Cutting Back
July 31st, 2005 by Northern FarmerI’ll be busy this coming week with grain harvest and it’s hotter than a pistol outside. I’m not to good at taking the heat but it’ll get done one way or another. The weather forcast is for the mid nineties until Thursday and then a cool down. I wonder how they could stand it years ago on the steam threshers. They were a tough breed.
It seems that on the regular places I visit on the internet that there’s a common concern, and that’s about reaching peak oil production soon, if not already. Farming is going to be a challenge soon with what’s coming up with the energy situation. I’m calmly pondering this, looking at my own operation and wondering how we’ll survive the upcoming changes. On bit of good news is that it’ll make world wide ag trade much more difficult with transportation and mfg costs going through the roof. Not to mention government collapses in many countries throwing trade agreements into limbo. Maybe local production will be looked at as very important then. But back to survival of our own farm, the ag companies tell us we have to get more efficient, OK, so I’m not buying much from them anymore, that’s good I guess. Energy is the one I’m concerned about the most because this farm still uses way to much fuel. Yesterday at the county fair they had wind and solar outfits and thats all fine and dandy but that doesn’t do much for feeding two hundred and fifty head of cattle over a Minnesota winter. The Polyface method won’t work here for feeding cattle. To many cattle in to small of an area. I feed in herds out in the field always moving the feeding ground to spread the manure around and saving me from having to haul it out for weeks and weeks. The beef being spread out also saves thousands of dollars on health costs. The cold doesn’t mean to much to angus. This still has me pondering about using draft horses for winter feeding. I know some ranchers in the west and Canada that feed many hundred head with a team, and wouldn’t go back to tractors for that type of work. When it’s thirty below or colder they always start too. And I am getting tired of all the noise that comes with the machinery. I’m not looking for science to solve any problems soon with agriculture’s dependance on oil, so we’ll just have to figure out ways to slowly start cutting the use of oil products down on this place. No big changes over night, just starting to ease out of the oil addiction over time. As far as home and workshops here, there’s no problem because even now they’re one hundred percent wood heated. This is all a big challenge but it does make life interesting. All in all this problem in the long run could be one of the best things that could ever happen.