Posted by HoosierHog on February 15, 2012 at 23:05:11 from (69.130.186.216):
In Reply to: Doubt organic yield? posted by eastfork on February 12, 2012 at 10:44:02:
UMM I'm seeing lots of posts on here that don't add up so ill just tell you how my operation works and my yields and you can judge.
I have all my ground on a 6yr rotation. for example 60 acres divided into 6 10 acre fields. in field 1 is new alfalfa with a cover crop of oats. field 2 corn field 3-6 alfalfa. i sell my hay to a local organic dairy. the corn i save some and sell some the oats i combine off and feed to my live stock and bale the straw then generally i get 1 light cutting of hay before winter but then then next year the alfalfa really takes off. the corn and oats feed our 250 chickens, my 6 Berkshire sows. the hogs are semi pastured and the chickens are house march-November in portable coops on old running gears then December to mid March the live in 2 of our 20x40 hoop houses. the manure from the animals goes on to the corn ground and when i plant my corn i use a compost tea and fish emulsion this combined with the alfalfa that was turned under as a green manure plus alfalfa fixes 200lbs of nitrogen a yr per acre. i don't have to add any thing else. no chemicals or pelatized duck poo. i cultivate 2-3 times and side dress again with the compost tea and fish emulsion. at first my yields were not so good but after 5yrs of adding compost and manure there getting better my best yield this year during the drought was 133 bushel per acre and worst was 117. but on another organic farm that i work on they got 165. the more organic matter you add to the soil it helps the soil drain in wet years and retains in dry years. the organic material minimizes nitrogen loss. yes my seed is expensive and it is more work and i do have to cultivate but. most inputs are from on farm resources and are sustainable. and organic prices at the elevator are LOTS higher than standard grain. even my pork we deliver 10 hogs a month to a coop who sells the pork through various grocers and farms markets by the cut and my cut is still close to 4$ a lbs per cut. and selling hogs every month gives me a consistent cash flow. our chickens bring close to 10000$ profit. at 3-4$ a dozen retail that is after expences and the coops share taken out. we compost every thing from our scraps from our 5 acre market garden to the lawn clipping wich we mow with a bagger and and to the pile every thing gets composted and put right back in the soil. my big expences off farm are seed, fuel, fish emulsion fertalizer (its not that expensive).
so from my farm i have found that yes i can get the same yield and make more money and it is more work. In order to make an organic system work you can not just be a corn farmer or just a wheat farmer you have to have a bit of everything. you have to feed cow what cows should eat they are designed to eat grasses. pigs should be pigs not confined on concrete where the disease runs rampant and have to be vac just to stay alive and the manure becomes a toxic waste. if we copied natures design and followed and intensive rotational system. we would not have to buy chemicals, or processed fertalizer, or patented seeds witch is ridiculous, no vaccines for the livestock no hazardous manure sludge slurry stuff, and since most of my acearge is hay no need for big giant 400hp tractors. and you make more money. we are in the next few yrs going to be adding a goat dairy and selling goat cheeses. and be for you laugh our goats give 200-260 gallons of milk a yr but i can run 12-15 per acre were i could only pasture 1 cow on 2 acres here and 1 gallon of goat milk will make 1lb of a cheese called chevre (Its my favorite) and it sells for 32$ a pound. now do the math. so i think it will fit right in with our system.
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