Quote:
Originally Posted by SIP Gro-Tubs
I, would like to hear your therories of how you would upscale the backyard model type of Permaculture for feeding a single family to a large scale such that commercial growers use, without doing major modifications.
Just think of a commercial grower spreading hay in round bales on just 1 section of land, or adding compost to same amount of land, those types of modifications arn't major they would be astronomical, especially for the funds they would have to have to even to start the first year, and then on a yearly basis.
Terry Layman
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OK Basically, lets start with the hay rolls. That was expensive for me because I had to buy it. Still even having to buy it, the cost was small on a per plant basis. But with a baler...... You are keeping it on the farm. AND if animals are incorporated into the model, Managed intensive rotational grazing (MIRG) promotes 2-5 times the total biomass growth of a pasture. So making that hay in a rotation during peak growth is very doable. I don't know of a single commercial farmer who raises animals on pasture that doesn't already make hay. That leaves the paper or cardboard barrier as a cost. I still need to see how effective it is on a yearly basis. But if I can manage to make a single layer of bogus paper work, you can buy that at 1000 feet for about 25 dollars +/-. That cost would be divided by at least 250 plants. In other words only 10 cents a plant. Certainly a reasonable and manageable cost in building a competitive business model.
Other costs would include stakes for the Florida weave. Just keep in mind the Florida weave was developed by commercial growers in Florida....hence the name. So this is no different than already proven commercial growers business models. A one time investment for a new grower, no cost at all for an established grower that already uses the Florida weave.
Now for fertilizing. On a large scale you would need to keep this on farm. It simply is too expensive and bulky to try and import in that huge quantity of manure and organic matter for compost needed in effective organic methods. It also is a principle of permaculture to close the loop and make it sustainable. So that's where we must get creative with animals. Animals have many benefits. All animals have manures which fertilize the ground. Culls from the crops can double as feed. Chickens especially are great at pest control. Herbivores at weed control. The trick is to keep the animals out of the crops.
This can be done with portable electric fencing and portable cages like "chicken tractors" that run between the rows. This way you precisely control exactly when and where the animals are in relation to the crop. AND develop an additional revenue stream in eggs and/or meat. For example: Broilers take approximately 35 days on pasture to raise. So your rows would be 35 X the length of the chicken tractor. Lets use 10 feet as an example. The rows would be 350 feet long with a grass staging area between sections. The broilers would be finished and sold before the crop starts ripening, giving time for the biology to incorporate the manure before the harvesters need to get in the field. The current going price for pasture raised organic broilers is 10-20 dollars each, assuming you can even find them at all. Demand is MUCH higher than supply. That means for each row of 10-12 Tomato plants you will have an additional 750-1500 dollars gross income from your fertilization and pest control. See we just flipped a cost into an income stream by letting the the animals do the work in the field. So while there is somewhat more labor, it is well paid labor! Especially if in the crop rotation in later years you grow your own grain for the chickens using a no-till planter in the ground that in previous years grew tomatoes or other crops requiring heavy mulches.
The sod should be well killed by then. Last rotation of course you could start the successional native species growing again to turn it back into 100% pasture again.
And start the rotation in another field.
All this will take further work of course. This is just year 1. Right now I am just trying to work out how to grow the crops and control the weeds in a low labor low cost way. I won't start incorporating animals for at least a year or two. After I work out the rough edges with just the tomatoes and other crops.