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Thumb of Michigan | John, not sure if your first paragraph was directed at me or not. If not, I'm paranoid over nothing. If so, I can tell you that I do in fact farm full time. "Large" farms is always a matter of opinion, ours would be concidered I guess medium sized for our area. In our case, we've went to a very, very simple rotation a few years back compared to most others in my area. Corn and soys. Very few farms with only 2 crops in the mix here, many have up to 6 crops with corn/soy being the lowest value of the 6. For us, labor -lack of and expensive-was a pretty big consideration as to change, cost of steel another. Specialized harvesters, cultivators, too many trucks to maintain, etc. Currently, we farm around 800 acres/ person. I realize that sounds like not many acres per body, but one will be 70 next birthday (and has heart issues), the other will be 50 (with worn out spine issues). Both hate driving tractors, the 50 year old (me) in particular. No-till wasn't a hard sell to me if for no other reason, I didn't have to drag a plow almost to Christmas most years.
Anyway, I have in fact been asked to take on some sideline work recently , but haven't been able to find the time.
As far as the "magic" radish comment. They are a truly amazing choice for a cover crop where they fit. If for no other reason, they are really fun to watch growing. Heck, I know a lot of guys who claim they enjoy watching corn grow- even when it was a $1.50- so I don't know that its all that weird in the big picture. | |
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No-til/covercrops vs. Reality
