Alternative Agriculture (1989) / Chapter Skim
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4 A Mixed Crop and Livestock Farm in Pennsylvania: The Kutztown Farm
4 A Mixed Crop and Livestock Farm in Pennsylvania: The Kutztown Farm
Pages 286-307
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From page 286... ...
In comparison, the average cropland harvested per farm in Berks County during 1982 was 105 acres. GENERAL DATA Rodale Research Center scientists (Culik et al., 1983)
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From page 287... ...
The family raises all the grain, hay, and silage used on the farm. Most of the farm's crops are used for feed and bedding, although the farmer sells some alfalfa and red clover hay.
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From page 288... ...
Irrigation practices None Crop and livestock Crop yields exceed county averages for soybeans, hay, wheat, and yields corn grain; yields are lower for corn silage and rye. Financial performance Expenditures for fertilizers and agricultural chemicals per acre are substantially below county averages.
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From page 289... ...
Regenerative Agriculture Library Technical Bulletin. Kutztown, Pa.: Rodale Research Center.
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From page 291... ...
Soil erosion is a moderate hazard, and crop rotations that feature frequent row crops (corn or soybeans) are not recommended.
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From page 292... ...
Although available data do not permit direct comparisons of the machinery inventory on the Kutztown Farm with that of a comparable farm using conventional practices, it is clear that this farmer is substituting his mechanical craftsmanship (in repairing old machinery) for the capital that would be needed to purchase newer equipment.
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From page 293... ...
Regenerative Agriculture Library Technical Bulletin. Kutztown, Pa.: Rodale Research Center.
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From page 294... ...
Crowley, Penn State University Farm Management Extension Director, interview, 1987~. Tillage and Crop Rotations When the family first began farming the Rodale land in 1973 (on a special lease requiring that agricultural chemicals not be used and other management provisions)
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From page 295... ...
The standard cropping sequence included small grains used for establishing leguminous hay crops, followed by corn, soybeans, or more corn, and, again, small grains. The hay crops included alfalfa, alfalfa-timothy, red clover, or mixed species.
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From page 296... ...
The benefit of this method is that, by alternating silage chopping with the ear picking, the feed value of the silage is increased, and about 80 percent of the corn residue is left in the field, providing abundant organic matter and preventing soil erosion. Compared with the erosion that occurs when all corn stalks are cut for silage, a method that leaves virtually no
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From page 297... ...
, the staff of the RodaTe Research Center frequently performed soil tests and plant tissue tests for each of the farm's 98 fields. The farmer had access to the test results (Table 7~.
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From page 298... ...
N/poundslacre/year Total N Forage legume residue 2,800 0.36 Soil N pool 2,207 0.28 Steer manure 1,526 0.19 Poultry manure 1,457 0.17 Total available N suppliesa 7,635 1.00 Crop requirementsb 6,449 Measured crop uptakes 6,530 N balanced + 1,104 aDoes not include contributions from soybean residue, precipitation, autotrophic N fixation, crop residues older than 1 year, or manure residue older than 2 years. bBased on 1978 Pennsylvania State University Soil Testing Service calculations for 40 acres of corn on 28 separate fields.
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From page 299... ...
A somewhat similar pattern occurs with nitrogen. The farmer supplements the nutrients provided by legume rotations and beef manure produced on the farm with imported nutrients: chicken manure purchased under a contract with a local egg producer and a small quantity (4 gallons per acre)
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From page 300... ...
Although this phenomenon is not well understood, the Rodale Research Center scientists speculate that deep-rooted sod crops in the rotation may be drawing nutrients upward from deep in the soil profile. Wegrzyn (1984)
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From page 301... ...
Weeds are sometimes a serious problem when untimely rain prevents cultivation, while in other years cultivation controls weeds better than herbicides do. The farmer suspects that the chicken manure he uses contained weed seeds (telephone interview, 1986~.
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From page 302... ...
ranged from a Tow of 0.8 tons per acre per year in one 11-acre area to 13.S tons per acre per year on the most erodible S.~-acre area. The Soil Conservation Service, which has estimated that soil erosion on some farms in Berks County is as high as 18 to 40 tons per acre per year, put the tolerable soil loss levels on the Kutztown Farm between 3 and 5 tons per acre per year.
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From page 303... ...
(If moldboard plowing was used without contour and strip cropping, however, it was estimated that the average soil erosion on the Kutztown Farm would more than triple to 14.7 tons per acre per year.) As discussed earlier, the levels of various soil nutrients on the Kutztown Farm increased from 1977 to 1982.
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From page 304... ...
One of their key procedures was substituting certain Kutztown Farm data for the comparable items in the Penn State Farm Management Handbook (sum
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From page 305... ...
As a result, they estimated that the Kutztown Farm earned a 5 percent higher net cash income than a comparison farm ($69,430 versus $65,987~. When the Culik team's assumption of equal variable machine costs is relaxed, however, and the Penn State Farm Management Handbook costs are used without that adjustment, and when differences in yields are taken into account, the cost comparisons are drastically different.
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From page 306... ...
as compared with an optimally organized alternative farm plan with the same resources. Soil erosion was estimated to be 9.7 tons per acre per year for the optimally organized conventional comparison farm compared with 5 tons per acre per year for the Kutztown Farm (Domanico et al., 1986~.
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From page 307... ...
1985. Income Effects of Limiting Soil Erosion Under Alternative Farm Management Systems: A Simulation and Optimization Analysis of a Pennsylvania Crop and Livestock Farm.
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