Retail milk stays the same while wholesale milk prices are cut 50%

[BrokenTap]

I was thinking about this topic today and thought I would add a little to it. Basically I was thinking how while my above post was oh so true today, 200 years ago it was the exact opposite.

A lot of the land that we take as "unimproved" was actually very productive farmland. The thing was, in those days the farmers could farm around the bigger obstacles like boulders and whatnot. We often think of the poor old farmer sitting behind a horse with sickle bar mower under him, but that was pretty late in the game. At the height of Maine's population and agriculture days, (1830ish) the farmers were most likely using hand scythe and grazing animals. Obviously these two things could go around boulders with ease.

In 1840, a farmer would often cut the wood off the property and then burn the brush and stumps. For a few years the stumps would rot down and then little by little the fields were cleared of rocks so more arable crops could be grown. On the rocky terrain, grazing was done.

I recently cleared a small piece of land between two fields that my dad and I disagree upon. He thinks this "sag in the field" was never farmed because it was wet. I disagree. The trees here are apple trees so I surmise the original forest was cleared, burned, farmed and then apple trees were planted about 150 years ago and are that old according to the rings in the stumps. I know in 1945 my Grandfather cleared the apple orchard to make way for potatoes, BUT by then a rock wall had semi-formed between an existing potato field and the freshly cleared field. Naturally he left this rock wall as it was too hard to move back then, and thus ended up with two fields. Since 1945 and 2009, trees grew up in this sag until I felled the trees in 2009 and will bulldoze the stumps to make way for one big field again.

Personally I think we can farm the sag in the field because we have done so in other fields. He thinks it will be too muddy so we will see? If nothing else the trees are gone now so grass will grow and I can graze wet areas without a problem. In fact the wettest fields always produce the most tonnage per acre.

Now the good thing about all this is that today we have the same tools as the old timers. We use bulldozers because they are here and they make a perfect field in short order, but if people on this forum want to clear land, and lack the money to get a dozer in, all is not lost.

I would recommend using a chainsaw to clear the land first. Softwood is not the best firewood to burn, but it does give off heat and so there is no good reason not to burn it...assuming you clean your chimney on occasion. The hardwood and limbs can be burned as well so that when you are done removing the wood little else remains.

To remove the rest of the brush, goats can be used. Goats love to browse and will clean up the brushy limbs and leaves. Fence off the area you want cleared and let them have at it. Anyone up for a bit of goats meat at the end of the summer? You will be amazed at what little is left of both the meat and the brush.

And that will probably be stumps. Pasturing pigs in the cleared acreage will help root out the stumps. For the bigger stumps a bit of salt on the stump will cause the pigs to root and root until the darn stumps are below the surface of the ground. You will have plenty of bacon for the winter for your troubles for this.

Now that you are down to bare ground, weeds will begin to take over...maybe even nasty ones like poison ivy. So bring in the sheep. Sheep LOVE weeds and their favorite food...yep poison ivy. With that wooly face, there is no need to worry about them getting it on them. In short order you will have few weeds, plenty of wool and yes lamb chops.

Of course with the weeds gone, grass will start to be established thriving on that manure from the goats, pigs and sheep. What loves green grass better then cows right? And for this you can have some nice tasting beef or milk. Of course those pesky rocks will still be there, but that is what diesel fuel and fertilizer is for!

Honestly, it will take a few years, and more then a little frustration in moving fences and chasing animals, but the truth is you can use animals to clear land just as the old timers did. No bulldozers needed. Unfortunately in this day and age, people want things done NOW! We pay for that mentality...literally. It does not have to be, and it is surprising how much you can get done over a period of a few years. I do not even recognize this place anymore compared to what I started with in 1994. (When I took over the farm)

[Northern Maine Land Man]

"sag in the field"

That sag in the field is called a water course by an extension service or soil conservation district, but Maine farmers simply call it a "wet run". They were created by plowing back and forth and where the furrows start soil is moved away from the first two furrows in opposite directions. When harrowed it results in a dip or wet run. It gathers and directs water runoff.

The sizes of fields were governed by the distance it was practical to haul rocks. Lots of rocks meant small fields. The resultant heaps of rocks were colonized by woodchucks. When I was 15 and got my first hunting license I was working on a dairy farm. The farmer was annoyed by a smart old grey faced woodchuck who had been living well on the farmer's vegetable gardens for years. I told the farmer I could shoot the woodchuck for him.

He said he had been trying to shoot the chuck for years and didn't think I could get the chuck. Maybe the reason he couldn't get the chuck was that his screen door sounded about like a 30-06 when it slammed. I told the farmer I would shoot the chuck on Thursday morning and if I didn't get the chuck he would not have to pay me for the time. I was making 75 cents an hour and was happy to get it. We had a deal.

I went into the loft and got a big piece of canvas about 16 feet square that we used to cover baled hay on the wagon if it started raining. I put the canvas about 50 feet from the woodchuck's hole. The chuck had a couple of days to get used to the canvas. At sunrise on Thursday I was under the canvas with a scoped .22. I let the chuck get about 10 feet from the hole and put the round just behind his ear. Scratch one grey faced chuck and I got my pay.

- - -

One more point. Stone walls were piled on the ground. There was no excavation to start a stone wall. Just move the stones and you'll find that the ground below them is good soil.

[cebdark]

Originally Posted by BrokenTap

Interestingly enough, before the Maine Dairy Initiative our milk on two of the three farms went out of state. Those two farms actually went to supply McDonald's with powdered milk for their milk shakes. That formula has changed now and the majority is actually make up of cellulose from wood products! (or at least that was what I was told by a USDA source last week)

Cellulose from wood products? Ack! What the heck?

That makes me wonder even more about the rise in food allergies and what else (besides dyes, preservatives, lead, and melamine in the case of China) our foods are being polluted with? That's it! Bigger garden this year - much bigger.

[BrokenTap]

Originally Posted by Northern Maine Land Man

That sag in the field is called a water course by an extension service or soil conservation district, but Maine farmers simply call it a "wet run". They were created by plowing back and forth and where the furrows start soil is moved away from the first two furrows in opposite directions. When harrowed it results in a dip or wet run. It gathers and directs water runoff.

We are talking two different things actually. There is no way I would (or could by rights) bulldoze a water course, wet run, diversion ditch or whatever else you want to call it. Most of those things were put in place on this farm back in 1947 when a gale hit this county hard and really caused a lot of erosion. With today's farming techniques they are not really needed (minimal till, cover crops, and crop orientation) but the NRCS obviously likes to keep them in place for that 500 year flood I guess.

When I refer to a "sag in the field" I am actually just talking about a low spot in the field. A sag for us could be the entire width of the field, or just part of a field. I looked for a good picture of this, but I really couldn't find one. They can be hard to farm as they tend to be muddy and can get rutted up easily. After last years hurricane and gale though, I think every acre we farmed was a sag...talk about working in the mud!

As for the rock walls, you are correct on piling up the rocks and the good soil. In fact sometimes those rock walls filter the soil out of the moving water and you have really prime soil there. That is the case with this spot, but its hard to remove the rocks without taking the soil. That's because the weight of the rock walls tends to sink themselves down into the mud, and due to frost heave action. I have seen some sections of rock walls sink completely out of sight in really wet spots. I started building a few of my own rock walls in 1994 and over the years I have had to go back and add another layer of rocks to keep the walls level. Of course the old timers did the same thing.

I actually hate taking down old rock walls. Here it amounts to destroying something my ancestor's did 200 years ago, so unless there is a good reason to remove it, they stay up. They also tell a story if you know what to look for, and you would be surprised what they contain. This is potato ground so you will often find old potato harvesting beds on the walls, as well as old farm implements and cultivator parts.