First year I can ever remember no -40

[sumdumguy]

Where are you allfarmer? What soil class under
the trees?

[smcgrath76]

AF - you are certainly ambitious and nature is resilient enough that you may skate a long way before she bites back.
We all manage ecosystems in different ways. Your methodology strikes me as likely to be shorter term, or perhaps
longer term higher expense and challenging to maintain. I always take each expense and divide by the number of cows
without amortizing the expense. It gives a pretty good idea of how much baggage you are packing on the cow's back.
Fighting nature creates a pretty big weight...
Expense adds risk to a risky venture...

[ALLFARMER]

Just did a quick count of the tractors on this
place....looks like 6 so far. I worked on a John
Deere dealers farm as a kid for 9 years and not a
word of a lie I bet he has 75 tractors. Check out
the tractor museum next time your through
Westlock Doc just a little south west of the Ufa
fuel.

Grassfarmer, I was at pioneer acres Irricana last
summer, you gotta see the iron them boys got!
Also they have an old time slaughter house which
tells the story of an old time beef ring. One
animal a week got butchered everyone in the
community got a piece. Take the drive....bring
cash, no debit!

[gaucho]

Keep believing that crap Allfarmer... did you know that close to 50% of all food that is produced is wasted... Trees don't grow food?... lets think about that... they modify temperature, they produce oxygen, they reduce drying by wind, they put moisture into the air, they modify flooding through their affect on hydrology.... that reason enough.... Producing food by destroying the environment is not producing food cheap. I am not for producing food cheap... it comes at a cost and less is more.... how about leaving something for the next generation, how about living a sustainable lifestyle rather than **** and pillage to the last tree. The mortal flaw of humans is that they forget they are mortals and forget that one day they will be dead and gone..... they want to take everything to the grave and leave nothing for the next generation.... keep believing the crap from the multinationals Allfarmer that you are part of a glorious cause to save the human from starvation... I call it the 21st century crusade and it is a load of crap.

[grassfarmer]

Where am I driving to Allfarmer? Irricana or your piece
of tundra? You talk about cropping being the easy
way to make money - doesn't seem to be that if you
read over on the commodity forum where it swings
between wild enthusiasm when canola is $12 to
despair when it's $9. And these guys are working on
land that's been farmed for decades. To add to that
the expense of clearing land but more importantly
add the substantial trucking expenses of living in an
area remote from civilization as well as being on the
extreme climatic fringe of a crop growing zone seems
mighty risky to me. Good luck with your endeavour, I
think you'll need it.

[forage]

I have cleared about 160 acres of diamond willow on 2 quarters I bought about 3 years ago. Best land is under those old willow stands. Don't do any breaking after it is done as the natural fescue grass takes over once the brush is remove. So one spray after in the spring to kill out the saplings and let the cows do the rest. Cost was 15,000 for cat clearing and piling. Land cost was 900 per acre. Not all the quarters were willow as there was over 160 acres open areas throughout the willow. Think I am money ahead of the game compared to the northern development.

[ALLFARMER]

Sounds like my stuff forage, only mine very little
open grass areas but some. I paid 40,000 for this
half 6 years agoe. 40 acres more to pile, if I
heavy disc it and root pick it's worth 400,000.
May or may not disk it. Some people have
suggested I leave use it for pasture for 6 or 7
years and let the roots rot, working with nature
they say...just not sure...need more hay
land...already have lots of bush pasture. Cheers
men!

[Happytrails]

Good luck Allfarmer and don't worry about the doubters. If you are doing things you will make some mistakes but doing nothing isn't a viable option. HT