# Organic



## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

I personally like the idea of consuming organic products....but, it is alot of work for less than ideal yields. I also like the idea of organic beef, but I would not want to farm downwind of a organic beef grower. Why, well I have seen some of their pastures standing with thousands of thistles, thickets of horsenettle, and various other nuisances....tough on a forage/crop grower.

Well, we all know the benefits of a healthy lifestyle.....but how much is too much.....too much organic?...... for some it will just not work.....too many chemicals?......your health is at stake......it is a catch 22.

It is a fine line.....and a line that basically we have to use good sound judgement in arriving at the answer.

Moderation....the key to a long life.

Regards, Mike


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

We go for the moderation when possible, spray weeds early and often if required so less chemical is needed for a clean kill. Cover crops also seem to help keep weeds in check as well. Grass waterways are planted where erosion is a problem to keep chemicals and fertilizer out of the water supply. Even when spraying the garden or fruit trees I've found that with proper timing less fungicide/insecticide can be used than the label suggests.

We use no hormones, growth stimulants or antibiotics with our herd. Have been looking into getting both certified as grass fed and humane.

A few things some of the pro organic crowd doesn't even begin to take into account:

Need a huge increase in the amount of animals around to supply enough manure for fertilizer. I have a total of 67 beef cows on the farm atm between cows, heifers and steers. Said animals only produce enough to cover about 1/20th the acreage we plant to corn and that's just a skim coat not enough to raise a crop, unless of course we quit using the summer and winter pastures but then A: the peta folks go full blown postal over confinement

B: it takes more feed to feed em if they are confined to just collect the manure.

We did have a local BTO trying to cut all his chemical fertilizer use and was using poultry litter, worked for a few years then he's quit using it. Our soils seems to hold calcium to the point of calcium overload from several years of litter application. He would also have 3-4 trucks going all winter to haul the stuff in, then would start spreading as soon as he could, between the soil compaction, time spend spreading and hauling and pissing half the county off when he was spreading that vile smelling stuff he hasn't used any for the last 4 or 5 years.

If you really want to avoid the nasty stuff don't buy imported fruits and vegetables. Some countries are still allowed to use insecticides and fungicides that have been banned here for years and with little oversight on the use of it, if a little is good more is better right?

It might not be as organic as you think it is, case in point. We have a few organic dairies around here, they are allowed to use regular nasty ole chemical infested non organic hay for their bulls. I've delivered enough "bull" hay to a few of these places to last em for years, but they call and want more the next year. I kid em, might need to worm those bulls as they seem to eat a lot wink wink. Can't be only those few dairies in our area cheat?

I have nothing but respect for the guys that can not only make organic work but make it work very well, it just rubs me the wrong way to hear the way some people jump on the organic bandwagon and proclaim it to be the greatest thing in the world then not be willing to admit it does have some drawbacks.

http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/features/myths-organic-food

From Scientific American: http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/science-sushi/2011/07/18/mythbusting-101-organic-farming-conventional-agriculture/

From The Independent UK: http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/the-great-organic-myths-why-organic-foods-are-an-indulgence-the-world-cant-afford-818585.html

The NY Times: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/31/what-you-think-you-know-but-dont-about-wise-eating/?_r=0

And my favorite of all: http://www.marklynas.org/2013/01/lecture-to-oxford-farming-conference-3-january-2013/


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## Teslan (Aug 20, 2011)

About 7 years ago we had a farm renter that in the last year of his lease decided to grow organic corn to sell to a large supposedly organic dairy. So he didn't spray for weeds or even do any mechanical cultivating and weed control. By the time he harvested the corn for silage there were weeds in the field as tall as the corn and many of the weeds had went to seed. So over the next few years the current renters had to battle weeds that never were a problem before. Thanks wanna be organic farmer. In addition those organic farmers that get some manure from that organic dairy to spread on their fields are also spreading some nice weed seed. Yay!


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