I am farming a lot of work outside of planting and harvesting?
- Thread starter chandrest
- Start date
flowerbug
Garden Master
as a gardener who lives in the middle of an agricultural area it depends a lot upon the methods you are going to use.
most of the fields around us are rented out or farmed by others than the actual land owners. this means that most of them are managed as a topsoil nutrient strip mining operation with little consideration of nutrient overloading, erosion or other concerns about the environment. they are repeately sprayed for weed control and few have any crop rotation other than soybeans or corn.
what used to be fertile topsoil is mostly gone by now and they are farming the subsoil and amending it as little as possible. the fields are often left bare for the off months and few do minimal till planting. even something as simple as using a cover crop or doing a rotation with alfalfa for a few years is too much to expect.
the question you are asking is about how much work is involved? almost none if you hire someone else and just collect your rent, but the effect on the world around your land and the creatures can be quite significant based upon what choices you make.
as a gardener i can be a lot more influential based upon what i plant and the diversity of plants i have here. a lot of animals will use our small plot and you won't see them out in the surrounding fields that much. in the past when farmers would plow a field there would be birds following behind the plows to eat whatever worms or grubs would be turned up. now there is very little of that happening...
most of the fields around us are rented out or farmed by others than the actual land owners. this means that most of them are managed as a topsoil nutrient strip mining operation with little consideration of nutrient overloading, erosion or other concerns about the environment. they are repeately sprayed for weed control and few have any crop rotation other than soybeans or corn.
what used to be fertile topsoil is mostly gone by now and they are farming the subsoil and amending it as little as possible. the fields are often left bare for the off months and few do minimal till planting. even something as simple as using a cover crop or doing a rotation with alfalfa for a few years is too much to expect.
the question you are asking is about how much work is involved? almost none if you hire someone else and just collect your rent, but the effect on the world around your land and the creatures can be quite significant based upon what choices you make.
as a gardener i can be a lot more influential based upon what i plant and the diversity of plants i have here. a lot of animals will use our small plot and you won't see them out in the surrounding fields that much. in the past when farmers would plow a field there would be birds following behind the plows to eat whatever worms or grubs would be turned up. now there is very little of that happening...
ducks4you
Garden Master
- Joined
- Sep 4, 2009
- Messages
- 13,588
- Reaction score
- 21,405
- Points
- 437
TOO.TRUE.
