Gene Lodgson's book that I've mentioned a few times is one of my more recent encounters, but it has gone a long way to making the logic of field crops clear. I'm starting to follow the actual mechanics of crop rotation and imagine how field crops could be useful and not just annoying. A dozen or so crops...maybe all after a year or so of alfalfa or controlled grazing. He's got me thinking that we might be at the right latitude to grow both flax and cotton, which would be a pip. J-field will accept 14 different 1/4 acre crops, leaving more than 6 acres for pasture and horse-field and the house yard for intensive beds and forest garden. Let's go through the contenders to see how they'll yield per 1/4 acre. Some I won't estimate. Here, by the way, are commercial bushel weights.
Flax: 30 liters (.38l/kg / 2.2 = .17l/lb x 60 lb x 3 = 30 l linseed oil)
Cotton: around 200 lbs (831 lbs/acre)
Corn: 20 bu, 1400 lbs
Sunflowers: 18 gal. oil
Tobacco: 500 lbs - click this. ($4/lb organic! plant near sunflowers)
wheat: 20 bu, 1200 lbs
barley: 20 bu, 1200 lbs
then, say, cabbage, dry beans, rice (upland? Mexican?), buckwheat, peanuts. Clover, alfalfa. Must try to figure out legume under- or interplanting. And at least wheat is an overwintering crop, maybe it can be double-cropped. It really might make the most sense to graze poultry on the pasture and keep one or two goats or a cow. So many birds versus what seems like will be a cow for every two acres. I have a hard time imagining those requirements, especially with what sound like will be quick recharges during the growing season. I can see having to cut hay but I hold out hope that i could keep a dozen head there. Many who read this might laugh. Seems like a pretty simple piece of information to have eluded me so far. Maybe I just don't want to accept what I've gathered so far.
That tobacco figure is exciting. Not to mention that I'll probably be having to pick out one of these bad boys soon enough.
Monday, June 29, 2009
If you look at the farm on google earth, you can discern what looks like a pretty accurate topography of the place. The road that runs the length of the property is on the east side, and it is below a ridge to the west. Over the ridge is a deeper hollow that curves along. The larger fields to the south are higher than the rest.
A few things have gotten me thinking a lot more about water. In class we spent much of a day talking about graywater. We get much more rain than Oakland's 24 inches, and it is frequent, but its probably just as important in a place that doesn't have a 7-month annual drought. Joel Salatin was all about ponds. Ive been thinking about where they could go. Maybe between the horse field and the L-field. Anyway we hardly need terracing at Patuxent farm but that doesn't mean we can't experiment. Alternatively we could plant clumping bamboo and others at high-flow areas - either on falls between fields or at greywater systems. I get the feeling that the means of achieving water conservation will serve equally well to deal with large volumes of water. From the Chesapeake Ecology Center , "Slow it down, spread it out, soak it in," and water people around the SF bay say "Slow, spread, and infiltrate." I remembered something about needing to cool off the water too, and though it was in the slogan, but no. All but some natives are dormant here in CA when it rains so I doubt anyone cares about the temperature of the water. Actually, spring gardeners would love to warm it up. The growing season in beds would be two months longer.
Whether too little water or too much, soaking it in is the only way to manage it without externalizing it. It seems the only way to do this that is biologically relevant without heavy leaching is to have great soil structure, with or without ponds and terracing. How convenient that that is exactly how it seems that plants will grow best and manage pests on their own. I hope I don't eat my glibness. Not like I'm claiming I have perfect soil or anything.
I read Lodgson's Small Scale Grain Raising, which is referenced in the first post, and his chapter on rice was mostly about one experiment he and a friend did. We could try paddy rice if we put in a paddy on a short fall, and upland, dry, rice other places. A woman did a presentation in class from her masters thesis about terrace agriculture, especially in Peru. She covered technical aspects and revealed their sophistication but also talked about the kind of social contract that such an undertaking and practice necessitated and created, and tracked the peoples' orientation to their land and these public works projects as they went through cycles of empire, foreign and domestic. Super interesting.
Masanobu Fukuoka's manual The Natural Way of Farming and then Joel Salatin and the Permaculture class have renewed and greatly clarified my hots for no till and no dig systems, especially because they suggest it can be useful more often than I thought. Fukuoka says no way to it most of the time, Salatin says that historically tillage was limited to 2 of every 7 years. And it's clear why no-till didn't work for me in the spring - I wasn't giving it what it needed. It needs a lot of food, especially to start. I needed lots of straw at every location, and real compost instead of the Disaster Mix. Ready to try again. And have to remember that it can take a while for the life to come back (though there were lots of worms at the time). MyFarm should do like Christopher Shein and get 55 gal of kitchen scraps a week at the gardens. Then we would be talking compost. Similarly, we should figure out neighbors of Patuxent who can supply us with mulch materials for fertility - organic isn't critical, but no toxics.
A few things have gotten me thinking a lot more about water. In class we spent much of a day talking about graywater. We get much more rain than Oakland's 24 inches, and it is frequent, but its probably just as important in a place that doesn't have a 7-month annual drought. Joel Salatin was all about ponds. Ive been thinking about where they could go. Maybe between the horse field and the L-field. Anyway we hardly need terracing at Patuxent farm but that doesn't mean we can't experiment. Alternatively we could plant clumping bamboo and others at high-flow areas - either on falls between fields or at greywater systems. I get the feeling that the means of achieving water conservation will serve equally well to deal with large volumes of water. From the Chesapeake Ecology Center , "Slow it down, spread it out, soak it in," and water people around the SF bay say "Slow, spread, and infiltrate." I remembered something about needing to cool off the water too, and though it was in the slogan, but no. All but some natives are dormant here in CA when it rains so I doubt anyone cares about the temperature of the water. Actually, spring gardeners would love to warm it up. The growing season in beds would be two months longer.
Whether too little water or too much, soaking it in is the only way to manage it without externalizing it. It seems the only way to do this that is biologically relevant without heavy leaching is to have great soil structure, with or without ponds and terracing. How convenient that that is exactly how it seems that plants will grow best and manage pests on their own. I hope I don't eat my glibness. Not like I'm claiming I have perfect soil or anything.
I read Lodgson's Small Scale Grain Raising, which is referenced in the first post, and his chapter on rice was mostly about one experiment he and a friend did. We could try paddy rice if we put in a paddy on a short fall, and upland, dry, rice other places. A woman did a presentation in class from her masters thesis about terrace agriculture, especially in Peru. She covered technical aspects and revealed their sophistication but also talked about the kind of social contract that such an undertaking and practice necessitated and created, and tracked the peoples' orientation to their land and these public works projects as they went through cycles of empire, foreign and domestic. Super interesting.
Masanobu Fukuoka's manual The Natural Way of Farming and then Joel Salatin and the Permaculture class have renewed and greatly clarified my hots for no till and no dig systems, especially because they suggest it can be useful more often than I thought. Fukuoka says no way to it most of the time, Salatin says that historically tillage was limited to 2 of every 7 years. And it's clear why no-till didn't work for me in the spring - I wasn't giving it what it needed. It needs a lot of food, especially to start. I needed lots of straw at every location, and real compost instead of the Disaster Mix. Ready to try again. And have to remember that it can take a while for the life to come back (though there were lots of worms at the time). MyFarm should do like Christopher Shein and get 55 gal of kitchen scraps a week at the gardens. Then we would be talking compost. Similarly, we should figure out neighbors of Patuxent who can supply us with mulch materials for fertility - organic isn't critical, but no toxics.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Total acreage
I just measured the acreage breakdown with an online planimeter.
The total acreage comes to 70, according to the line Matt J drew. The fields comes out to 11.68 acres, which is 17% of the total property. This is obviously an extremely rough survey, but I followed those treelines on Google pretty carefully. I would be surprised if the field acreage were off by more than a tenth or two of an acre.
In theory, the 17% figure may indicate that the landscape could support some conversion of timber area to cropland or pasture, but this must be considered with great restraint.
Check out the map on the sidebar to see how each field measures up. There is some space that is not measured, namely, the area around the house and doghouse and other potentially semi-exposed places. These spots are ripe for permaculture orchards.
The total acreage comes to 70, according to the line Matt J drew. The fields comes out to 11.68 acres, which is 17% of the total property. This is obviously an extremely rough survey, but I followed those treelines on Google pretty carefully. I would be surprised if the field acreage were off by more than a tenth or two of an acre.
In theory, the 17% figure may indicate that the landscape could support some conversion of timber area to cropland or pasture, but this must be considered with great restraint.
Check out the map on the sidebar to see how each field measures up. There is some space that is not measured, namely, the area around the house and doghouse and other potentially semi-exposed places. These spots are ripe for permaculture orchards.
Pasture Forage Estimate per Acre
I just ran a formula provided in June's Stockman Grass Farmer to determine the quantity of pasture forage per acre I should be able to expect if I am maximizing the pasture's ability to capture solar energy. The environmental variable (as opposed to growing methods) is rainfall during the growing season and one month prior. I found average rainfall data here.
In my range of rainfall (30.5 inches March-October) I should expect between 350 and 400 lbs/inch of rain (I'll say 375) = 11,438 lbs/acre.
5.72 tons per acre. Now I need to find out how that translates to animals and how to build pasture.
In my range of rainfall (30.5 inches March-October) I should expect between 350 and 400 lbs/inch of rain (I'll say 375) = 11,438 lbs/acre.
5.72 tons per acre. Now I need to find out how that translates to animals and how to build pasture.
Introductions
The deal with this blog is that I'll be moving to this former tobacco farm at the end of the year in order to start a new farm with my friend Mr. Matt Jenkins. I don't yet know the things I need to do that, because I intend to keep animals as soon as possible. Plants-only, I could muddle through, it being eminently clear so far that growing plants really well depends on building great soil and I understand the fundamentals there. But I am not certain I know how to keep the animals healthy and well fed. I believe I know my sources: Greg Judy, Allan Nation, Joel Salatin, Newman Turner, ATTRA, and The Stockman Grass Farmer magazine, and their ilk. They advocate livestock rotation on pasture in such a way that allows grass to grow back rapidly and builds soil: Management Intensive Grazing, or MiG.
I'm also about to start taking some classes at Merritt College in Oakland - Permaculture, Dams to Greywater, Herbs, Cycles of Land Use.
One day this will be a real farm blog. For now it's a record of the stuff I want to do and learn, and the stuff I'm doing and learning. I'll work on plans and post drafts of them here.
So, here's the broad plan, as just promised: I want to build a mixed farm where microscopic life, plants, and animals work with humans to build fertility and abundance without chemical inputs, and eventually, without inputs of any kind. I want to first establish a subsistence farm, with at most a farmstand at the street. When this proves viable, we can expand our volume, first to serve the immediate community (at bargain prices) and later the broader area (at boutique prices). One of the goals is to incentivize economic action in the community. I want to produce a broad variety of crops and value-added products, and become a reliable source for clean, ethical, health-promoting goods for my neighbors and family.
Please, write me with any questions or comments you may have. Encouragement or reinforcement, especially from Chesapeake farmers or food people, is particularly appreciated.
I'm also about to start taking some classes at Merritt College in Oakland - Permaculture, Dams to Greywater, Herbs, Cycles of Land Use.
One day this will be a real farm blog. For now it's a record of the stuff I want to do and learn, and the stuff I'm doing and learning. I'll work on plans and post drafts of them here.
So, here's the broad plan, as just promised: I want to build a mixed farm where microscopic life, plants, and animals work with humans to build fertility and abundance without chemical inputs, and eventually, without inputs of any kind. I want to first establish a subsistence farm, with at most a farmstand at the street. When this proves viable, we can expand our volume, first to serve the immediate community (at bargain prices) and later the broader area (at boutique prices). One of the goals is to incentivize economic action in the community. I want to produce a broad variety of crops and value-added products, and become a reliable source for clean, ethical, health-promoting goods for my neighbors and family.
Please, write me with any questions or comments you may have. Encouragement or reinforcement, especially from Chesapeake farmers or food people, is particularly appreciated.
Robert Kennedy Jr. and Pigs
2 plans:
Pigs would probably be the third or fourth animal family on the farm, following almost certainly a milk-bearer, either goat or cow. I need to find out more about rotation and stock density, not to mention pig nutrition and whey fattening. This last one is the primary reason it seems indispensable to keep hogs if one is trying to make cheese. After all this time I don't have a clear idea of how to make sure I have enough of the correct food to keep the animals happy. Maybe its that I haven't grown grass before, outside of the cover crop last year, which seemed quite happy. To be fair I haven't read a manual on that yet. Ought to get a grazing book today and close that gap. It's clear enough that making good soil is how to grow everything else. On the other end of the spectrum, I just read a piece written by Robert Kennedy Jr. to the people of Poland regarding Smithfield Pork's incursion there:
I got a call to be in the Playwrights Foundation Festival, which has been brought almost as much good stuff as the Mime Troupe. I'd miss too much class to make rehearsal. Too bad, it would be a good cap on things in SF. Made me think one more time about doing theater in MD, DC, and farmside.
Pigs would probably be the third or fourth animal family on the farm, following almost certainly a milk-bearer, either goat or cow. I need to find out more about rotation and stock density, not to mention pig nutrition and whey fattening. This last one is the primary reason it seems indispensable to keep hogs if one is trying to make cheese. After all this time I don't have a clear idea of how to make sure I have enough of the correct food to keep the animals happy. Maybe its that I haven't grown grass before, outside of the cover crop last year, which seemed quite happy. To be fair I haven't read a manual on that yet. Ought to get a grazing book today and close that gap. It's clear enough that making good soil is how to grow everything else. On the other end of the spectrum, I just read a piece written by Robert Kennedy Jr. to the people of Poland regarding Smithfield Pork's incursion there:
I got a call to be in the Playwrights Foundation Festival, which has been brought almost as much good stuff as the Mime Troupe. I'd miss too much class to make rehearsal. Too bad, it would be a good cap on things in SF. Made me think one more time about doing theater in MD, DC, and farmside.
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Just to get things moving
Class starts between the 11th and 22nd of this month depending on whether a class called "Dams to Greywater" is offered. The farms are all but transferred to Chelsea and it looks like next week will be my last week on rounds. I'm trying to spend the time making up class as I go along and spend time convincing myself that watching videos and scouring for farm/ecology resources online qualify as productive work.
I'll post books and articles I read or saw.
http://farmlandgrab.org
the fight against foreign acquisition of farmland.
it appears rising industrial powers are leaping to buy land in africa to feed them
http://www.breadinfo.com/flour.shtml
http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_18082.cfm
A 10' by 10' plot of wheat will grow 10-25 loaves of bread and produce a huge amount of compost material. It's less demanding of nutrients than most vegetables...Ive never tried milling in a blender or food processor but they say it's a breeze. Zing!
I'll post books and articles I read or saw.
http://farmlandgrab.org
the fight against foreign acquisition of farmland.
it appears rising industrial powers are leaping to buy land in africa to feed them
http://www.breadinfo.com/flour.shtml
http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_18082.cfm
A 10' by 10' plot of wheat will grow 10-25 loaves of bread and produce a huge amount of compost material. It's less demanding of nutrients than most vegetables...Ive never tried milling in a blender or food processor but they say it's a breeze. Zing!
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