Re: Water for Your farm(P.A. Yeomans) and Centuar design

Tom Armstrong (toma@crl.com)
Thu, 18 Jun 1998 20:56:49 -0700 (PDT)

> method that we use is called pattern cultivation, or pattern/parallel
> plowing (see our web page for some pictures). Its dreadfully easy. We simply
> with our Yeomans Keyline Plow on the back of the tractor drive a line that
> from a ridge goes slightly 'up' or rises into the adjacent gully, and then
> go 'down' or slightly fall into the next ridge. Once you have done this
> across a paddock then you turn around and run parallel to this first line of
> cultivation and repeat until you have plowed the whole paddock. Geoff
> Wallace put it in Permaculture Two very well indeed:

This sounds like a very interesting system that we could apply on our farm.
I imagine the effectiveness of this type of cultivation must vary with
soil type. Our soil is heavy clay.

Our slope is about 28% I am able to grow dryland crops by countour
plowing with a moldboard plow. In the future I would like to adapt to a
system of conservation tillage that does not invert the soil.

Noone that I know of in this area has tried any form of no-till or
conservation tillage that I know of. I assume that it may take some trial
and error to find just the right type of ripper for the soil thet we have.

Tom Armstrong toma@crl.com Sequera Ranch s.1892 San Gregorio, CA
Barnyard Technology--- Ideas for tomorrow -> from yesterday's scrap.
4th -> 5th gen. on family farm. Can Ag Sustain?
A ghost town fights its way back.. http://www.crl.com/~toma/

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