living off the grid..ish

[trigger_andy]

Yep . I see all the above . So to get away from peeps sniping and dissing .....the general trend in modern day farming is to direct drill into last years ground ( with a different crop ) . and not to plough   . All this is based on a gamble at the price per ton somewhere between now and harvest .  With a " scratchit drill " you can get a crop in the ground with no ploughing at all and not set free any carbon . . Say best malting barley . If its going to end up at £120/ton ( un likely ) . you think it will reach £130/ton then the fuel you save by not ploughing is worth it . You will get a slightly reduced yeald this way but the money you save on deisel . Once it goes over £ 150 , and probably up to £ 200/ ton Then it is worth ploughing and drilling and rolling etc coz you will end up better off . does that make sense ?

It’s not what I’m seeing round my way that’s for sure. But interesting nonetheless.

[trigger_andy]

Yep . I see all the above . So to get away from peeps sniping and dissing .....the general trend in modern day farming is to direct drill into last years ground ( with a different crop ) . and not to plough   . All this is based on a gamble at the price per ton somewhere between now and harvest .  With a " scratchit drill " you can get a crop in the ground with no ploughing at all and not set free any carbon . . Say best malting barley . If its going to end up at £120/ton ( un likely ) . you think it will reach £130/ton then the fuel you save by not ploughing is worth it . You will get a slightly reduced yeald this way but the money you save on deisel . Once it goes over £ 150 , and probably up to £ 200/ ton Then it is worth ploughing and drilling and rolling etc coz you will end up better off . does that make sense ?

I have no idea if the fact fertiliser has trebled in price this last year but I’ve never seen so much field prep/ploughing in the Spring. I don’t know the terminology of what’s going on in the fields around me but the farmers where in and out of the fields with far more machinery than they usually are. Ploughing far deeper this year too. Bits of drains that used to take run off from my farmhouse across the field down to the stream have been ripped up this year. First time I’ve seen that in the 7 years I’ve been here.

Might be a good time to dig out my metal detector [emoji16]

[sime42]

Non dig cultivation has been around for years, and is steadily gaining traction. It gives good results; I did it for years before moving house, and will do again from next year. I wasn't aware that they were widely doing it in agriculture in this country, that's good to know. As well as destroying the structure of the soil digging/ploughing also releases loads of locked up carbon.

I was listening to an interesting program on Monday actually, all about soil and it's structure. They talked about not digging on there.

Start the Week - A revolution in food and farming - BBC Sounds

WWW.BBC.CO.UK

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Tom Sutcliffe with George Monbiot, Sarah Langford and Claire Ratinon.

[RickandMorty]

This is what I do  I tend to only ly dig over if I really have to

 

The No-Dig Method | Garden Organic

WWW.GARDENORGANIC.ORG.UK

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[eggsarascal]

2 hours ago, RickandMorty said:

Glad mayonnaise was not brought into the equation. Which you can make from eggs... 

 

Anyway this has been all very educational. I choose to still dig 

Yes you can make it from eggs, but he ain't biting...

[eggsarascal]

2 hours ago, trigger_andy said:

 

It’s not what I’m seeing round my way that’s for sure. But interesting nonetheless.

 

It's how it is in parts of East Anglia, if it can be DD it is, no ploughing unless it's necessary/profitable. Take away the carrot crunchers on the Fens.

[trigger_andy]

It's how it is in parts of East Anglia, if it can be DD it is, no ploughing unless it's necessary/profitable. Take away the carrot crunchers on the Fens.

I’m sure we’ll see far more use of alternative farming going forward, and that’s a good thing.

I wonder if we’ll see more stalls/markets pop up with folk selling their goods?

We’ve a weekly farmers market in town, the problem is these same products are in Tesco for less. Would be nice to see more heritage produce or less common fruit and veg.

[Guest Gimlet]

Nature operates a no-till system and seems to have managed for millions of years. If we can't feed ourselves without tilling, perhaps there are too many of us. Just a thought.  

[peds]

1 minute ago, Gimlet said:

Nature operates a no-till system and seems to have managed for millions of years. If we can't feed ourselves without tilling, perhaps there are too many of us. Just a thought.  

Rather handily, the planet has been asking the same questions lately, and it'll not be an issue in a generation or twos' time.

Protip: switch to organic and regenerative practices early and avoid the rush! Either adapt to the food production systems of the future, or... don't! 

[eggsarascal]

33 minutes ago, trigger_andy said:

 

I’m sure we’ll see far more use of alternative farming going forward, and that’s a good thing.

I wonder if we’ll see more stalls/markets pop up with folk selling their goods?

We’ve a weekly farmers market in town, the problem is these same products are in Tesco for less. Would be nice to see more heritage produce or less common fruit and veg.

 

I doubt there will be any noticeable rise in stalls/markets, as you say they aren't cheap. I use the farm gate stalls around here because I've only me to look out to, if I had a family the supermarkets would win every time.

 

Growing your own is the way.

 

I'm in the process of trying to rent a shed with a bit of ground for 'storage', if it comes off I'll have a little veg plot ready for next year.