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| Isn't farming more or less a continuous experiment? For me the question gets to be more what I'm trying prove and is it reasonable. Part of the problem is that unless I'm 50/50 the land cost for poor ground is really no different (inputs and rent). Naturally if you farm lots of acres and have a new planter yields come up - or actually acres get adjusted to the yield, but other than that I'm not seeing any magic. I've farmed for 18 years and didn't take ag in high school and mechanical engineering in college pretty much stayed clear of the biosphere, so I'm positive I've missed some classes, meetings, hats and calendars that could have given me important information (or at least a hat). So, every so often it seems necessary to ask an obvious question just to make sure I don't hear "well you need a refresher course... it's all ball bearings these days" (ref. fletch).
At this point the major stumbling block to eaking out more yield on not so great ground is cash and the ability of the farm to cover the cost in the long run. I'd love to get a tile plow and set it up with my rtk system and tile away, but the plastic is the most expensive part of the deal anymore and right now it appears like a 287 year payback. I guess I'm seeing drainage on my poorer soils as only a incremental improvement - might be a game winner on the better though. With cash being a limiting factor, in the short run cultural practices are about my only tool. We'll keep the manure going and fix problems (cheap backhoe and trencher are probably necessities anymore) and watch for the sinister Dr. Gruver to come up with a stable/works most of the time plan and keep soil testing.
On a side note sulfur was never a problem in the past due to vehicle emissions, but now we don't get the free S anymore. I'm seeing that I'm adding sulfur every so often even with the manure program. The manure concerns me a little since so many of the nutrients might be in forms that we don't typically test for and once these break down I may find I'm having to slam on the brakes on manure. I'm pretty sure phosphorus will eventually start building pretty fast (no phytase anymore and ddg's and other ingredients might give us more than ever) and it's wait and see on some of the other nutrients. Hopefully the microbes don't go union and strike. | |
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making 200bpa ground out of 150bpa ground....
