Farmers switching from corn

Kstornado11 · #1 02/10/14, 03:58 PM

What do you all think of this? I love it, as apples are SO much better than high fructose corn syrup, which seems to be in Everything these days!

Quote:

John D. Jackson lives in the heart of the Corn Belt, where most of the corn has nothing to do with sweet kernels on the cob. His farm in Southern Illinois typically grows field corn, the high-starch variety that is turned into ethanol and cattle feed. He also works as a logistics manager for Archer Daniels Midland, the agricultural giant that produces the other big artifact of this crop: high fructose corn syrup.

But on 10 of his 700 acres, Mr. Jackson broke from this culture of corn last fall by planting something people can sink their teeth into. With a tractor and an auger, he drilled four-foot holes in his soil, added fertilizer and put in 48 apple trees bearing Gold Rush, Jonagold, Enterprise and the sweet-tart blushing globe called the Crimson Crisp. This year he plans to add more apple trees, blackberry bushes and possibly some vegetables.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/05/di...tion.html?_r=0

Horseyrider · #2 02/10/14, 04:11 PM

Makes me smile. Seems silly that farmers were ever discouraged from being diversified.

DaleK · #3 02/10/14, 04:28 PM

10 acres? Non-story. How many others in the neighbourhood doing the same will it take to flood the market? Not many.

light rain · #4 02/10/14, 04:57 PM

I'm happy to see an increase in apple production. Also delighted our flatlander neighbors will have access to American apples locally produced. I think there is going to be a lot more arriving from foreign shores due to some changes in laws. I would prefer to eat apples grown in WI but in a pinch Illinois will do.

TedH71 · #5 02/10/14, 06:32 PM

Aren't fruit trees a lot of work to keep insect pest free?

Forerunner · #6 02/10/14, 06:35 PM

Even the longest and most worthy journey starts with the first step.

Sawmill Jim · #7 02/10/14, 07:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Forerunner

Even the longest and most worthy journey starts with the first step.

And ends over the cliff with the second

Forerunner · #8 02/10/14, 07:05 PM

PrettyPaisley · #9 02/10/14, 07:19 PM

Tons and tons of pesticides.

farmerDale · #10 02/10/14, 07:43 PM

I don't think the item is a big deal. Maybe it is in the states, but up here there is no such thing as a single crop farmer. Diversification has always happened. I don't get the point of this being news. I guess folks think of it in terms of corn farmer, wheat farmer, soybean farmer, flax farmer, apple farmer.

Doing more than one thing is common business sense, and simply fun to do. Waiting for the point???

farmerDale · #11 02/10/14, 07:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PrettyPaisley

Tons and tons of pesticides.

Tons and tons of pesticides, what??? I don't follow.

Forerunner · #12 02/10/14, 07:44 PM

The point is....you're too far north to be growing apples.

farmerDale · #13 02/10/14, 07:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Forerunner

The point is....you're too far north to be growing apples.

Nope, we grow apples here. Ye are grossly mistaken.

FarmboyBill · #14 02/10/14, 07:49 PM

As Paisley said. They also have to be pruned. The owners have to be able to find pickers.
I was born and raised in an apple belt along the Mo River bluffs. They came in after grapes went out due to prohibition. By the time I came along and worked for the Wathena Apple Growers Assn, Wathena Kans. They were starting to receed. There had been maybe 4 apple warehouses and processing centers where they collected, washed, sorted, graded and packaged for sale all kinds of apples. There was only one warehouse in 65 when I first worked there for around 3 months. Farmers were having a heck of a time trying to find pickers. City people had gotten lazy, and with people counting on welfare to keep them afloat. Farmers one by one rooted out there trees, terriced the hills, and farmed them. I don't know of any orchards in that area anymore.

Forerunner · #15 02/10/14, 07:49 PM

Well then....I stand corrected.

Are you able to sustain a commercial scale, or are you somewhat limited by climate ?

secuono · #16 02/10/14, 08:07 PM

I agree that it seems vastly common place to grow only one or two things and be good at it. Guess we are all too afraid of projects failing and rather put the most effort into one we most want.

jwal10 · #17 02/10/14, 08:08 PM

There are a lot of organic apples grown here....James

Molly Mckee · #18 02/10/14, 08:25 PM

There are plenty of American grown apples, we export apples.

farmerDale · #19 02/10/14, 09:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Forerunner

Well then....I stand corrected.

Are you able to sustain a commercial scale, or are you somewhat limited by climate ?

I actually have a small area by my lake that I have been toying with the idea of making an orchard out of. It has nice sloping land, and if I straightened out the grain field to make it more efficient between two woodlots, I think there would be about 20 acres available. I could easily irrigate if needed.

The U of S has been coming out with some real nice, commercially viable apple varieties for Saskatchewan. Cherries, apples and pears, along with grapes and saskatoons, haskap and raspberries and strawberries, and many other types of fruit, all have several well bred varieties for this climate.

But I think the idea will remain a "toying" idea, only because we are so far in the middle of nowhere, with such a limited market and population. I do not know much about what would be needed to store apples, another thing I would need to look at.

Diversification is very rewarding and enjoyable, it is just hard to pull the trigger on something. More research needed....

rambler · #20 02/10/14, 09:19 PM

While a nice story, it seems to want to make a point but the author is so unfamiliar with farming and ag that he doesn't know what or how to make whatever point he is trying for?

Pretty common around here to have a family orchard around here on the row crop farms around here.

The latest fad is grapes, since they discovered grape types that survive in this cold climate, you don't have to drive 20 miles to see a couple to ten acre grape field here and tere.

Apples are big business in this state, I think the apple belt is a tad north of me, despite all the home orchards around here.

People tend to specialize in what works well for them. Some diversity is nice, but my land is best suited for a corn crop. Soybeans do fair at best, oats needs a cool late spring to work out, wheat does not like my wet clay ground, winter wheat freezes out. And so on. I grow many crops, but corn works and works well here, the rest are for some diversification.

Paul