I still don't understand why we have to grow so much corn(no-tilled or not)
in this country and turn around and feed it to ruminant animals. No-till is
better than molboard on erosion but it doesn't compare to untilled
grass/legume pasture.
Have you got all your vegetables in the ground?
Best wishes,
Greg Gunthorp
Free Range Hog Farmer
LaGrange, IN
-----Original Message-----
From: Steve Groff <sgroff@epix.net>
To: Pat Elazar <Pat_Elazar@cwb.ca>
Cc: Roberto Verzola <rverzola@phil.gn.apc.org>; lonrom@hevanet.com
<lonrom@hevanet.com>; sanet-mg@ces.ncsu.edu <sanet-mg@ces.ncsu.edu>
Date: Thursday, May 20, 1999 9:36 PM
Subject: Re: No-till (Formerly FW: Farmers Part of the Global
WarmingSolution)
>
>
>Pat Elazar wrote:
>
>> <Roberto wrote:
>>
>> <I'm just curious: is it possible that this campaign against tillage is
>> <part of the pesticide industry effort to sell herbicides?>
>
>Who have you seen or heard campaigning against tillage?
>Of course companies who manufacture herbicides will promote them to no till
farmers,
>but as you see below, long term no till will reduce the need for
herbicides. It
>certainly has on my farm.
>If you talk with any soil scientist, he will tell you that most tillage has
a
>detrimental effect on the soil. Tilling the soil might benefit the farmer
in some
>way, but not the soil and the critters who live in it.
>
>
>> the no-till/low-till guys who'd been doing it for a while generally used
less
>> chemical than anybody else. If they survived the first couple of years,
they
>> learned how to walk their fields, map their fields & widen rotations to
reduce
>> weed problems systemically. The no-till guys also used half-rates, one
third
>> rates & spot applications when they did spray. They also chose more
competitive
>> varieties & tinkered combine settings to maximize crop residue (we
usually call
>> that mulch on this list). After 10 years of no-till, they usually had
more
>> organic matter, less weeds, less disease problems than their neighbours &
maybe
>> even a few worms!
>>
>> <After nearly 10,000 years of tilling the soil, I would imagine farmers
would
>> have
>> <known if it made the soil less productive.>
>
>Alot of farmers (especially the conventional) are aware of this and are
doing
>something about it now. I've found the detrimantal effects of tillage to be
an issue
>that a good many sustainable farmers ignore. The moldbord plow has caused
>significant damage to the quality of soil.
>
>Steve Groff
>
>--
>"Enhancing the Environment" www.cedarmeadowfarm.com
>Cedar Meadow Farm
>679 Hilldale Rd
>Holtwood PA 17532 USA Ph. 717-284-5152
>
>
>
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