>Steve,
> Do you really think most that have adapted no-till have widened their
>rotation? I don't see much besides no-till corn followed with no-till
beans
>around here. I think thats hardly more than an alternation of crops. Its
a
>far cry from a rotation. I don't have any idea on the amount of chemicals
>they are applying but I would guess that the no-till farmers that use
>reduced rates are about as few and far between as the farmers who use
>tillage. I've seen the video on your farm and what you are doing is a very
>sensible aproach. Very low chemical and low erosion aproach to growing
>vegetables. I have a very hard time lumping all the no-till farmers in
with
>you. I doubt if most, just like tillage farmers, are not at all concerned
>about sustainability.
>
>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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