Posted on 01/30/2015 7:57:56 AM PST by SeekAndFind
I grew up in the 50's and 60's, and we used very large machinery on our farm even back then. Today that machinery is dwarfed by todays large machinery, which in turn will be insignificantly small next to tomorrows large machinery.
When I was small, Dad planted corn with a 2 row planter, then a 4 row when I was in grade school, and with a enormously huge 8 row when I was in high school. Today, 48 rows are not uncommon. Within ten years 100 rows may even be the norm.
Chemicals. Yes, many of the chemicals in use today are refined models of the chemicals we used in the 50's and 60's, (and some even earlier, before my time) with much narrower groups of targets being controlled and far more effective application methods, allowing for lower costs and rates of application.
Single crops. With only a small handful of exceptions, that doesn't fly. Wouldn't be able to get production loans, and those who have the money and don't need a loan are not so foolish as to try it.
Where do think the old adage of "Don't put all your eggs in one basket" came from? That almost certainly was coined by a farmer.
Please, you're embarrassing yourself and don't even know it, so small is your knowledge base.
Nearly all livestock waste is used to fertilize the fields. It is far too valuable to waste.
BTW, most farmers would agree that one of the reasons they would not like to live in a city is the awful smell that assaults the nostrils.
Well if you will check most of the large farms today use a monoculture production system wherein the farm plants a single crop for two or three years then switches like Corn to soybeans. Then switches back.
Some will still grow two or three different crops at the same time but it is still mostly corn soybeans and wheat. In fact half the crop farming acreage in the US is given to those three crops.
Before we went to the industrial farm model farms would have many crops and livestock as well and they used few chemicals if any. But that all started changing early in the 20th century and picked up steam after World War two. And then ramped up considerably more in the 70s. And as a result most of the farming topsoil in the US is lacking greatly in the ingredients needed to make really healthy food.
Luckily there is a growing number of farmers who are moving back to a less industrialized method of farming (fewer chemical fertilizers and pesticides) and are bringing livestock back to the crop farms and they are turning away from the single crop output per year and are planting many different crops and using traditional fertilizing methods. The only real impediment is the gub'ment because they have geared up for the industrial model and have no clue how to deal with a traditional farm now.
This is what my Dad used to plant corn with when I was a small boy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clKIk_v7uUs
This is (essentially) what we used when I was in high school. Smaller farmers till use it today, as you can see.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WIrH40TNfQ
Many, many farmers use this size machine today,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1qbqr98tzA
In 10 years the little guys will be buying that very same machine to plant their corn crop.
The big guys? Who knows what they’ll be using.
Read the statement again. They don't use livestock to fertilize the field as in letting the livestock graze and drop their manure there naturally. If they use manure at all it must be trucked in from somewhere else because most of the big farms don't even have livestock on them.
And maybe if you pay attention to what is actually written you won't embarrass yourself.
That's all in your head, and it's disproven in several different ways.
First scientific measurements show that most soils are in much better condition that they were even only a few decades back.
The real proof of course is measured in the production levels achieved today as compared to previous times. Corn yields on the farm I grew up on have more than doubled since I ran my FFA corn growing experiment, and triple yields are in the foreseeable future. That's on ground that , with only a couple of exceptions, has had only corn grown on it for 60 continuous years. 'Course it has had that livestock waste applied that you thought magically disappeared into thin air.
TRIPLE the yield within sight on the very same land!
I will also concede that the friend who is farming the ground today uses large machinery, often works the land after sunset, AND, even plows snow under if it's on the ground.
I mention the working in the dark, plowing snow under bit because that was the wives tale which doomed the soil when I was a kid. You seem to be spinning a few tales yourself, so I'm sure you'll appreciate know the ones they used to tell.
BTW Have you stopped to think how different corn soybeans and wheat are to each other?
Manure always drops to the ground naturally.
It's called gravity.
Yep it's why I noted such in my original point.
I think the best indicator of a downturn is an inverted yield curve.
http://stockcharts.com/freecharts/yieldcurve.php
For the benefit of anyone else reading this, my fathers 2 row planter, which seems tiny by todays standards, was maybe about 100 times as large as the one used by my grandfather.
Our rate of growth in machinery size may be slowing down bit.
The real proof of course is measured in the production levels achieved today as compared to previous times.
OK first, false analogy, more production does not mean healthier food it just means higher yield. Second just because the measurements show the soil is in better condition than it was a few years back does not mean it has all the ingredients to grow really healthy food. The farmers I am involved with locally are mostly traditional farmers. I get my beef from the local guys who use no corn at all to feed their cattle grass fed only I get my corn from these same guys who use the fallow and livestock technique to rotate through their fields with different crops and livestock to use the natural cycle of fertilization. And the beef and corn are mega better than the crap at the grocery store that uses the industrial model.
The hamburger I get from my beef is so lean you must use grease or corn oil to cook it in. The steaks are lean and have better texture and flavor and i end up getting it for half the store price. The corn has so much more flavor than the store bought stuff it is hard to believe they are both the same grain crop.
You have pointed out one of the beauties of the American food production machine.
We are wealthy, food-wise, having efficiencies of food production that have never been seen during the entire history of the world.
So wealthy, in fact, that food has never been so plentiful, to so many, at such low prices.
So wealthy, in fact, that you yourself can buy the specialized niche market foods you like, and hardly notice it in your budget.
We have so much, we can even burn it to heat our homes, and fuel our cars, and still have enormous supplies to ship around the world.
Bon Appétit!
Yeah that is why heart disease and diabetes are running rampant in our nation of overweight people. We have lots of processed food is done so using far too much corn and soybeans and that is slowly killing us all. That food is cheap and readily available but it is far from healthy.
And if you don't believe me on what most of our food has in it read the label on your food like mac n cheese or a can of baked beans whatever boxed frozen of canned food you have in the house and run down all those additives. It all stem from soy and corn. nothing wrong with either but like anything good too much is usually worse than none at all.
Complaining with a full belly and mouth is bad form.
Not that you’ve let facts hinder you on this thread, life expectancy continues to rise.
Do as you’ve done thus far, ignore the fact that you’ve been wrong on every issue you’ve raised, take the Liberal tact, move the goalpost.
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A considerable portion of what is now called ‘food’ is death on a platter.
Our commercial food delivery system is corrupt beyond short description.
Life expectancy is exactly what it was when Yeshua walked the Earth (or do you not believe the scriptures?). The US diet is probably the very worst in the world.
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“In the AHA’s latest report, researchers say age-adjusted death rates from coronary heart disease have declined 30.7% since 1999, and that mortality from stroke has dropped 29.2%.”
http://www.webmd.com/heart-disease/news/20081215/rates-coming-down-heart-disease-stroke-deaths
Data is a bit dated, but I’m sure you’re going to research as thoroughly as you have farm facts.
grab the goal posts, we’ll have to move again.
I do believe the Scriptures. however, the fact that you had to go back that far to get anything comparable to today is circumstantial proof that my point is correct.
The foods of yesteryear, the one the Dog prefers, have proven inferior, detrimental to health.
Europe is slipping, China has slipped. Oil shipments to North America have declined. Shipments in general to Europe and China have declined. It’s an indicator of a slump but we were the driver in 2008, whereas we’re not in 2015. Does this mean it means nothing domestically? Wouldn’t bet on that. Weird times we’re living in, economically. Far too interconnected for my comfort.
I see so I was wrong that most farms don't have livestock on them?
I was wrong they don't employ the tried and true method of using livestock in the crop rotation. And we could go on but I tell ya what.
Watch this: King Corn
And this: Food Inc.
And This: Hungry for Change
And this: Food Matters
And this: In Organic We trust
And when you get done with those I will have you a list of good books to read and they all back up every point I made. And in some of those videos you will hear actual American farmers telling you the same things I pointed out.
"Not that you’ve let facts hinder you on this thread, life expectancy continues to rise."
That is nice and yet another attempt at morphing the issue. I at no time said we are living less years I said the food we are eating is killing us slowly because it is so loaded with carbs and unsaturated fats that we are getting heart disease and diabetes etc. What I said is we are a very unhealthy nation and more and more people are overweight because we eat too much processed food that has very low real nutritional value.
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