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Opportunity Knocks
Editorial from the March/April 2000 issue of Small Farm Today® magazine.
Never in the history of this country has there been more opportunity for small farms to be successful than today.
Why do I say this? Because we know so much more about how plants and livestock grow and what their functions are in relationship to one another and the soil than we did 100 years ago.
There have been many exciting innovations (e.g., New Zealand style dairy barns) and new developments of old techniques (e.g., Management Intensive Grazing) in agriculture. I still firmly believe, though, that just because it's new doesn't make it better and just because it's old doesn't make it obsolete.
We can certainly learn much from the past, both positive and negative. In the past, the phrase "plowing the corn" meant to cultivate between the rows. Unfortunately, "plowing" was actually closer to the truth than "cultivating". Many times, a single horse or mule walked down 40-inch rows pulling a bull tongue plow (like a large cultivator shovel) or single-row cultivator, going as deep as the horse or mule could pull it. While this looked nice, and the weeds were killed and covered, we were also cutting off corn roots, wilting the plants, and causing reduced yields. Deep cultivation can cause as much as a 15 bushel/acre (bu/a) decrease in yield.
As you might suspect, this was in the days of open-pollinated (OP) corn, when the national average yield was about 25
If we had known more about corn roots and cultivation, then the average yield could have been as much as 40 bu/a with no increased input costs and probably a lower cost of production; you can cultivate faster and cover more ground when you cultivate at a 2-2.5 inch depth.
Of course, improvements were occurring then, too. During the same time period, some farms produced from 100 bu/a up to as high as 255 bu/a of OP corn. By using moisture covering methods of tillage, west Texas farmers produced 25 bu/a corn with only 1/2 inch of rain from planting to harvest, and got 40 bu/a with 1-1/2 inches of rain in areas where not a single grain could have been produced by previous methods.
Research and improvements continue today. After 23 years of testing, John Jeavons has shown that biointensive mini-farming can produce yields of two to six times that of commercial agriculture. Water consumption is about a third as much as commercial agriculture, and energy consumption is 1% of that used by commercial agriculture. Income is increased by 100% on a per-unit-of-area basis, and there is a 100% increase in soil fertility. Productivity increases and resource use decreases make this a very sustainable farming system, with only about 4,000 square feet needed to feed one person for one year. Current commercial agriculture practices require about 22,000 square feet per person.
By the way John's initial income estimates were 1/8-1/2 acre netting $5,000-$20,000 per year at $100-$400 per week. A woman in British Columbia is netting $400/week on a 1/16-acre patch, and is now training 12 other women to do the same.
There are three very important elements in the information I have relayed to you so far.
First, what I talked about was information technology. While everything has a cost connected to it, the cost of information like books, magazines, or conferences, is zip compared to buying more land or livestock or putting up a new building or buying more machinery to increase your profits. Spending $100-$200, or even $500, on books or conferences that help you decide what to do or learn how to do it is chicken feed compared to a $20,000-plus investment that went wrong.
Second, some of this information is new and some of it's old. Nevertheless, in both cases it works. It may be hard to find, though. This information is not as widely spread as conventional ag information, simply because there is no money in it for the big companies. It helps farmers–it also helps rural communities, and society in general–but the farmer is the direct benefactor at virtually no out-of-pocket cost. For example, companies do not promote or research OP corn because farmers can save their own seed from year to year–therefore, the big company cannot control the farmers nor increase seed costs every year to line the corporate pockets.
Third, is the realization that to get the high net profits possible with small farming, you must direct market your crops at retail prices. The woman in British Columbia raised gourmet vegetables for local restaurants.
This is the information age–the trick is getting the right information from the right people. A good first step is to figure resource gathering–magazine subscriptions, book buying, conference attendance, organization memberships, time for library visits or Internet searches, and consultations–into your budget. Know what you are doing, know how to do it, and have some potential markets before you buy-or start small and experiment. Know how your different ventures will fit together.
As I said at the beginning, there are more opportunities in small farming today than ever before. We know more, people in general have more money to spend, and farmers are learning to become marketers–not just producers. There are thousands of market niches out there. It is up to you to find the information and markets that work best for you and your farm.
Happy and Profitable Farming,
Ron Macher
Publisher/Farmer