OK. I'm flummoxed. I don't want to till, and I don't want to leave the soil exposed. should I be using one of those groundcover nets? some mulch?

help me #gardeningmastodon

#NoTill

Row crop farmers in 65 #Missouri counties (OK, 64 + the city of #StLouis) are eligible to signup for a multistate conservation program spearheaded by #Iowa #Soybeans. The program allows farmers to generate #carboncredits by adopting common #conservation practices like #notill and #covercrops.
https://www.centralmoinfo.com/select-missouri-farmers-eligible-for-conservation-program/

Seems like a good moment to send the reminder that we're running an #instance here at https://regenerate.social for practicioners and active researchers of #Regenerative methods like #NoTill, #NoDig, #HolisticGrazing, #RotationalGrazing, #Permaculture, #CulturalBurning, #CarbonFarming, #SustainableForestry, #Reforestation, and more!

Come on over if that's you!

Please boost so that other regen people can find us :)

#RegenAg #RegenerativeAg #RegenerativeAgriculture​

Seems like a good moment to send the reminder that we're running an #instance here at https://regenerate.social for practicioners and active researchers of #Regenerative methods like #NoTill, #NoDig, #HolisticGrazing, #RotationalGrazing, #Permaculture, #CulturalBurning, #CarbonFarming, #SustainableForestry, #Reforestation, and more!

Come on over if that's you!

Please boost so that other regen people can find us :)

#RegenAg #RegenerativeAg #RegenerativeAgriculture​

Have you ever wondered how one might #homestead or do #notill #regenerativeag at the smaller side of the scale? You might start with a compact utility tractor, but what if you wanted to do something even smaller and more boutique? What if you wanted something a bit more #DIY ? What if you wanted to use electric instead of diesel or gas for #energy conservation reasons, or perhaps you want to use #solar or #wind you produce on your farm to actually *farm* it and you can't yet afford something really fancy like a Monarch Electric Tractor? What if you didn't want a tractor with proprietary software or DRM that someone else owns and controls in the first place? What if you need to make some swales or a few small irrigation ponds in really soft, marginal soil conditions? What if you were as crazy as I? Who will build and control these means of production? Stay Tuned...

Great, thread on #NoTill grain production coming this week! #GrowYourOwnFood

Here is a teaser of the most fun part. It's dirty, dusty, loud. But it makes the 6yo boy in me very happy.

Some days I explain concepts of regenerative agriculture to others. Other moments I feel the regenerative agriculture business bubble as my nemesis. 🤪

Let me explain:
As input-maximised and yield-optimized industrializ agriculture is so horribly bad at preserving the environment, including its own basic requirements (soil & water, biodiversity, climate), the bar for doing things better is really not that high.
Regenerative Agriculture (#RegAg) additionally builds on traditional knowledge, pionering farmer's experience and good science. "Conventional" agricultural science doesn't really collaborate with farmers. At Universities, most stuff is investigated epistemologically, meaning cutting a system into single, tiny, easier-to-handle bits to understand and classify how they work. The sum yields then the whole.
Biology does not work like this. Hypercomplex ecosystems don't work like this. You need a holistic vision and look at the system. The direct benefit from understanding is that you work with nature, not against her. We call this "ecosystem services" and try to quantify the economic benefit of functional biodiversity.
This is complex and it is more difficult to sell stuff (therefore the industry is not so interested) or to write scientific publications (therefore scientists are not so interested).
Every some decades since around 100 years, somebody finds out that the reductionist approach is a very bad Idea and very cool people develop together new ideas.
As the more established researcher institutions have some problems with the newcomers, these alternative fields attract brillant independent researchers and pioneer farmers. This time it is RegAg (the climax of thepermaculture wave seems to be over). However, a new field of endless possibilities attract also entrepreneurs. As the regular systems of control do not work properly because most of the more established academia doesn't want to engage with these new & 'esoteric' techniques, it ibecomes easy for snake oil sellers to make great, hyperbolic promises. Together with charismatic personalities using effective communication techniques they reach a large audience of practitioners that are worried because they notice that industrial agriculture ruined their fields visibly already in their lifespan.
Many of the techniques make totally sense. Others less. Or just in some cases: in agriculture, there is no silver bullet. Even my most beloved combination of techniques (cover crops, reduced tillage & mulching) does not work in many places (too wet, too dry, too cold...).
But most RegAg-ideas are still much better than the conventional techniques. Therefore, I can (and have to) accept a lot of hot air from RegAg prophets. Although many of their claims are totally exxagerated, often they do more good by convincing many people. And real farmers anyway do what they want and adapt their systems.
I just hope that not too many will get frustrated when the expensive courses and great promises don't play out as expected.

@ramonita @un_blaze

#RegAg #RegenerativeAgriculture #Agroecology #NoTill #Mulching #Horticulture #ElaineIngham

Which of these would you like the next thread to be about?

#NoTill #NoDig #RotationalGrazing #ChickenMobile #Spelt #Chickens

New spot for the next 3 days. It's been exciting to see the change in fertility of the fields over the past year. The chicken manure is doing a stellar job.

#NoTill #RotationalGrazing #RegenerativeAg #RegenerativeAgriculture #RegenerativeAg #RegenAg

At least 6 dead in #Illinois windstorm attributed to farmers tilling their soil.

There's your argument for supporting no-till agriculture:
https://www.wsaz.com/2023/05/01/multiple-fatalities-illinois-highway-following-crashes-dust-storm/

But it's not an unmitigated good.

Here's the pros & cons:
https://www.richlandmicrodrainage.com/2019/03/07/the-pros-and-cons-of-no-till-farming

#NoTill #Agriculture #NoTillAgriculture #NoTillFarming #Farming

A very interesting video from the youtube channel no-till growers on mulches for the garden or farms.

Enjoy!

#gardens #garden #farming #gardening #notill #nodig

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SoF7Z6sWiEY

Here is the seasonal reminder that we're running an #instance here at https://regenerate.social for practicioners and active researchers of #Regenerative methods like #NoTill, #NoDig, #HolisticGrazing, #RotationalGrazing, #Permaculture, #CulturalBurning, #CarbonFarming, #SustainableForestry, and more!

Come on over if that's you!

Please boost so that other regen people can find us :)

New video on no-till market gardening from MOFGA. Nice to see how the approach can be used in relatively small spaces.

https://www.mofga.org/resources/uncategorized/no-till-farming-video/

#gardening #NoTill #NoDig

Delighted to meet @TomTierney18 @WhittenIvan @ShayPhelan1 @SaorlaKK @TomODwyer8 to walk Tom’s farm & see first hand #conservationagriculture What a journey he & many others have been on & continue to grow based off passion for continuous learning. A terrific insight.
RT @TomTierney18: Delighted for the opportunity to host @MariaWalshEU on her request to gain insight on #conservationagriculture & #NoTill agriculture practices & impending SUR directives. Great i…

🐦🔗: https://n.respublicae.eu/MariaWalshEU/status/1640433682421874691

Welcome to this #SilentSunday where the leaves lay warming the root "toes" of the #plants and a lonely young #spider waits, presumably for it's next meal.

#nature #NoTill #leaves #HomeGrownNationalPark

The Youtube channel NoTill Growers has just released a video called Composting for Beginners a Market Gardener's Guide.

I highly recommend their content.

Enjoy.

#compostodon #compost #composting #gardening #gardens #garden #farming #notill #nodig #regenag

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ti5g-AZiTs

480 lbs. of local organic compost including kitchen scraps that might have come from our two green cans ($18.00 for 1/2 yard). I would have gone for a full yard but the truck is so old I'm afraid to load it to even a half ton. #gardening #compost #spring #NoTill

Upon learning that your #soil is alive & needs to be for #food to grow nutritiously how can you go back to destroying that life by tilling, fertilizing, & fumigating?

For my part, every potted #plant I grow this year will be inoculated with microbes from my #compost pile, so hopefully they'll thrive once transplanted to their permanent homes.

Reminder: do not break up the soil when transplanting unless your roots are exceptionally root bound.

#gardening #Gardener #plants #NoTill

Voorzaaien van o.a. Statice en Scabiosa. Ze gaan weer goed! Heel fijn om te zien dat onze zaden zo goed kiemen. #Bloemen #Biologisch #Zaden #Voorjaar #NoDigg #NoTill #Nederland

@BenHoare @steverocky
Last year, something gave me hope.
I was building a#NoDig #MarketGarden and the farmer next door came along looking at the compost.
"You got the stuff from the garbologists, right? Nothin' will grow in it!"
Same farmer 5 month later looking at the healthy plants said he was thinking about a nodig veg patch and started watching #NoTill videos on YouTube.
That day, I was a really happy man.

Pics
-field at the beginning
-harvest Nov
-garden 12.22
-some of harvest 4th month