central ohio..between Springville and Millbrook. | paul the original - 5/6/2016 08:23
The question becomes, where does that organic material come from? Nothing is free, in an organic system it seems they add kelp or fish from the sea, or manure from livestock from some other land; or import humus from some other lands.
None of that then is truly sustainable, it is mining one land to grow a crop on another land?
I have a spring swamp that dries up and I harvest hay from it. First cutting is kinda course and may not dry well from all the moisture. Second cutting is wonderful hay.
I feed the first cutting to my cattle in won't er the corn stalk field. They eat half and sleep on the other half of each bale.
It sure adds to my field, but clearly I am taking away from the land that grows the hay.
Interesting how we define these things.
Paul
Very good point paul. I buy and spread alot of chicken manure from a couple commercial broiler houses on my hay fields. It's is AMAZING how much fertility a long term mixed hay crop removes from the soil.
I often wonder where that organic matter is coming from. Someone somewhere is depleting their soil to sell the grain to the chicken farm...then I am buying that organic matter and spreading it on my ground....then my hay is going to Florida so I'm not replacing my own organic matter.
Definatly not a full circle! |
anybody heard of composting forages to make humus???
