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NC Wayne
08-28-2005 20:02:05
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Hey guys, I'm a mechanic by trade and the furtherest thing you'll find from a farmer so this may sound like a stupid question/idea, but induldge me if you will and let me know what you think. I've read so many posts on here over the past couple of years concerning the cost of fertalizing the fields, etc etc. Keeping that in mind and seeing the kinds of things I routinely see working out in the field on construction equipment it got me thinking. The main reasons you put fertalizer out is to replentish the nutrients in the soil used by the crops, as well as to get more yield out of a given amount of land. I know there are farming "techniques" such as crop rotation, etc to make things a little more natural but why not take what nature does everyday, apply it to farming and take it a step further? Everytime a tree falls and rots, a plant dies and falls to the ground, an animal finds a good spot to 'do it's business', it's all about nature recycling it's resourses and taking care of itself by automatically replentishing what it takes away. When I was young Dad used to have a garden every year. We had one place in that garden where we dumped leaves, grass clippings, sawdust from the shop,etc. As the old saying goes that spot was "rich as a yard up a bulls a--". Everything planted there outgrew the other plants 4 to 1 or better. My question/idea is why couldn't this practice be used on a larger scale for farming? There's land being cleared everyday, with the trees being cut and run through chippers and tub grinders, people cut their grass and rake leaves all the time, heck lawncare is one of the biggest business out there nowdays. I've seen piles of wood chips from one site that would easily cover several acres, one lawn crew that cuts enough grass in a day to cover cover several more, and I'm sure there are enough chicken, hog, and beef farmers along with how many different zoos that could provide the "good stuff" that the wild animals would normally contribute. ...We worry about recycling plastic, paper, and all the other items of everyday life to "save the environment", why not recycle the environment itself. I'm always hearing about nitrogen run off and other chemicals from fertlizer polluting the rivers but this way all your using are natural items to fertalize just like Mother Nature does. As for the cost, somebody (the government) would probably find a way to muck it up, but to the normal person, namely me, it looks like it's be a good deal for all concerned. I very rarely see a chip pile that isn't free for the taking, (just get it out of the way, we'll load it for you). Many county landfills charge to take brush, leaves, etc, so I can't see anybody turning down a chance to give them away. As far as the animal waste most places have large amounts that they have to process and get rid of in a "small area" but if that 5000 gallons of waste were spread out over 1000 acres instead of 2, all of a sudden it's doing something good instead of simply "polluting". I know there would be alot of details to work out, and something like this it's quite as simple as I'm making it here, but as far as I know (remember I'm NOT a farmer) it's never even been tried. So who's to say without some thought and hard work it couldn't something like this couldn't be made into a reality? On the topic of new ideas, what about piping water? We can pipe a valuable commodity like oil from Alaska to wherever...now what's more valuable than water? The Eastern half of the US can be flooded and 10'underwater and the Western half in the middle of a drought but there's no way to get the excess water from one part of the country to the other. The government can spend billions of dollars trying to "find water on Mars" but has yet to do anything like this to take care of the water we already have here on Earth..... .Just my .02, I welcome ya'lls input be it good or bad.....
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