[Jacob-list] soil

[gotothewhip at aol.com]

I agree with you guys that conventional tillage, especially if done incorrectly or at the wrong time can be scary.  Here in Colorado, the land of 12 inches annual rainfall it can be doubly scary when our spring winds roll off the mountains and across the front range.  

With that said, done correctly, to provide an appropriate seed bed, conventional tillage can be wonderful... and I have seen great success in conventional tillage out here with cover/nurse crops, and then following behind the nurse crop with a grass seed planted into the stubble using a double disk opening no till drill with shaker/agitator box.  

Coming in with alfalfa can be a curious situation.. As an agent, I would be asking questions about what the current ground cover is, what weed control methods are available and have been used, and what the plan is for this pasture.

Depending on soil type, a hard dry ground like we have here in much of the Rocky Mountain west, may laugh at your tractor and implements.  Many of our small farms and small acreage's hire out tillage to be done by those with a 40hp+ tractor with lost of downward pressure on the implements.

The fact you have access to irrigation is a good thing and takes out a good bit of the issues around this.. 

But to me, it boils down to getting local advice.... 

Be ready with answers for soil type and testing information (Never Guess... Soil Test!) How many acres you plan to put in, and what your water allocation for irrigation is ( I think ID is a first right state when it comes to water law) 



Good luck, And Kudos to you for improving your land! 

Jennifer Tucker
Moose Mtn Ranch


-----Original Message-----
From: Neal and Louise Grose <nlgrose at yadtel.net>
To: Betty Berlenbach <lambfarm at sover.net>; jacob-list at jacobsheep.com
Sent: Wed, Mar 3, 2010 6:31 am
Subject: Re: [Jacob-list] soil


Hey Betty,
 
I think we have had your winter. 34 degrees and snow yesterday. We have been well below normal in temp and WET. Yuck.
 
What we have found is that tillage destroys soil. Period. They used to say that NC soils could not be more than 1% organic matter. Since we switched to 100% no-till, we have fields that are over 3%. More importantly, good soil structure depends on a build-up of microfilaments of fungus and air spaces that are wiped out by tillage.  Our row crop land now has better water absorption capacity than pastures.
 
Neal

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Betty Berlenbach 
To: jacob-list at jacobsheep.com 
Sent: Wednesday, March 03, 2010 7:19 AM
Subject: [Jacob-list] soil


Sounds to me, Neil, like we threw the baby out with the bathwater; that is, using organic matter to improve the soil, sounds a good thing; I agree that tilling is not good.  But "modern" farming gave up the organic matter in favor of chemical fertilizers.  Now, we want to make sure we stop the tilling, but keep the organic matter!  At least, that's the way we've decided is best up here in Vermont, which is NOT frigid this year, which worries me a great deal. To have temps of 48 in early March is unheard of; we've only had about 10 days below 20 degrees this year, I think...instead of six to eight weeks of it.  It means I might even have to worm the sheep this Spring!  Generally, since the ground is frozen all winter, and right up to the time they go out on pasture, I don't much worry about such things...It is seldom needed...
 Betty, in Vermont,who now has a blog, thanks to help from Walter and Linda.  See Betty's blog at http://sheepwoman.wordpress.com.


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