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A Fendt and drill the size of York minster credit to @YorkshireAndrewWhat do you class as “fancy machinery” Kev?
A Fendt and drill the size of York minster credit to @YorkshireAndrewWhat do you class as “fancy machinery” Kev?
Going to put it to Barley instead, simpler to grow that fodder beet cheaper and easier to keep cleanFodder beet needs a bit of cost to establish and spray @neilo might give us some accurate costings if we ask nicely..
Check out " Fertility Farming " published in1951 , written by farmer Newman Turner who turned his back on chemical farming , in favour of rotational mixed non ploughing even organic farming, there's alot that he practiced then (70yrs ago ), that the regenerative boys are embracing todayand its not difficult either, quite the opposite.
we just need to relearn some of the ways, our forebears used, they were not stupid, perhaps one could say, we are the stupid ones, for basing our farming, around a manufactured product, fert.
The price of many 'cheap and easy' fixes, we have become reliant on, are now definitely not so 'cheap and easy'. But we are farmers, and we will adjust, we always have done.
The interesting bit, is if we find a solution to high input costs, or a way round them, with higher prices for our output, that could very easily mean less work, for more/similar returns, as we have had.
its a good read, lots of sensible ideas, and l can confirm that lots of them work.Check out " Fertility Farming " published in1951 , written by farmer Newman Turner who turned his back on chemical farming , in favour of rotational mixed non ploughing even organic farming, there's alot that he practiced then (70yrs ago ), that the regenerative boys are embracing today
giving it another bump, if we could farm what we wanted to, what sort of mixed farm, would you run, or the ideal 'mix'Best give this thread a bump along
In an ideal world maybe back to 1950s style beef sheep arable and maybe a small dairy herd.giving it another bump, if we could farm what we wanted to, what sort of mixed farm, would you run, or the ideal 'mix'
the biggest problems we have, are so many of us specialised in one thing, dairy, corn and sheep etc. So to go back, to mixed, isn't easy, and so much is a numbers game now.
No manpower tends to equal energy dependent alternatives, which could be quite a lot more fragile in reality than a simple-but-specialised farming system where tasks can be "completed" with low energy inputs.In an ideal world maybe back to 1950s style beef sheep arable and maybe a small dairy herd.
Impossible now I know as no man power
we used to have 110 dairy cows, replacement hfrs for 220 cows, uncles herd, 80 sows, taking through to heavy hogs, 360 lb, 4/500 laying hens, deep litter, and 120 acres of corn, finished making cheese, when l was 3/4 yrs.
The cow numbers crept up, the sows crept down, until disease, and old buildings, finished them off, replacement hfrs crept up, as did corn, chickens slowly went, until ended up with 200 cows, replacements and 180 ac corn. Went from 8 employed, down to 4, Farm was split, in the mid 90's, and employed labour, 1, on our bit, none.
If the same labour was employed today, as 60's, we would have more respect from guv !
ideally l would have a few pigs, most farmers like pigs, when the pigs are sold in mkt, the auctioneer, has a large crowd, watching, and very few buyers. Few layers, -cash from egg sales, and the dairy, probably a few beef, sheep, depends on what mood i'm in, and arable, for home use.
But labour costs prohibit that, simply not enough money in the job, unless you take the dairy out, then its a no's game. Having said that, we have started corn again, for home use, and rearing beef calves, up for stores.
Cheese sausages... Now theres something I want to tryAm I correct in thinking that cheese was originally made as a way of storing milk/food for winter back when no little refrigeration equipment existed?
I have a book which mentions that back in the day, people used to eat cheese as it was cheaper than meat and they would make cheese sausages, etc. It got me thinking that cheese must have been a mass market product that would have been a reliable way of getting protein and fat in a form which could be stored long term in a cold house without problems.
Cheese sausages... Now theres something I want to try
Of course they have to call it a vegetarian food... Still, look quite nice.
thats not that long ago in human history? many people in the "countryside" had no utilities at all, im talking about mains drainage, mains water, and electric, my uncle, when he first got married to my mothers sister in the late 1940s, early 50s, had all of the above, meat was keep in "meat safe", really just a cupboard, with a zinc metal tiny perforated front, to keep the flies out? when you actually think of the recent past, ( within many still alives lifetime) all that? and alot more was "the way of life", bacon, ham, smoked meats and sausages were a very important way of preserving "fresh meat" so was cheese, pickerling , fruits, and veg, with "kilner" jars was another , very important way to preserve food to last the "hungary gap", thats the hard long winters of the past?