RR Alfalfa gets non reg status

[grassfarmer]

I agree Jensend but doesn't what BTO say also apply to most facets of agriculture today? We have undergone a dumbing down of agriculture where a lot of the real knowledge of how to manage soils, crops, grasses and even animals has been lost. Replaced by pseudo science invented and distributed by the ag input corporations. At the University and research level there is very little real research going on where the results aren't pre-bought by the big corporations. Look at farm publications like Cattleman where the grass management articles are sometimes written by an "expert" from Dow Agro. Of course their lessons always finish up with the obvious conclusion that good management centers around using Grazon to "kill weeds and increase grass production".
Absolute short term, non-sustainable junk science has become the accepted standard across North America.

[FarmRanger]

wd9 reminds me of Newhart. (80s TV show)

Trying to educate Larry, Darrel and Darrel.

Why don't we all live in a cave and eat moss
because technology might be bad.

[hlg]

Like I`ve said before, it really doesn`t matter what we want, it DOES matter what the customer wants..WE do not have the right to tell them what they have to buy...Let`s wreck another market..

[parsley]

You have delightful humor, fr.

I have to admit I'm dumber than Larry, Darrel and Darrel all put together, so educate me. LOL I'll kinda use your words:

Why don't we all live in on a farm and eat flax because technology ruined flax sales and downloaded flax testing on us?

Side humor returnedPlease tell me you aren't getting paid to sample wd's er, mateloaf. He'll call it peer review. Or maybe 'marketing issue'? With adjusting tolerances? LOL) Pars

[jensend]

you're right grassfarmer. farming is no longer about food production; it's just another industrial process. pretty soon it will be a mcjob.

[tmyrfield]

It would be nice if the alfalfa fields around the area could be sprayed to remove the trillions of dandelions that have infested them in these last couple of wet years. Or maybe my neighbors are such poor farmers they couldn't get all their haying done in the one 7 day stretch this summer when it didn't rain.

[grassfarmer]

A perfect case of mindless use of chemicals. Nature abhors mono-cultures and vacuums. Dandelions are a symptom of previous poor management that led to gaps in the sward - they are nature's way of filling the vacuum and a sign the sward is healing. Spraying to kill them merely simplifies the plant community and ensures there are more spaces that nature will try to fill in next year with another "weed". Why are dandelions such a terrible thing in an alfalfa crop anyway? they have about the same feed value and the seed is free. We have grazed very healthy dandelions with leaves a foot long and four inches across. I guess we should use Grazon to kill these plants and hurt the soil a bit more - then we may get some thistles coming in place of the dandelions....of course then we would need to use Grazon to kill the thistles....

[wd9]

Posts like Parsely's are the kind of drivel that perpetuates the 'facts' like canola is genetically engineered from ****seed in the 70's.

Biotech corn, soybeans, and canola have been and are successful crops. No problem with marketing, are easy to grow, and yield well. Reduced tillage, reduced fuel, reduced chem load, and weed load are huge benefits. They are as safe as their non biotech cousins and are extremely successful and important to farmers in Canada.

How many farmers want to go back to spraying muster and a graminicide and some Lontrel and maybe put some edge down too to eek out a canola crop? How quickly the pain of the old way is quickly forgotten.

Its been 22 years since the last new chemistry has been made for crops. There is nothing new on the horizon either. I for one want investment in agriculture or it is going to get extremely difficult in a hurry.

[parsley]

The links I posted that shows young 30ish prairie men with no cancer but men a decade older showing the same prairie area riddled with prostate cancer is starkly damning. And scarey. And real.

Stick your head in the sand, wd. But my non-peer reviewed fact is that cancer is an epidemic. I see it. And it's raging in the farm community. And my friends and your friends are among those increasingly diagnosed with cancer.

I have watched cancer become a business, filled with research and scientists, and experiments, while out of control numbers of farmer cancer patients become vital statistics.

I can count.

Patient after patient undergoes suggested regimes of treatment.

'Eating the right food' has become the pillar treatment, with nutritionists working hand in hand with oncologists.

Food.

Most young men and women 'grow up' when they have children.(You think you know it all until you have kids, and that's fair.LOL) Or when someone they are close to gets cancer. Or their kids get cancer.

Farmers have a serious role to play when it comes to food. You are first line of defense.

Too many professional people lack ethics.

Govrnments are, well, governments; that's the most insulting word I can think of.

Global food corporations will grind up every last ounce of road kill growing in petrie dishes and trademark it as 'Chicken Little Crosses the Road."

But the bottom line is this: Farmers are no good to others to provide good food if you get sick yourself.

Look at the red.

<p></p>
<p><strong>[URL="http://dsol-smed.phac-aspc.gc.ca/dsol-smed/cancer/m_prov-eng.phtml?minx=-2593089&miny=-697455&maxx=3420404&maxy=3840000&CAUSE=761&AGEGROU P=0&YEAR=am&SEX=1&DATATYPE=r&reClassifyMap=Update Map&ecumenes=on"](Contrary to what wd says, the color red is not drivel. )[/URL]</strong></p>

[jensend]

if you just leave a piece of land sit for a year what you'll have growing there is the plants that are best adapted to the condition of the soil. if you let natural succession take place all the crops that are commonly grown in canadian farming will be overtaken by other species. that's why modern farming is so dependent on 'crop protection' products. the annual crops being produced are weaklings that cannot survive without elimination of all threats. they are less able to survive than most of the species in nature. it's not unfair to say that every kernel of wheat grown conventionally comes out of an oil barrel.