General Discussion

BronxBoy

(2,287 posts)

51. You're exactly right....

Tue Mar 10, 2015, 12:58 PM

Mar 2015

And one of the problems with introducing these practices piecemeal to farmers who haven't used them is that you are taking one piece out of a system that is designed to work as a whole. No-till should be used in conjunction with crop rotations and specific cover cropping but convincing a farmer to take usable land out of production in a climate like yours is a very tall order.

A lot of these practices are coming out of the organic and sustainable agriculture movements. One of the problems those of us in the movement have is showing that these practices can effectively scale up to larger farms and that they can be utilized without killing a farmers bottom line. I strongly believe that the burden is on us to do this research and identify and solve the issues. And it will take time. But 10 or 15 years ago, this subject would have fallen on deaf ears in the conventional ag world.

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No-Till Farming on the Rise with Better Profits and less Fertilizer Run-off [View all] GreatGazoo Mar 2015 OP

Oh, there's a member here who will love this! mopinko I think is their name? herding cats Mar 2015 #1

I am FB friends with her. KamaAina Mar 2015 #43

If you were the person who alerted them to the post, thank you. herding cats Mar 2015 #82

De nada. KamaAina Mar 2015 #86

yes i am. mopinko Mar 2015 #61

I respect what you're doing and I totally support your efforts. herding cats Mar 2015 #83

ripples in the pond. mopinko Mar 2015 #84

Cool. Bookmarked for later. NaturalHigh Mar 2015 #2

This appears to be a promotional piece for GMO's and Roundup. pnwmom Mar 2015 #3

Thanks for this info! whereisjustice Mar 2015 #6

Organic No-Till uses a heavy crimp roller to kill the cover crop and weeds mechanically GreatGazoo Mar 2015 #16

Thanks for providing the information that should have been in the other article. n/t pnwmom Mar 2015 #19

the article itself says something else. ND-Dem Mar 2015 #29

Mc Allister is not an organic farmer GreatGazoo Mar 2015 #39

Thanks for covering that, that was the first question that popped into my mind. Erich Bloodaxe BSN Mar 2015 #55

Thank you. This is the first thing I considered. Enthusiast Mar 2015 #7

GM and No-Till are 2 different components that don't necessarily go together GreatGazoo Mar 2015 #14

Thank you. Unfortunately, the article only mentioned using an herbicide pnwmom Mar 2015 #21

thanks. i wondered how they 'killed' the cover crop all at once and 'rolled it flat'. ND-Dem Mar 2015 #27

If you read the NYT article, there are plenty of farmers doing kestrel91316 Mar 2015 #44

I could not fine any GMO reference in the article. Where did you see that? yellowcanine Mar 2015 #59

It is buried in the 32nd paragraph. pnwmom Mar 2015 #62

Buried in 32nd paragraph is "promoting?" I thought it was "glossing over." yellowcanine Mar 2015 #64

It is promoting the idea of no-till while glossing over the fact that pnwmom Mar 2015 #65

No till was widely used (1970s-80s) long before GMO crops (1996) yellowcanine Mar 2015 #73

making the perfect the enemy of the good. mopinko Mar 2015 #66

Current tilling regiments are eroding soil faster than the sustainable rate NickB79 Mar 2015 #81

We have one food source that is pesticide free and needs no hormones. Grown on bio-waste. tecelote Mar 2015 #4

Yeah, but dang... NaturalHigh Mar 2015 #5

You don't have to see them to eat them. tecelote Mar 2015 #12

bugs make wonderful animal feed. mopinko Mar 2015 #70

Umm... yeah, I have. bobclark86 Mar 2015 #77

Looks misleading Android3.14 Mar 2015 #8

Depends on the cover crop and the overall farming method GreatGazoo Mar 2015 #15

My question is: GliderGuider Mar 2015 #9

starvation as a means to population control? mopinko Mar 2015 #67

Somebody had to say it. GliderGuider Mar 2015 #72

there is a big difference between natural disasters and advocating mopinko Mar 2015 #74

I don't advocate it. GliderGuider Mar 2015 #75

No-till has many advantages, but it is based on massive use of herbicides. (nt) enough Mar 2015 #10

A Little Burndown Madness - a little 2,4-D for the glyphosate resistant horseweed. Agony Mar 2015 #11

The organic way is... GreatGazoo Mar 2015 #17

This message was self-deleted by its author Alkene Mar 2015 #13

It's very helpful. The anti-GMO crowd doesn't like to talk about it, though. HuckleB Mar 2015 #18

It turns out organic farmers can No-Till without GMO's or Roundup. pnwmom Mar 2015 #22

And they produce much less food for the outputs they use. HuckleB Mar 2015 #23

Take your comments off-line if you only want fans to respond. pnwmom Mar 2015 #24

That one linked a wide variety of far-right sources, including ones funded by the Kochs, on ND-Dem Mar 2015 #31

Not surprising. Thanks, ND-Dem. nt pnwmom Mar 2015 #34

what are you talking about? mopinko Mar 2015 #78

Hypothetically yes, but in practice, it is very difficult. yellowcanine Mar 2015 #35

That's what I figured. And that's the only solution mentioned in the OP's article. pnwmom Mar 2015 #40

Or it can be read as an accurate portrayal of no-till agriculture. yellowcanine Mar 2015 #41

It's not accurate if it glosses over how the cover is killed pnwmom Mar 2015 #46

How is this "glossing over" how the cover crop is killed? yellowcanine Mar 2015 #49

That was buried near the end of the article, pnwmom Mar 2015 #52

I guess you see what you want to see and miss what you want to miss. yellowcanine Mar 2015 #53

My post 37 notes a useful way to go for organic farming (or original farming as they say). mmonk Mar 2015 #54

A Farmer's Perspective On No Till.. HuckleB Mar 2015 #20

Maybe you should call your post: "A Monsanto employee's perspective on Roundup." pnwmom Mar 2015 #26

Thank you. Just as I've always suspected of that one. closeupready Mar 2015 #48

I live in NE MN and wonder if this can work here - it says after the harvest another cover crop is jwirr Mar 2015 #25

Sure it does.... BronxBoy Mar 2015 #33

The problem I see is the time factor. Most gardens are planted in June and the season is often over jwirr Mar 2015 #45

You're exactly right.... BronxBoy Mar 2015 #51

Yes, thank you for the video of the work being done at UM. I agree - we grow family gardens and jwirr Mar 2015 #57

Conservation Tillage programs are still very much in effect.... BronxBoy Mar 2015 #60

They do allow to go fallow for a year or two. Went to a Sustainability Conference & No-Till was one Hestia Mar 2015 #63

Excellent question. U of MN is working on the best cover crops for your weather challenges GreatGazoo Mar 2015 #47

Very Good SoLeftIAmRight Mar 2015 #80

How do you kill the cover crop? Chevron used to promote Paraquat, Auggie Mar 2015 #28

same rodeo: ND-Dem Mar 2015 #32

That was my question too. And the only answer in the article: Roundup. pnwmom Mar 2015 #36

The cover crops used to be tilled under as fertilizer but if you are not going to till then maybe a jwirr Mar 2015 #58

Well, I'm confused by all the back and forth on this thread - cilla4progress Mar 2015 #30

I'm in the PNW too MissB Mar 2015 #50

Planting rows of non crop vegetation between mmonk Mar 2015 #37

That works in a garden - not as practical on a field scale. yellowcanine Mar 2015 #56

On larger fields, you can square them off and on hillsides, you can vegetate the bottom or valley. mmonk Mar 2015 #85

This is how you fight the War on Dead Zones. kestrel91316 Mar 2015 #38

eggzactly. mopinko Mar 2015 #68

This is good news... BronxBoy Mar 2015 #42

my experience mopinko Mar 2015 #69

Sounds great! GreatGazoo Mar 2015 #71

focused on fungi here as well. mopinko Mar 2015 #76

I haven't tried it yet but one thing I read was GreatGazoo Mar 2015 #79