Re: Organic hay production

From: Steve Diver (steved@NCATARK.UARK.EDU)
Date: Wed Sep 18 2002 - 20:30:27 EDT


Mike -

Sanet is a major resource exchange on
sustainable agriculture topics.

Here is the Archives to the Sanet web page.
http://lists.sare.org/archives/sanet-mg.html

Go to Search the Archives
http://lists.ifas.ufl.edu/cgi-bin/wa.exe?S1=sanet-mg

Type in a few keywords like: forage, compost, hay

Also go to the SAN Search page
http://sare.org/htdocs/docs/search.html

You can search through:
    SAN Documents
    SAN Regions
    Old Sanet archives

If you are trying to grow bermudagrass hay in Texas or
Oklahoma and that is all you want is bermudagrass hay....
because you can't stand ragweed and broadleaf weeds....
then I'd say you will have to either live with weedy hay
or you are going to spray 2,4-D to get a clean stand of
bermudagrass. Well, you can do that seeding and
establishment routine I referred to in my previous post to
get a pure stand for a few years.... but weed seeds are
out there and weeds are determined to come back in a
pure stand of grass.

But if you take the same pasture and break it up into cells
with fencing and implement rotational grazing, especially
if you add sheep as part of a multispecies grazing scheme,
then I can just about gaurantee you won't need to spray
herbicides for weed control.

This is an ecological imperative. Weeds do not go away
because you graze them continuously or because you mow
them with a brush hog.

But if you graze them intensively and allow a resting period
and if you put in two species of animals that have different
foraging behaviors, you can alter the forage complex
in favor of high quality forages with very few weeds.
The broadleaves that do inhabit managed pastures
are beneficial species like clovers and herbs.

Let us say that you also eliminate chemical wormers from
the livestock, and instead use probiotics and herbal
remedies and holistic animal health products and practices.

Farmers see indicators of beneficial life coming back to
pastures and manure piles managed under these conditions.

Some fascinating things start happening amongst the plant
and soil communities. Take one biological indicator, the
dung beetles.

The following publication is a joy to read.

Dung Beetle Benefits in the Pasture Ecosystem
ATTRA
http://www.attra.org/attra-pub/dungbeetle.html
http://www.attra.org/attra-pub/PDF/dungbeetle

ATTRA, by the way, has a whole series of publications
on grass farming that you can poke through.
http://www.attra.org/attra-pub/grassfarminglist.html

Sustainable Pasture Management
Nutrient Cycling in Pastures
Assessing the Pasture Soil Resource
Rotational Grazing
Matching Livestock and Forage Resources in Controlled Grazing
Paddock Design
Multispecies Grazing
Grazing Networks for Livestock Producers

SAN has the following publications that you can poke
through or purchase for your bookshelf.
http://sare.org/htdocs/pubs/

Building Soils for Better Crops
Managing Cover Crops Profitably
The Small Dairy Resource Book
The New American Farmer: Profiles of Agricultural
Innovation
Profitable Poultry: Raising Birds on Pasture
Profitable Pork: Strategies for Hog Producers

Center for Integrated Agriculture Systems at
Univ of Wisconsin is another prominent sustainable
agriculture source on livestock and grazing

CIAS
http://www.wisc.edu/cias/index.html

I think you will find all these materials are based on
solid scientific understanding and so-called bench
mark studies, yet they are balanced with observations
and experiences of farmers. That is one of the unique
aspects of sustainable agriculture.

Regards,

Steve Diver


Mike Bosko wrote:

> I had posted questions to similar forums in the past, but all I got in
> return were posts telling me how bad chemicals are, that its full
> change or nothing, and similar replies that do nothing for me in terms
> of helping the cause. I'm looking for facts, more than reasons.
> Again, don't get me wrong, I'm big on practicing environmentally
> friendly means in agriculture. But I have found myself starting to
> ask, to what point is it taken too far? It would be great to see some
> studied results on actual farms, both large and small. What to be
> studied, what controls, who's viewpoint, etc?? I really don't know
> how the "tests" would/should be developed, but I too am curious of
> such results.
>
> All of the tests that I have read about seem to have been conducted by
> someone on one or the other side of the fence in the use of
> conventional chemicals. It would be more appreciable to me, to see
> tests from an unbiased viewpoint. Maybe there have been such 'test'
> conducted. I'd be interested in hearing about them.

.



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