establishing a cover crop in the harvest lanes and headlands. This provides a place for beneficials, a nice sod lane, and small areas to graze as long as the crops on the other side of the electric net fence are not too tempting. It is also nice because it will provide a little N and organic matter when you till it under. When we are first establishing the field, the sections that we don’t need to till yet have a nice cover crop on them until we get to those sections for late crops or the next year. Things that I have learned about red clover: If you have a thrip problem, don’t mow the clover around the crop, the thrips will only get worse. If you let the clover go to seed it will rejuvenate the stand, red clover is not well know for longevity so I let it go to seed once every year or so.

This is just my two cents,

Erika

[dominiquer60]

Having read their articles it seems that they looked at a lot of old crop rotation plans(COWS, Corn, Oats, Wheat, Sod) and horse powered techniques, then starting devising a plan that would meet their needs and goals. So while the basis of their methods is from old school normal farming, they get to take it to a new level with a little help from modern science and their own experiments which have been many. Like Anthony said they have spent years with these techniques, tweaking and custom fitting it to there operation.

These techniques are not strictly for horse powered farming, and the Nordell’s claim that it can be adapted to tractors as well. Of course using animals will be more sustainable than tractors, but if you are going to use a tractor this has got to be a better way than plow, seed, spray, spray, spray, harvest methods. We are slowly trying to incorporate more of these methods into our tractor powered market garden, I know they will work because I have used some of these techniques on other tractor farms. The thing to keep in mind is that every farm is different and you will have to alter the Nordell’s ideas to meet the needs of your farm.

Erika

[dominiquer60]

Of course it is the air temp, even if it freezes at night a south wind will produce little sap flow too. We were hoping to get a new larger evaporator, but the way it is going we may not need the one that we have.

[dominiquer60]

We are 15 miles west of Bennington and the sap has stopped with no signs of starting again. We are 1/2 of last year and 1/4 of 2008, so far. It just needs to freeze at night. I am not at all convinced that climate change is a false theory.

Erika

[dominiquer60]

A soil test is a good thing to do, of course each lab does it a little differently but if you take them regularly from the same place you can see how you effect the soil with amendments. I found a lab here in the states that is independent and I like that because the universities are too influenced by corporations and give poor computer recommendations based on big Ag. My lab cost more, but you get a home visit from a consultant that is not trying to sell you anything other than another series of soil tests in a couple years.

We planted into sod turned this past spring and had some great crops, but noticed that the heavy feeders were not doing well. The first year of freshly turned sod is the easiest, few weeds and good nutrition from the dieing sod. Our test indicates that we need to buy a lot of lime for the entire farm, but the flat, where we have been avoiding manure because of a sensitive watershed, really needs some minerals and manure if we are to succeed next year.

The advantage of shallow plowing is that you sever the roots of your pasture plants. I find that this does kill the sod well and prevents some plants from just trying to re-root after every harrow. I don’t know what would work best for you, but you could experiment with it.

Erika

[dominiquer60]

You could definitely plant some this year once the sod is well rotted. I highly recommend reading/purchasing the Nordell articles and/or DVD they are highly informative and the methods can be adapted to animal or tractor. Additional articles of theirs can be found in many back issues of Small Farmers Journal.

[dominiquer60]

A few questions for you John,
What is a ley?
What type of crops do you want to grow?
How soon do you want to grow these crops?

Hopefully we will gain access to the other 3 acres of flat ground on the farm and use it for vegetables someday. When we get the go a head from the elder generation, I would like to plow (not very deep) the sod in spring and disc or harrow for a few weeks until the sod it dead. It has been hay field for 15+ years and mostly has perennial weeds to deal with. Once the sod has decomposed and before the summer weeds are tempted, we will sow to medium red clover and oats to establish a healthy stand. The oats will be green chopped early and fed out and not made into straw. We want to focus on getting the clover to do its best before the winter.

The next spring we will shallow plow early any plots that we want for early crops and basically repeat above but plant veg instead. We will plow up more plots a few weeks ahead as needed. I like to establish red clover first for the good that it does to the soil as far as tap roots and N fixing. Some say that a clover stand doesn’t last long, but I find that if you let it go to seed once a year is seems to keep better than the 2 years that the university claims. If you are having a potato leaf hopper issue, don’t mow the clover, it will get worse. Having a stand of clover to start with keeps a beneficial plant around the perimeter of the veg, and what you don’t use makes excellent grazing. We have lane ways between every 10 beds and can fence parts and graze as long as long as the nearby crops are not too tempting. I look forward to having chickens on some of this clover, they seem to really forage on it well and thrive with less feed.

Anyway that is my plan based on my past experience with clover and veg. I don’t doubt that your situation could be different.

Erika

[dominiquer60]

The Everglades are taking back the land that civilization stole from it. some of my neighbors here in FL had small ponds in their backyards, now they have homes in the middle of their big pond. All the rain that we have had, are currently receiving and will receive, has returned the land to swamp. It looked more like the camargue this morning at the horse show, with horses running on water. I plan on wearing sandals to wade to my truck, and then change into my shoes at work. There is so little high ground that even the dog had a hard time finding a place to do his business. At least the dirt roads are passable here in “rural south FL,” (a complete oxymoron).

Erika

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