Organic works

[sumdumguy]

I know some people who farmed organically under OCIA. Please note past tense. They said the rules were too stringent. They sold the farm, mostly due to health reasons.

[Jay-mo]

I keep hearing about these successful organic farmers but have yet to see one.....
The blooming Canada thistle sure are pretty though!

[farmaholic]

.....everyone probably has a different definition of "success".

I think the guys around here did it thinking they were going to make a killing growing organic crops by not spending on inputs....most of them wouldn't be what I called "good" farmers to start with.... and I believe you have to be to farm organic. I would bet my farm none of them did it for "ideological reasons"....which I believe would also give incentive to do the best job possible....because you truly believe in it.

And aesthetics need to be put on the shelf because it may not look so good....but I hope looks are deceiving.

[Klause]

Klause nitrogen is nitrogen, there is no such thing as synthetic nitrogen. Go take a chemistry course or talk to a real unbiased soil scientist. They will tell you nh3 is as good as any other n source.

Micros are a waste of time 95 percent of the time. The universities have done trials and research it doesn't pay.

So you aren't really organic just but don't use nitrogen or sprays I really can't graso how the economics of that can work with no premium for the grain.

Wow.

No it isn't. Urea is different than ammonia nh3 is different than nh4+

I'm well versed in nitrogen and by synthetic I mean synthesized (produced by a chemical reaction).

Pretty much all fertilizer N comes from the Haber-Bosch process where natural gas is reacted with air and a catalyst

Urea is further processing

NH3 has been proven to be bad for soil biology... A necessary evil some say... But I'd modern rihzobia can make the N from air instead of us buying it... Plus manure for instance... Why not do that instead?

The science of production is always changing as we learn more. Keep in mind the world grew grass and Des dinosaurs for a long time before we started farming...

Another thing... Nitrogen fertilizers will be hardest hit by carbon taxes as they are made using fossil fuels.

[farmaholic]

I remember a while back, someone sarcastically commenting about adding a "little coal dust" and how could it possibly make a difference....when you think about the minute amount of active ingredients of some pesticides sprayed on a crop and the effect they can have....whose to say humate/humic acids couldn't have a beneficial affect as well.

[Oliver88]

Klause, Is there credible studies that show NH3 being bad for soil biology?

[pourfarmer]

Farming without inputs doesn't work, regardless if you're organic or conventional.

The conventional farmers use herb/insect/fungi-cide and fert. Organic guys inputs are time, fuel and steel.

Some of us crazy organic guys choose to make use of innoculants, foliar sprays, plow downs, animal manure, compost tea, bacteria, fungi, etc.

There is a ever growing list of approved inputs, big money is being spent on developing organic inputs, just this year one of the larger chain of suppliers started carrying organic fertilizer made from (city) food waste that has been commercially composted and pelletized. It is affordable, and seems to works well when used in conjunction with green manure, high rate inoculation, and those pseudoscientific foliars.

I have yet to see a weed that has been resistant to steel, conventional or organic.

Keep your head in the sand, listen to that fert/chem sales rep, ignore the market trends, tell yourself that modern mining and fert production is "sustainable", and most importantly: keep growing BIG BUSHELS for LOW DOLLARS to Feed the Worldâ„¢

[fjlip]

"I have yet to see a weed that has been resistant to steel, conventional or organic. "

Agree but during the growing season, the billions of weed seeds germ and grow IN the crop, go to seed for more billions of weeds to come.
Maybe market gardens, row weeded, hand pulled, never field crops.

[bgmb]

Klause, Is there credible studies that show NH3 being bad for soil biology?

Yes, pro ably done by some donkey who thought injecting exhaust would replace fert lol.

[bgmb]

Lots of land has been ruined in this area by organic farmers. Fact