What Were Your Boons and Busts for 2019?

[seedcorn]

@digitS'

Farmers often have equipment for one crop and no other. They have contracts for one crop, not many. They may have skills relevant to the production of one crop

Not familiar with Idaho,(use to be a huge alfalfa seed producer) everywhere else, farmers tend to use crop rotations. You would be surprised at all the crops that can be covered with crop insurance.

 

[Dirtmechanic]

So did my okra.

Was it just too much solar?

 

[Dirtmechanic]

There is some irony with growing 3 varieties of one veggie and have all 3 come up short, @seedcorn . Of course, the entire garden wasn't committed to squash or my 2019 efforts would have been completely squashed!

Farmers often have equipment for one crop and no other. They have contracts for one crop, not many. They may have skills relevant to the production of one crop.

The commitment is enormous. The farmer has a huge investment in each year's crop and the risk is only partly offset by crop insurance backed by the taxpayer and the taxpayer is at risk, as well. We all eat but our commitment seems to be to a limited number of crops that can be insured. Not many. And, it is not to our advantage to have farms fail.

Farms are no longer forty acres and a dime a dozen. Entire communities may be dependent on a few farmers and one or two crops! Rural risk but national risk, as well.

I'm not dependent on my garden and can comfortably afford to learn something from a bust, even from something that I considered a failsafe, like Burgess buttercup squash . I mean, it's an eye opener after several decades of reasonable success.

I've tried not to ♬ ♫ rest on my buttercup ♬ ♫ Just about every year, there have been more than one variety out there. Not so much to hedge my bet but because it's fun, I like to eat, and there can even be some profit since I can sell surplus produce.

I would like to see more local production of food. More family farms, not fewer.

Steve
♬ ♪ ♩ ♫ Give me forty acres and I'll turn this rig around. ♪♩♫ ♬♫ ♬

I have read recently that the smallest viable farming occurs on 2000 acres. I wish I had a farm that size.

 

[Zeedman]

There was too much heat for okra this year. Or something was going on. Both mine and my neighbors plants lost all the leaves and died. They gave a good crop and were mature but seeing them completely give up is unusual.

It's a strange year when okra dies in the South, and mine - which normally dies back in early September - keeps going. Half of the plants are still flowering; but cool nights have arrived, yesterday I probably picked the last okra for the season.

The pole limas are going strong now, bean ripening always accelerates after the first couple of nights in the 40's. Nearly all of the Fortex pods left for seed, and a growing number of Soissons Vert, are nearing maturity as well. The Aeron Purple Star runner beans appear to be near maturity, the pod necks are thinning... I hope most of them make it before frost (which looks to be about a week away).

Most of the buttercups are still attached to living vines, I'll leave them there until just before the frost, to get as ripe as possible. There are more than 20, some may not be visible until frost knocks down some of the vegetation. I went through the patch just before the last round of rainfall, putting straw down beneath them to reduce the chance of rot, and pulling the few attached to dead vines. Found a couple severely damaged squash... the SVB were active much later than usual this year, and apparently even laid eggs on a few of the developing squash. We had that happen to a couple kabocha squash a few years ago, but that is far from a common occurrence. Glad to be getting any ripe squash at all, it was a gamble putting them in so late... now I don't feel as bad for choosing them over zucchini this year.

 

[bobm]

I have read recently that the smallest viable farming occurs on 2000 acres. I wish I had a farm that size.

My wife's cousin in Min. owns and farms 800 acres . His operation is hog production. While he grows corn on most of his farm, he buys most of his corn and other grains from surrounding farms to feed his hogs. He manages to make a nice profit every year. My father, a Veterinarian, was a milk tester for San Juaqine County, Cal. In the mid 1950s, the dairies that milked less then 100 cows either increased the number of cows using AI from high producing cows with high milk production. Or, they quit due to low milk prices . The AG department stepped in and offered to buy low performing cows and offered the farmers that wanted to continue in the dairy business to buy dairy calves from high broducing bulls. One of my grammer school buddies inherited a small dairy farm that milked 200 cows, so he sold off his parents entire herd, baught about 500 calves by high producing bulls, and within 15 years he purchased additional lands, invested in loafing sheds, and milking barn and milking machines and other equipment, and now his farm milks 5,000 cows. The average dairy farm near Tulare, Cal . milks 5,000 cows. Then , there is ONE dairy farm near Bakersfield, Cal. that milks over 45,000 cows . Their feed is alfalfa hay that is just a small portion of their feed , so they buy alfalfa and grains from local growers and during the winter, from Nevada and Arizona . All of the dairy cows live under loafing shed roofs with feed troughs on all sides as crop lands are too valuable to run the cows on pasture. Add in a Veterinarian or more that reside or on rounds or on call, the labor for milking and feeding and remove the manure which is placed into lagoons, then water is added and the dilute mixture is sprayed onto the feilds as fertilizer for alfalfa and/ or grain crops. Add in investment in machinery and on site mechancs, Then make investment in housing for the farm workers and their families . The cows are artificially inseminated with purchased semen from Companies that sell semen from bulls that produce cows for high milk production and you have quite a large investment. last weekend , we went on a farm tour sponsored by Washing State University Ag. Dept. ... One farm was 30 acres that was owned by a couple in their 30s for strictly organic crops for the past 8 years. They practiced crop rotation as they planted 10 different types of tomatoes, brokoly, carrots, cabbage, radishes, melons, etc. rotated every 3 years to adjoining weedy land. They also had about 50 laying hens of mixed breed. about a dozen mixed ducks, 3 geese, a dozen rabbits, and 2 Highland cattle about a year old bull and heifer. They had purchased about 100 bags of organic steer manure and was stacked near their green house. This farm was covered with weeds, as this couple has been worked to the bone trying to make a living by trying to be strictly organic. They will have to make some changes real soon or their farm just may be declared not for profit.

 

[Dirtmechanic]

My wife's cousin in Min. owns and farms 800 acres . His operation is hog production. While he grows corn on most of his farm, he buys most of his corn and other grains from surrounding farms to feed his hogs. He manages to make a nice profit every year. My father, a Veterinarian, was a milk tester for San Juaqine County, Cal. In the mid 1950s, the dairies that milked less then 100 cows either increased the number of cows using AI from high producing cows with high milk production. Or, they quit due to low milk prices . The AG department stepped in and offered to buy low performing cows and offered the farmers that wanted to continue in the dairy business to buy dairy calves from high broducing bulls. One of my grammer school buddies inherited a small dairy farm that milked 200 cows, so he sold off his parents entire herd, baught about 500 calves by high producing bulls, and within 15 years he purchased additional lands, invested in loafing sheds, and milking barn and milking machines and other equipment, and now his farm milks 5,000 cows. The average dairy farm near Tulare, Cal . milks 5,000 cows. Then , there is ONE dairy farm near Bakersfield, Cal. that milks over 45,000 cows . Their feed is alfalfa hay that is just a small portion of their feed , so they buy alfalfa and grains from local growers and during the winter, from Nevada and Arizona . All of the dairy cows live under loafing shed roofs with feed troughs on all sides as crop lands are too valuable to run the cows on pasture. Add in a Veterinarian or more that reside or on rounds or on call, the labor for milking and feeding and remove the manure which is placed into lagoons, then water is added and the dilute mixture is sprayed onto the feilds as fertilizer for alfalfa and/ or grain crops. Add in investment in machinery and on site mechancs, Then make investment in housing for the farm workers and their families . The cows are artificially inseminated with purchased semen from Companies that sell semen from bulls that produce cows for high milk production and you have quite a large investment. last weekend , we went on a farm tour sponsored by Washing State University Ag. Dept. ... One farm was 30 acres that was owned by a couple in their 30s for strictly organic crops for the past 8 years. They practiced crop rotation as they planted 10 different types of tomatoes, brokoly, carrots, cabbage, radishes, melons, etc. rotated every 3 years to adjoining weedy land. They also had about 50 laying hens of mixed breed. about a dozen mixed ducks, 3 geese, a dozen rabbits, and 2 Highland cattle about a year old bull and heifer. They had purchased about 100 bags of organic steer manure and was stacked near their green house. This farm was covered with weeds, as this couple has been worked to the bone trying to make a living by trying to be strictly organic. They will have to make some changes real soon or their farm just may be declared not for profit.

I like the quirky perspective of an author by the name of Pollan. He wrote in a book about how the pig population exploded once pigs learned how to utilize humans. It sounds like the cows are on the same path as the pigs. I want to say the book was titled "Botany of Desire".

 

[seedcorn]

In Ag, main problem is that have gotten smarter. Use more machinery & science to offset labor. So Farms can be larger (have to be to offset machinery, science and labor costs). Consumers (us) want cheap food and farmers inputs go up. Strange as it sounds, the higher inputs give the best ROI. You can’t “buy low inputs” to make better ROI.

One of the reasons I garden, can grow what I want. It’s also next to worthless on the market place-invaluable to me. Why I like this forum as people tell me what varieties are boon/bust. Plus great recipes on how to best eat them (@ninnymary thanks for salsa recipe-love it).

 

[Rhodie Ranch]

Everything was a bust since I moved to a postage sized lot and have deer to eat everything. Maybe next year will be better. I sure hope so, since food prices have been rising and I'm worried about the cost. I HAVE to grow some of my own food or I'll be toast.

 

[Dirtmechanic]

Everything was a bust since I moved to a postage sized lot and have deer to eat everything. Maybe next year will be better. I sure hope so, since food prices have been rising and I'm worried about the cost. I HAVE to grow some of my own food or I'll be toast.

Motion activated water sprinklers will fix that problem and save some watering labor at the same time.

 

[thistlebloom]

Motion activated water sprinklers will fix that problem and save some watering labor at the same time.

Like everything deer related you have to change things up on them all the time. There are deer who have figured out the motion activated sprinklers and learned to walk around behind it out of the sprays reach. I know people who have shot deer with paintballs, after a few hits they just stand and take it...fawns get used to the taste and smell of repellents and think that's normal so eat everything sprayed. It's a huge bummer, but a challenge too I guess, to see if you can one up them.