One thing you rarely see anyone mention when they talk about self sufficiency is how the lack of fertilizer is going to effect their yields and the very carrying capacity of the land they plan on using. The effects of over grazing can render a decent sized pasture into a useless waste land in a very short time and if you plan on a crop rotation you are going to need outside inputs of energy to re-seed every few years and even then will not completely replace the nutrients that are taken out.
I have managed to get around the need for chemical fertilizer in my garden space using a combination of barn waste infused with sheep manure, old horse manure, grass clippings, some crop rotation and wood ash. What tests I have done show that this combination has kept up with the requirements needed to amend the soil and replace the trace nutrients every year but this is a very small section of the entire farm.
Heavy mulching of wood chips and leaf litter has helped to keep my fruit trees fertilized in a nice slow release fashion but also requires a fair input of fuel to keep the waste (in the form of the wood chips) coming in. Not always my own input I might add but an input from someone that likely will not be available in a collapse or grid down situation.
This type of input may work on a small scale I just don't see it as a practical plan on a large scale. No way in hell am I going to attempt to fertilize a 15 acre hayfield using a wheel barrow. Besides there is no way I could ever keep enough stock to have that kind of supply of fertilizer. It isn't like it is a closed system here the stock never provides the required amount of fertilizer compared to the land needed to feed them and the nutrients used for that feed.
Rotation seeding brings it's own problems in the fact that you would either need outside energy inputs to reseed plus the seed to begin with then after the cover crop is grown you would have to reseed again. This either requires the ground to be prepped by hand or fuel for a tractor or animal drawn labor (and all the equipment/feed that requires).
The only solution I can see that requires minimum inputs is the old three field style of rotation that allows one field to sit fallow and rejuvenate. This system can be helped along by some mixed grass and legume seeding by hand that would not require plowing until you wished to put in another crop. If you were simply revitalizing the land for pasturage the grass/legume mixture would work it's magic and then you could simply allow grazing once again. In fact with the proper seed mixture it is possible to allow a minimal amount of grazing during the growing season off and on, even while the field was technically sitting fallow, as long as you keep it to short intervals.
The real problem is this system will require adjustments in how much land you will need to become truly self sufficient by at least a third if not more. Not to mention doing a true test to try and achieve accurate numbers would require you to reduce your use right now before it is actually needed. Not sure many of us are willing to do that.
I would be interested in hearing if any others have given thought to how they would handle the reduced yields and pasture capacity if/when the supplies of chemical fertilizers dry up. I am trying to balance out a plan that requires the least amount of manual labor or outside energy input as possible but keeping as much land in production as possible.
Keep Prepping Everyone!!!
The only real viable solution is to go to a three or four field rotation system, either more land or less animals. The non-productive animals would be the first to get culled from the farm as a source of meat for the dogs and humans. Trees could be planted as a wind break and the leaves blown onto the field could provide the brown matter for composting. Perhaps a movable wind trap for leaves like those used for snowdrifts and sand dune building at the beach? This might provide a low input energy solution.
ReplyDeleteYour solution for the garden with animal manure is already showing good results.
K - Yep. I imagine smaller fields will once again become more of the choice too. Rotation and volunteer organic matter with little labor inputs would be the idea solution. I like your idea about the leaf catching.
DeleteI guess a flood plain is out of the question, since all ancient civilizations settled near those.
DeleteYears ago I had friends who practiced strip grazing. The pasture was fenced into 8 or 10 (or more?) small strips, and the cattle would be turned into one section and allowed to graze it very intensively then moved to the next strip. The method forced them to eat the less palatable grasses, and allowed a long period of recovery when the cows were rotated to the next areas. As I recall, the cows would only graze each section one time per year, but I could be wrong on that. I remember them saying it significantly reduced the parasite load as well, since the cattle weren't grazing the same bit of land continuously.
ReplyDeleteNS - Yes basically that's the same as what I was talking about in rotation. Either way it does cost but if you can keep them from eating the good stuff completely and force em to chew on the stuff you want em too. Problem I see is they eat the good stuff until it is beyond coming back and then start on the yucky stuff. Either way it probably means less livestock per acre overall.
DeleteThe only bad side I can see to increasingly smaller strips would be increasingly higher fence maintenance costs. Some of the critters put those fences to the test when the good stuff is eaten rather than make do with the other forage.
Of course the upside to all this is we will have much smaller yards and less chances of livestock being hit by cars too :)
I don't think that the future yields should be expected to come close to the abnormally high ones from the chemical farming of the present. It is not natural to have such high yields. We won't be feeding the world that hates us or wasting resources on ethanol so normal yields will be fine with crop rotation.
ReplyDeleteSf - Oh ya. I wasn't even thinking about large ag and those 250 bushel per acre yields of sprayed on chemical growth hormone.
DeleteGonna be a lot of hungry people out there I would imagine.
Build your soil up now while you still have a chance. Get a soil test and add from a bag the esentials paying close attention to the trace minerals.
DeleteNot sure of your exact location, but most of the midwest and east need limestone. After shtp you will not be able to obtain this product. One application may hold for 5 years. Proper strip grazing does work wonders.
Anon - I thought I mentioned that I do soil testing in the post not to mention the trace minerals? I am in Missouri fairly close to the Mo river so limestone is not a problem. The entire post was about how take care of these things after a collapse situation.
DeleteThanks for the input.
Don't forget that we have wood ashes to spread in place of lime. I also have started manuring the rows where I am going to plant instead of the whole garden. I realize you are talking fields of crops but a device could be made that could plow rows of manure into rows. They do that now with liquid manure and the tank truck has tubes that go down to things almost like a grain drill to put the liquid in a trench and then cover it.
DeleteI have seen smatterings of comments here and there that no "sustainable" agricultural system prior to the modern period was truly self-sustaining. My guess is that in the very long term that this is correct. But at the moment the nitrogen-phosphate issue seems to be at the lower end or our potential future problems/
ReplyDeleteRuss - To be honest I can't imagine one year being enough time to replace the used nutrients in a rotation situation so I can see the claim you mention. I am guessing maybe why that field laid fallow they used that time to haul in organic materials as well. Maybe?
Delete... no "sustainable" agricultural system prior to the modern period was truly self-sustaining ...' Indeed, there are grave concerns that cannot be refuted from within the normal timeline of those societies that tend to think their agricultural systems seem to be "sustainable". The Mayans had inexplicably fled from many of their great cities just prior to the Spanish conquest and historians tend to think now it was due to loss of top soil etc. There are similar deposits of top-soil in ocean and estuary sediments prior to the collapse of the Mycenaean culture and identically prior to the Roman empire's demise. And they look totally familiar to marine surveyors to what they can now see in ... the Gulf of Mexico! As for crop rotation and all that (and the falow fields, like the Jewish seven-year cycle with the shmitai hiatus (actually this year 2014 is such a hiatus year) - if we don't bring back all the nutrients that we take out and which cannot be replaced from air like carbon and nitrogen, the soils MUST get emaciated. Since we tend to demand higher yields per acre today than those mediaeval rotational farmers, yet still only can plant the same-yield legumes as back then, there must eventually be a shortfall. I believe it has come to a point where we may have to add permaculture and aquaponics as "closed-loop" systems to the mix or we will still fail even when using partially "sustainable" techniques that may have worked in some distant past.
DeleteColm - I agree. Although I would also say that we have come a lot further to understanding sustainable agriculture AND have had more time to find/breed other plants that fit in pieces of the puzzle we didn't know about before. It maybe possible to mix old style rotation and fallow planting with newly (relatively) discovered legumes and other green manure crops to make the system sustaining where it wasn't before.
DeleteThis might also be something to add to the suggestions. http://purecajunsunshine.blogspot.com/2008/08/how-to-make-free-fertilizer-from-weeds.html
ReplyDeleteAnon - That is a good suggestion however it would take a mega amount of weeds and that is assuming those weeds wouldn't provide better for you by being composted by your livestock first!!
DeleteI have often done the weed as mulch thing and put them down as I pulled them. It works well with some weeds but others (like pigweed) can actually manage to re-root themselves especially if it rains right after I pull em.
I think the common theme would be that nothing goes to waste. I know my rams get excited whenever they see me pulling weeds cause they think I am going to give em to them.
Thanks for the heads up on that blog!!!
I think from now on we should call you Professor Preppy instead of Pioneer Preppy. You seem to have a good handle on present day vs grind down SHTF farming, and planning. You have become my number one advisor, with kymber/jam and Vicki tied for second place.
ReplyDelete