World Record corn harvest -- ORGANIC~!

It would be nice if non-farmers could understand that. Manure is great but it can't be applied with the seed when planting. Instead, it has to be spread all over the soil surface where it feeds anything growing in every square inch of the field. Until it's plowed under, it's subject to run-off. (Don't say to plow it under right away because "right away" is every day for production on many farms.) Can't be knifed in at planting as a liquid due to the salts and ammonia toxicity. Dry fertilizer, dropped with the seed, is the most efficient means of supplying NPK to row crops. Must be working if yields are increasing just about every year nationwide. Besides, where would we find all the acreage to produce that manure? 100 years ago, 22% of all workland was just to produce hay for horses. Another 3% was for mules and ponies working in mines. Can't return to that.

Martin

And that is a good point too, Martin. "chemical" fertilizer on my farm is banded very precisely, about 3 inches off to the side of the seeds at seeding time. I do not put on more than a normal crop would use. With a 12 inch spacing between the rows, the crop is at an advantage to capture this fertilizer efficiently, not the weeds.

And your other point about where to get all the manure from is very valid as well. We would need massively more livestock in the world to even come close to aquiring enough fertility to feed the plants.

I certainly enjoy reading a discussion such as this. It's learning about a whole other world and an important one at that.

__________________
For we used to ask when we were little, thinking that the old men knew all things which are on earth: yet forsooth they did not know; but we do not contradict them, for neither do we know.

"they equal the conventional farms in profit."
That often works when the public believes there is a benifit to organic products over conventional products and they pay more for it, ofsetting the generally smaller yeilds and generaly higher imput costs.
Beyond this nitch market, there is no premium for organic.

With a combine mounted monitor, yeilds can spike up in perfect areas and down in lighter areas. He mentions the yeild going way up at one point and averaging at a lesser point. That average could have been a single area in a larger field.
Reclaimed pit land could have areas of stockpiled top soil that was shoved aside. Some areas, like open pit coal mining, receive lots of expensive remediation efforts.
But beyond it all, that's a lot of corn. As we learn more about corn DNA and soil micronutrients, we can expect higher yeilds from seeds designed to overcome weeds, insects, drought, etc and soils becoming closer to the perfect health needed to feed such crops. Can't do it with a plow, open polinated corn and a few loads of manure.

But I love the guys and gals with a plow, a pile of manure, and wanting to grow some of their own food their way.

That is a cool deal as well.

Its just not really so very different, one way from the other is all.

Either way, you try to do the best you can with what you can. If the goal is to run a 3000 acre farm with your family, or to feed your family for 3 months from the garden behind the house, it is more or less the same game.

We tend to focus so much or create artificial differences on this site. When really there are so many more similarities.

Paul