I remember when my father purchased his first tractor (yes I am an old 80). WW II had ended and since rubber was available, the first thing he did was put rubber tires on the iron wheels. Our horses were still used for some 8 or so years because this tractor was so hard to use for light chores.
When I was 17, I had a job applying anhydrous Ammonia fertilizer on farmers' fields. My older cousin had a husband who had applied this fertilizer when I was younger, but because the farmers didn’t always pay him, he had to quit (farmers are like everyone else, some good, some bad). The feed store and elevator I worked for didn’t have to worry about being paid. It was the only place for the farmers to sell their extra grain.
From horses (in my lifetime) to air-conditioned tractors to remote computer-enabled machinery, farmers have changed the way they farm. From saving their own seed to using genetically modified seeds with unique sprays, farmers have adapted and changed with the times. College educated, they use the computer and follow and even sell on the futures market. Why aren’t farmers changing to Regenerative Agriculture?
Some 14 years ago, I farmed for about three years. I worked in close proximity with an Amish farmer. I furnished many a ride across northern MO as the Amish in my area, don’t drive or own autos. He in turn helped me with the physical part of my farm work. One year, it rained and rained and didn’t stop until later in July, Corn and beans must be planted by July and even earlier in our area. The neighboring farmer, next to me, turned his cropland into the insurance program furnished by the government. I never used this program, so I am sitting there with a water-saturated piece of land void of a planted crop.
This was before I was aware of cover crops and few in our nation knew anything about them. In mid-July, while it was still too wet to use my tractor without getting stuck, I appealed to my Amish farmer for help. With his team of horses and corn planter, we planted corn. If there are any farmers, from my area, reading this article, they will swear it can’t be done. By the first of September, the corn was developing ears of corn. I knew that the ears would never become hard enough to harvest, let alone shell.
My friend had two grown boys. I purchased a 50 lb bag of turnip seed (100 dollars at that time). The boys brought over one of their workhorses. If you have ever been around the Budweiser Horses, you will know how big they are. Both the boys sat on the horse, One sat facing forward so he could guide the horse down the row between the corn stalks. The other boy sat facing backward and as they moved through the field, the one facing backward using a hand spreader spread turnip seed over the tops of the corn onto the ground (broadcasting).
The Amish farmer came in later that fall when the corn started to dry up and cut it for silage. Silage is partially green corn that is chopped and then stored in a silo and will ferment producing good feed for milk cows. I then received income for the silage and he got extra feed for his milk cows. In the meantime, the turnip seed sprouted and by the time the harvest of the corn was complete, I had 18-inch tall turnip tops and gobs of turnip bottoms.
It so happens that turnip tops have one of the highest protein amounts of any crop for animals (humans too). Normally a farmer feeding corn to his calves to fatten them will feed them corn at about 12 percent protein. To increase the protein content, he will pay good money to a feed store for added protein. In his efforts, he will be trying to get about 22 percent protein which is the level in turnip tops.
I had a couple of hundred lambs and I turned them into my turnip patch. They went crazy. Once they had eaten off all the tops, then they continued by pulling up the bottoms which have a protein level of about 12 percent, the same as corn. I was not using cover crops, but I was using a principle of cover crops that can be utilized by farmers new to Regenerative Agriculture. Maybe I can answer the question of why farmers are so reluctant to convert and even give them advice on starting. After all, farmers have made drastic changes in the past 70 years, why can’t they still adjust?
If you have read this far, let me explain why I think you need to know this information. I am a strong believer in information being responsible for changing behavior. In the last four years, I have been the top headline on three different pages of the KC Star including the front page. I never asked for any of these, but because of my activity on other sites and actions taken, they found me. The subject I was addressing became MO law a year ago. I was not the only one who was working on this, just one of a cog. And that is why you need to know about this farming process. We must inform as many people as possible hoping to inform enough that there will be a movement. There is a movement going on right now for Regenerative Agriculture practices. We have those who want to eliminate GMO poisons. We have the most money spent on health care and yet one of the highest health problems of the developed nations. There are some 22 illnesses that have exploded at the same time that GMO poisons were introduced in the U.S. Our water, our air, our food, and yes, even the clothing we wear are saturated with GMO poisons. Efforts to label food containing GMO products have been an uphill battle with massive amounts of money contributed to keep it from happening.
As a part of your contribution, if you will share these articles on your social media, that small step will spread the word. Most of the U.S. have email contacts, share this address with your email friends. It is amazing how many people never read a newspaper or watch constructive news sources. You may be their only source. If inclined, you can write the editor of your newspaper. If you have relatives who still farm, it is amazing how most of their information comes from sources produced and paid for by chemical companies. Less than 3% of the farmers use cover crops. Like my brother, as a landlord, he is totally unaware of how to change!
If I still have your attention, I to address two subjects. One is how to convert to Regenerative Agriculture and the second is how it is more profitable. Money talks.
From a website called Cornucopia.org comes these figures:
“Modern Farmer reported that two years ago, Huegerich planted 320 acres of conventional corn and 1,700 with GMO corn. The conventional fields “yielded 15 to 30 more bushels per acre than the GMO fields, with a profit margin of up to $100 more per acre.”
The conventional fields, using corn as my father did years ago,“yielded 15 to 30 more bushels per acre”. They go on to report:
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The cost of growing one acre of non-GMO corn was $680.95, the cost of growing an acre of GMO corn was $761.80 according to Aaron Bloom. That means it costs
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$80.85 more an acre to raise GMO corn.
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GMO seeds can cost up to $150 a bag more than regular seeds.
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The market for non-GMO foods has grown from $1.3 billion in 2011 to $3.1 billion in 2013, partially because some Asian and European countries don’t want GMO seeds.
One of the reasons is demand even here in the U.S.:
Grain dealer Clarkson Grain pays farmers an extra $2 a bushel for non-GMO soybeans and an additional $1 a bushel for non-GMO corn.
I had already read that some hog factories were paying a premium for non-GMO corn raised with cover crops, but this is the first time I have been able to get a figure. Let me address another aspect from personal experience. When I was farming, I sold some land to my Amish neighbor. Since it had never had poisons applied, he was able to grow organic corn on that land. I remember him getting double the price for that corn.
I don’t know how he found a buyer without the means of access that we “English” (what Amish call us who are not Amish) have with modern communications. He needed two things. Since he hand-picked his corn, unlike a combine that removes the corn kernel from the cob as it is picked, he needed a corn sheller. As I have mentioned before, we traded a lot of labor. We scoured the countryside to find a corn sheller.
I can remember the last time my father used a threshing machine. I had never seen a corn sheller because the farmers at that time usually fed the corn to their hogs who ate it off the cob The horses did the same and I will never forget the image of an entire ear of corn going into the mouth of a horse and then in a minute or so, out comes a corncob stripped of its kernels. Most of the small farmers would not need corn shelled to sell to the local elevator (feed and seed dealer who bought grain to ship back east in train cars.), By the time they had better yields and began selling excess grain, their crop was harvested with a combine that shelled the corn. I found this picture from Dreamstime and although old and in poor condition, the Amish farmer and I did find one in working condition.
The other problem was that he had to store the grain for several months until the buyer sent a semi-trailer to pick up the corn. Since most current farmers haul their grain directly to the elevator, there were a number of old grain elevators around on farms sitting empty. Along with a group of other Amish farmers, we lifted one up ( it is amazing what can be moved by hand if enough hands are available), and loaded it onto a flatbed trailer, then moved it to his farm so he would have storage space.
I wanted to know if organic grain was still double the price and a check of prices on the internet showed:
CORN Commodity-6.79 per bushel from https://markets.businessinsider.com/commodities/corn-price on
And for Organic Corn- on 9/23/2022 and from www.ams.usda.gov/...Yellow corn bushel-10.00-12.40 as of September 21, 2022, around 5 dollars a bushel more.
As you can see, the price is still almost twice the amount, $3.21 to$5.21 more.
To summarize:
- 15 to 30 more bushels per acre
- $80.85 more an acre to raise GMO corn
- market for non-GMO foods has grown from $1.3 billion
- extra $2 a bushel for non-GMO soybeans
- an additional $1 a bushel for non-GMO corn.
- $3.21 to$5.21 more for organic corn
Profit goes up, but this does not take into consideration that:
- Studies have shown that during drought, crops are better
- Less time on fields spraying multiple times
- Less need for operating cash because of less expense (interest)
- Less exposure to the farmer to toxic chemicals
- rebuilding soil
- Less expensive equipment
And to top it off, the Federal Government will pay, not only for the seed, but application costs and on top of that, the farmer can access their taxpayer-subsidized, affordable crop insurance!
II my research, I have noticed that two groups of farmers stand out as Regenerative Agriculture devotes. Many are either long-time farmers or recent, inexperienced farmers. As I talked to my brother, his observation was that some farmers in his area had tried, but had been unsuccessful in establishing a cover crop stand because of poor moisture on the fields in the fall. In my next article, we will be discussing how to get started.
This is a series of articles and already I have the following subjects to address: AMISH BEGINNERS, PASTURES, COMBINATION FARMING, CITY WATER IN, CITY WATER OUT, CITY AND URBAN GARDENS AND LAWNS, CONVERSATION PROJECTS, IMPACT ON FOOD, OUR CHILDREN,...and every time I research an article, I find more to share.
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