Low Impact Farming
May 21st, 2007 by Good Farmer John“Low Impact†Farming
This article is probably going to make you think. I hope it does anyway. As grass farmers, we feed our cattle and our sheep only grass and hay, no grain. And, while our pasture-based production system means we feed FAR less grain than commodity pork and chicken consume, our pigs and chickens still eat corn. They also eat soybeans and oats. We grow most of the corn, and we buy the soybeans and the oats. When we run out of corn, we buy that too. If you have followed grain production in general and corn production specifically at all recently, you know a few things about grain farming:
1. Corn and soybeans are the major crops that are currently genetically modified. Most others are in the process of modification right now, but it is nearly impossible to find non-GMO corn and soybeans in the US. Don’t get me wrong, plenty of farms are still producing non-GMO crops, but when they are planted next to neighbors who raise GMOs or they move their grain into the commodity system where it is combined with other GMO grains, its all considered GMO.
2. Experts say that the price of corn is increasing dramatically due to the increase in the demand for ethanol. Personally, I’m not sure if I agree with that, and time will tell. The fact that we have begun to link our food production and our demand for energy is more that scary in my opinion, but that’s for another article! The point here is that corn is increasing in price and it looks to stay there for a while.
3. Organic corn is still extremely difficult to locate and even more expensive to buy, which gives us cause for concern every time we run out of corn and are forced to buy it. We know we are not getting anywhere near the quality that we can raise ourselves.
So, we grow our own corn here, organic, non-GMO, and open-pollinated, non-hybrid corn. It’s better for the animals, higher in nutrition, better tasting, and less-expensive to produce. This year, we are growing significantly more corn than in the past, as our business is growing, and we are attempting to reduce our dependence on commodity corn. However, it doesn’t come without its drawbacks. Organic corn essentially requires the complete tillage of the soil, in other words, moldboard plowing. There are alternatives to total tillage, but they generally involve chemicals, and/or elaborate crop rotations that don’t fit our operation well.
Now, this is what I was thinking about as I was plowing last night. I LOVE to grow corn, especially open-pollinated corn, however, at $3.30/gallon for gasoline, plowing is a very expensive process. Not only is it hard on the pocket-book, it is less than ideal for the environment, it contributes to global warming, and it is not good for biological life of the soil, (think: earthworms getting cut in half).
Yet, we need corn here to grow pork and chicken. Our business requires corn production. A bit of a conundrum… To take you through my whole thought process, here are some alternatives, I considered:
1. Stop producing pork and chicken. Well, it had to be considered, but only for a second. We love pigs and pork and every biological farmer needs chickens. They are key to a biologically clean farm. We will continue pork and chicken production.
2. Use horses for tillage work. Very nice alternative. I know nothing about draft horses, but would love to learn. Everytime I get on a tractor (all of ours are rather old and somewhat loud), I think about how quiet a team of horses would be. Listening to the clip-clop of hooves and the tinkling of harness and hitch with the birds in the background sure seems attractive. However, at this point in our business development, the time required to care for the horses when they are not being used is just not there. I firmly believe that if global solutions aren’t found, we may be forced into this. Maybe the next generation…
3. Come up with alternative diets for the pigs and chickens. This is another interesting possibility. Corn and other grains are dense in terms of energy and/or protein, and making a complete substitution is probably not feasible, however, they do very well on roots, acorns, bugs and other “wild†items on pasture. There is still the Minnesota winters to deal with, and they need to eat something when there is 2 feet of snow on the ground!
May 22nd, 2007 at 6:32 am
You know John, I’ve done alot of thinking about that too. Especially the price of gas. Its getting up to $3 a gallon. Two things I’ve done though have helped reduce the impact on the pocketbook (can’t help much with the global warming).
First I found a station that sells “off road” diesel. It was $2.39 a gallon last week when I filled up. $.50 cheaper per gallon than regular diesel. The other thing was I brushed cobwebs off the 50 year old two cylinder John Deere. Those things can go two days on ten gallons of gas. Its a little slower than normal, but it gives me time to straighten life out in my head. My father in law used to say something like gear up and throttle down too (or something like that). when he used the ol two banger.
I’d like to say this works just fine, but now the JD “B” is in the shop and my corn rows don’t fit between the other tractors wheels, so I had to turn my two row cultivator into a one row and I’m using twice as much fuel cultivating the rows…… Oh well…… so much for that planning….
I dunno about horses, seems to me the fuel you’d need to hay the extra ground might be an even trade for the corn. Of course, I’m not a big fan of them anyway. They’ll eat you out of house and home and then give you a purple nurple when you’r not lookin’ :).
Good article though, probably going to guarentee another 100 feet of corn being wiped out while cultivating because I should have been watching instead of thinking
Have a good one,
Brad
May 22nd, 2007 at 7:40 am
Brad, good comments… I like your thoughts. I wish our JD 3020 was a diesel, but it’s not. It is a gas guzzling monster, but it pulls 4-16s through 10-year sod like nothing, so we use it.
2-bangers, we’ve got a fleet of ‘em. No cobwebs on them as they get used every day. The 1958 JD 620 is all original, and runs great. It’s hooked to the planter, and it stays on the planter. soon, it will be mounted with the cultivator, probably all summer, as we are not using any chems for weed control.
Of course if we don’t get any rain, that won’t matter!!
Gear up and throttle down works great on planting and cultivating, but if I put the 14′ heavy disc on the 620, there’s no throttling down, she needs all the fuel she can get! But you are right, the 2-bangers sip gas compared to the 3020.
Why get a 3020 gas, rather than diesel? They are about $3500 cheaper than a comparable diesel, so I guess thats’ what I’m spending on gas!!
I totally agree with your assessment of horses. The will eat, eat, eat, plus you gotta think about thier “personality” and cater to thier every whim. Tractors run when you need them and then rest when you don’t… However, I wonder, and actually beleive that some day, we simply may not be able to obtain gas, or may not have the cash with which to get it… In that time, feeding the horse will seem easy, and maybe now is the time to practice… I don’t know either, just a thought…
Thanks!
GFJ
May 22nd, 2007 at 10:50 am
“However, I wonder, and actually beleive that some day, we simply may not be able to obtain gas, or may not have the cash with which to get it… In that time, feeding the horse will seem easy, and maybe now is the time to practice… I don’t know either, just a thought…”
Good point there. But, I’m down in the south and around here I’ve got plenty of “Family recipes”
. I’m holding out for the home grown ethanol production. In fact there’s remnants of a still somewhere in the woodlot. Of course, I’ll have to convince Uncle Bo not to drink all our fuel.
All kidding aside, this fuel is getting to be a tough problem. Just not enough slack anywhere else to keep having to deal with 33-100% increases every year in the gas. I’ve got all two row stuff. Maybe looking for 4 row would be a better option . Raking hay the other day I was wanting to hook up another rake and the ol 6′ sickle bar just aint as cheap as it used to be.
Its the old “get big or get out” from another angle. I’ve thought about going corn on corn with vetch as a winter cover and hope to just disk it in. Its just a thought now, but like you said the fuel gage goes as fast as the sod scours… even with 2-14’s!! It will make for a pretty trashy field come planting time, I just don’t know….. I’m all for any ideas.
You know John, I really like your idea about authentic agriculture (I hope that was you). I mean I think about that a lot. But, I was thinking about it the other day… what if the rules change. Like with this gas price increase.. Can Authentic Ag rules still apply? Looking up the price of gas adjusted for inflation compared to the 1950 (the year of my JD “B”). the price should be around $2 a gallon. Hmmmm….. its 33% more than it would have been in 1950. How can we offset this cost using Authentic ag? I don’t know the answer.
I don’t mean to sound like I’m attacking your idea. In fact I’m probably one of the biggest proponents. I’m just thinking out loud and wondering how to outskimp the frugalist (if thats a word) people known to man in the last 40 years (Including my wifes father who dogged me because I still had straw on the brim of my tatttered hat that had been run through the brush hog and was going to buy a new one.)
Not easy answers to this one.
Brad
May 22nd, 2007 at 12:42 pm
Good Farmer John,
Maybe we need to start feeding our hogs and chickens with more of the byproducts from ruminant livestock. I remember family stories talking about how the cow milk produced on the farm was converted to butter on the farm and then skim milk was fed to the hogs. Currently some of our skim milk is going to a neighbor’s hogs and in the past we have fed hogs on skim milk. We currently have our chickens eating curdled skim milk, plus some barley. So the chickens can make use of the milk as well. Our ducks will consume a lot of milk. This doesn’t completely eliminate the need to feed grain to hogs and chickens, but it should reduce their grain needs. I vaguely remember reading that years ago chicken was more of a luxury food, while beef was cheaper. (I think it was Joel Salatin that said this.)
Would oxen be more economical than horses? Somehow I would rather have a draft animal that I could eat, rather than burning hay and grain on an animal that I would prefer to not eat (horses).
Jim V
May 22nd, 2007 at 8:37 pm
Around here hay ground is being tilled up for corn. Hay is going up in price even as last yrs crop sits in the hay loft. A concern for small farms with no hay ground.
Could horses be mulit-farm owned thereby spreading out the costs or possible renting a team or two for plowing? On a large holding ,horses would extend the amount of time plowing quite a bit though .
May 22nd, 2007 at 8:50 pm
Jim V,
I also prefer the use of oxen over horses, except I believe horses might work a little faster.
As far as grain, we use hardly any corn at all here. Our hogs (Tamworth) and poultry are grass fed, and only the hogs get a little corn. They all seem to thrive on grass only, with some milk and veggies thrown in, and excess eggs for the hogs. The free-range poultry receives no corn, only mineral and shell supplements.
Actually the hogs would do just fine without the corn, it is more or less just a treat. Tamworths are a very hardy breed, and very capable of foraging for their own food. Too much corn will cause them to get too fatty, which is why Tamworths are not used in factory farming systems. Raised on grass though, they produce very lean, very good meat.
May 22nd, 2007 at 9:25 pm
I think that looking into alterative feed sources is a good idea. The two thing that come to mind are: worms and sprouting grain (it goes about 34% farther than un-sprouted grain.) The worms would be raised in composting beds and all bio-degradable wast would be fed to the worms. In turn you would feed the worms to the chickens. The possiblites are endless.
May 22nd, 2007 at 11:00 pm
Brad,
Get small and LIVE!!
You raise some great points. As far as Authentic Agriculture goes, the key component which makes all other labels obsolete for the Christian farmer is the fact that Authentic Agriculture acknowledges the One who provides for us all. He is our Hope, regardless of the solution (or lack of solution) to the problems facing agriculture. Great comments, thanks
Jim,
I love the skim milk idea. We do that here when we can with our goat’s milk. I’m tempted to put in a few more goats just for the milk. The only draw back is the things are just too friendly, always in my face!!
I’d love to try oxen. I like the idea of eating the tractor when it’s worn out. Almonzo Wilder in “Farmer Boy” trained a team as a boy… Hmmmm….
Upcountry,
Thanks for the comment! Is upcountry anywhere near North Country, as in Minnesota?? I’ve been wanting to learn more about Tamworths and try some eventually… Will they eat hay in the winter like my sheep do? Or will I have to feed them corn then? I’d love to eliminate or at least reduce corn. You’ve got my ear! Tell us more!
Nathan,
I like the worm idea. Have you guys at Polyface tried this with the Cornish Cross chicks? I’m thinking worms are long on protein, short on energy… Great suggestion!!
GFJ
May 23rd, 2007 at 6:57 am
GFJ,
As far as I know they have not tried feeding worms to the Cornish Cross chicks but that is mainly because we are so busy in the spring. That being said as the price of feed rises both sprouting grains and feeding worms to the chickens becomes more and more attractive.
May 23rd, 2007 at 9:16 pm
GFJ,
Tonight a neighbor said that thirty years ago his father rasied pigs with a lot less grain than is used today. He said that his father rotationally grazed the pigs (the challenege was to get water to them) and when the acorns were ready, the pigs were moved to the paddocks where there were acorns.
Jim V
May 23rd, 2007 at 11:03 pm
Nathan and Jim V…
This is all great. We are already grazing the pigs, but maybe just not hard enough. we still supplement with a good bit of corn. Maybe by withholding some, we can force them to forage harder…
Thanks to all for a great discussion.
GFJ
May 24th, 2007 at 7:21 am
If we can find the time the plan is to set up some big 5 acre paddocks in the wood to try to finish about 30 hogs at a time. We are hoping that there will be alot of acorn for them to eat as well as some brushy green forage. I will let you know how it goes if we get around to it.
June 2nd, 2007 at 10:32 pm
Could you suggest a supplier that sells seeds for non-GMO open pollinated corn? I’d like to try it in my backyard garden here in Florida. Thanks!
June 3rd, 2007 at 1:11 am
Tom McConnell (http://ruralmissourian.christianagrarian.com/) is quite the proponent of using mules as draft animals. They apparently are much smarter than horses, live a lot longer, eat much less, and are less picky about what they need for eating.
You might add them to the list of possibilities.
September 2nd, 2008 at 4:57 pm
hey
its very reasonable article.
Nice post.
realy gj
thx