A picture to challenge some preconceptions

[grassfarmer]

Organic Corn - no chemicals, fertilizers or soil amendments applied in over 15 years. Nebraska.

[Taiga]

Slim Jim there must be organic grass fed too.

[AlbertaFarmer5]

I have loads of respect for those making alternative production models work. I recently learned of a farmer half hour further north and west of me ( and I am on the edge) growing organic crops, and they look very good, clean, and good looking yields, including wheat. I plan to be talking to them after harvest, see what I can learn.

As for Nebraska, not sure there are many lessons that can be applied here. They would have enough growing season to grow effective cover crops on both ends. Probably under irrigation, with reliable heat units, when you control the weather, a lot is possible. Much different soils compared to our nutrient deficient grey wooded which are chronically short of OM, Potash, and Sulfur. Does no amendments include no manure?

[jazz]

Photo shop. Fake as F&ck.

[AlbertaFarmer5]

Photo shop. Fake as F&ck.

Over on NewAgTalk there are some posters consistently doing this, it is for real. Likely much easier with a row crop where they can cultivate in row.

[sumdumguy]

i’d have to actually physically see it to believe it. The organic farmer around here has thousands of acres that look super bad!

[wd9]

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Organic Corn - no chemicals, fertilizers or soil amendments applied in over 15 years. Nebraska.

Eventually you can no longer withdraw from the bank. The only difference is the account balance to start with.

Grassfarmer, here is the question, why wouldn't the landowner want to replace nutrients while they and energy are extremely cheap today?

And please don't give the answer its regenerating. Its not, its depleting the bank every year.

[AlbertaFarmer5]

Eventually you can no longer withdraw from the bank. The only difference is the account balance to start with.

Grassfarmer, here is the question, why wouldn't the landowner want to replace nutrients while they and energy are extremely cheap today?

And please don't give the answer its regenerating. Its not, its depleting the bank every year.

I've met or read a number of people who indirectly seem to believe that enough foo-foo juice or cover crops, or bacteria will allow plants to fix all nutrients out of thin air, or perform some alchemy and turn one element into another.

That said, what I understand, is that many soils have thousands of years worth of most nutrients in them, but not plant available, and that if you can access them, it is more sustainable than mined nutrients. Certainly not the case on our soil.

And as for sustainability, nothing we do is sustainable in the long term, why worry about the nutrient bank account hundreds of years from now when likely every other input will be exhausted before that?

[sumdumguy]

Many soild have thousands of years of weed seeds, I’ve noticed.

[dalek]

That’s pretty unimpressive corn compared to anything grown conventionally in Nebraska.

[grassfarmer]

How sad and predictable the comments are. They mostly reflect closed minds and a chance to parade pre-existing prejudices. Any unbiased observer would say "wow, that's impressive - tell me more". Instead accuse them of using photoshop or share concerns about how the farmer must be depleting his land. Interesting that this picture of an obviously lush, healthy crop would raise this concern when week in, week out pictures are posted of average, or below average crops yet never attract such comments. I guess for most a shitty crop grown with $500 of inputs per acre is always better than a great one grown without. No wonder farm input pimps like dealing with the average farmer - it's like taking candy off a kid.
As for it being a horrible crop by Nebraska standards it looks better than this one that the Nebraska Corn Board is displaying on their Twitter page. The grower of the crop I pictured first estimated it had potential to yield north of 400 bu/acre.

[makar]

There is a lot more to this story, feedlot manure is my quess.

[samhill]

Agree Makar, it’s a shxxxy story.

[grassfarmer]

There is a lot more to this story, feedlot manure is my quess.

No, he grows cover crops and mob grazes them with cattle. The cover crop the previous year was worked under to grow this crop. He is primarily a grass farmer, raising grass-fed beef. This is a cash crop, part of his rotation.

[jazz]

No I dont love input companies but to think you can grow 400 bu corn with a cover crop is nuts. It would take 5 yrs of the best nitrogen fixing cover crop and cattle grazing the land to do that. 400 bu corn would need 1000 lbs N. So I am supposed to be impressed the land netted zero for 5 yrs and then hits a whopper? Then probably irrigated with pig sludge on top of that.

Works for about .0001% of the producers out there.