----- Original Message -----
Sent: Tuesday, November 26, 2002 7:31
PM
Subject: Re: What is Magic?
Although this is the major argument why grassfed is
not truly
sustainable, aren't a lot of nutrients also coming from
the
atmosphere so that it is possible recycle manure while harvesting
meat and still be break-even on the nutrient
scale(s)?
-Allan
As so Often Allan you nail it.
Michelle,
I think your concept
has merit. Do it & let us know.
I say this with the understanding that
you are spraying BD preps or using a Field Broadcaster, which we do.
We
have after 3+ years of FB balancing easily break down of both sheep &
bovine excrement on the field, all times of the year to some extent.
Now back to Allan's point -I have some consideration that a portion of
pasture re-planted via grazing cattle and sheep and then Over Seeding (with an
Over Seeder) the earlier conventaly (sp?) planted oats or rye to sorghum &
mangles ( to be grazed through most of the winter) as nurse crops for a
combination of chicory, clovers and assorted grasses? Wouldn't move us towards
some measure of sustainability.
As they say stay
tuned.
Thanks
With Love & Light
Markess
Dear Markess-
Thanks for your encouragement. As
things stand now, we are moving towards more cows on the place. We want
diversity and health. We have paid an incredible tuition this year to
learn about transitioning from row crops to management intensive
grazing. We also have the opportunity right now to "buy the factory
right" so to speak with the price of good mama cows being way down due to
folks caught in the extreme drought here. Our hearts go out to them and
we actually worked with some to graze corn this year, but the fact is that the
opportunity is there for us. Our concept is that we will graze all the
"scraps" such as early planted oats that we like to hold the soil and keep
weed pressure down, which on some pivots will be turned down and planted to
corn or edible beans later in the spring. We will plant rye or triticale
after wheat in the stubble and graze it along with whatever volunteer wheat
comes back. We may put turnips in the corn at cultivation for either
grazing the corn beginning at tassel or to have there along with the corn
residue we graze if the corn is picked for grain. And if we do establish
more long term plantings we will definitely use a mix of grasses and legumes
as that has worked well on the 4 pivots we have done this year.
We have 4 of Hugh's towers
on the farm, plus we put on many many gallons of compost tea this year and our
experience was that the manure just disappeared. We also had lots of
dung beetles. So, I think that the system is working. I agree with
Allan that alot of the nutrients are walked off when the cattle are sold, but
do agree that much is brought in from the atmosphere. We feel that this
system may not be totally correct and sustainable as we bring in soil
amendments and use some fertilizer. But in comparison to what we used to
do it's like we have quit waging war on our soils microlife. And we
continue to learn and to question all the things we were taught before and
truly feel we are being led towards a much better way. It will just take
time for us to sort out how to do it and survive economically. I would
love to be able to prove that you can improve the soil each year and also
raise good quality crops and livestock along with that and to be able to share
those concepts with others who really want to do better things for their soil
and the earth.
Thanks again for your
thoughts. We wish you well with your experiments
as well.
Best Regards,
Michelle
Wendell
