On Wed, 29 Jun 2005 15:01:27 -0500, Duane Bozarth wrote:
Dave Hinz wrote:

On Wed, 29 Jun 2005 07:40:20 -0500, Duane Bozarth wrote:
...

Right. I've got 17 acres of it myself.

Well, as I suspected, your experience "back there" is in the buffer
or wetland programs...

Right, I only have 30 acres total. So, I'm happy leaving it in the long
term crop it's growing now (trees). 8000 planted, plus a few thousand
volunteers (mostly ash...nice lumber,that) is enough to keep me busy
between keeping the listed weeds down, and keeping the lumber shaped
properly.

Yes. The days of people being ignorant of crop rotation and soil
quality are long gone. Some may choose not to do any of it, but they're
at lesat not ignorant of it.

I know none that are real production farmers that aren't both aware and
serious practicioners--it is simply not possible to survive economically
otherwise. All those who used to operate that way are long gone, at
least around here.

In my part of Wisconsin, no-till is just getting to be common in the
family farm setting. So things move slow. Like I said, it's not that
they're ignorant of it, they're just chosing not to use it in some
cases.

At 60 bucks an acre per year for CRP contracts, I can't see planting
soybeans any time soon. If fuel goes waaaaaaaaaay up, then maybe.

At 38-40/A, I didn't either. At 28-32/A it starts looking different.

Is that what it's down to now? My contract is good for a few more
years, I didn't know it was that low.

We got
an infestation of sericea lespedeza from the forb seed they required us
to overseed into it for improved wildlife habitat. Now that has been
placed on the noxious weed list and it is incredibly difficult to
eradicate and at $80/gal (including the County Noxious Office kickback),

Nice going to whichever idiot told you to plant it then, eh? I bet he's
not real popular...

it costs $20/A just for the chemical, w/o application cost. It just
really chaps me that they made us plant the damn weeds in the grass in
the first place (which incidentally cost us half that cost out of pocket
besides), introducing the stuff in the first place, and now the entire
control cost comes out of our pocket on top of which the new leases are
for 20% or more less than the initial. If that occurs again, it's
almost a given it will not be renewed. It may stay in grass, but it at
least will be able to be hayed and grazed even if it doesn't go back
into grain production.

I'm almost to the point where the trees make changing my mind a
non-option. I've got (thinks....) maybe 5-6 acres in native
wildflowers, the university sent out a couple of people to do a site
survey and plan & got us started. Looks nice, keeps the weeds out.