Big Brother Will Tell You When You Can Plow

[Ben]

This is the second article I've read about the G telling people if they can plow their own land or not. Both seemed to indicate Dept of Ag doesn't know what's going on here. As in, they are giving farmers permission to plow, then the Army Corps of Engineers comes in and threatens fines for environmental degradation.

Interestingly, the article also led to a British article where they are trying to get farmers there to stop plowing altogether as an "environmentally better" farming practice.

https://news.yahoo.com/feds-sue-california-farmer-growing-011500359.html

[Kingcreek]

F them.
I have 40 acres with a creek, timber, and 17 acres of native prairie in the middle of it. I have 7 acres in an old .gov wildlife habitat program (whip) where I planted a thousand trees and controlled some erosion on ground that never should have been farmed. My habitat plan was supposedly developed with state biologist and DNR input but I have my beaurocratic doubts if anybody put any effort into it. I put in my own food plots.
I will plow, plant, burn, clear, or whatever I damn well please within the plan until it rolls out. I pay taxes on it, and yeah I receive a small incentive payment from the .gov if I stay within the plan.
I’m considering surveying and splitting the property into residential and farm/recreational land if we decide to sell when I retire and leave F’n Illinois forever in about 4 years.

[charby]

This is the second article I've read about the G telling people if they can plow their own land or not. Both seemed to indicate Dept of Ag doesn't know what's going on here. As in, they are giving farmers permission to plow, then the Army Corps of Engineers comes in and threatens fines for environmental degradation.

Interestingly, the article also led to a British article where they are trying to get farmers there to stop plowing altogether as an "environmentally better" farming practice.

https://news.yahoo.com/feds-sue-california-farmer-growing-011500359.html

I wish the article would state if the field was in an area with total daily load sedimentation restrictions or if the Corp of Engineers owned an easement on the land for sedimentation reduction for the watershed. Yes these easements do exist and landowners do willing sell them, easement is tied to the land, usually 30 years to perpetuity.

For some areas no till farming does work, depends upon the soil types and crops being grown. I have a few friends that are 100% no till for corn/soy and they get the same yields as the full tillage farmers.

[Ben]

I wish the article would state if the field was in an area with total daily load sedimentation restrictions or if the Corp of Engineers owned an easement on the land for sedimentation reduction for the watershed. Yes these easements do exist and landowners do willing sell them, easement is tied to the land, usually 30 years to perpetuity.

For some areas no till farming does work, depends upon the soil types and crops being grown. I have a few friends that are 100% no till for corn/soy and they get the same yields as the full tillage farmers.

Not the article I was talking about earlier, but it has a similar thesis:

https://cosmosmagazine.com/biology/less-ploughing-leads-to-higher-crop-yields

It appears much of the value is long term, so I can see where it wouldn't be accepted by large agro-concerns trying to maximize profit on every square inch of soil. An analogy would be the almond companies in CA that drill million dollar wells to suck up every bit of water for the almond crops, then will move on to another location when things dry up.

I can dig this method being used by smaller farmers who are more concerned with preserving and improving their land than with maximizing profit. I don't really count since I just have pasture, but I was warned not to go plowing my lower pastures because of all the rock underneath the somewhat thin topsoil layer. I'm just overseeding and harrowing. Otherwise the article seems to imply that farmers should examine their land and environment, and if there's no need to plow, use alternatives. If the soil is such the plowing is needed, plow away.

[Ben]

Not the article I was talking about earlier, but it has a similar thesis:

https://cosmosmagazine.com/biology/less-ploughing-leads-to-higher-crop-yields

It appears much of the value is long term, so I can see where it wouldn't be accepted by large agro-concerns trying to maximize profit on every square inch of soil. An analogy would be the almond companies in CA that drill million dollar wells to suck up every bit of water for the almond crops, then will move on to another location when things dry up.

I can dig this method being used by smaller farmers who are more concerned with preserving and improving their land than with maximizing profit. I don't really count since I just have pasture vs the rotating crops they talk about, but I was warned not to go plowing my lower pastures because of all the rock underneath the somewhat thin topsoil layer. I'm just overseeding and harrowing. Otherwise the article seems to imply that farmers should examine their land and environment, and if there's no need to plow, use alternatives. If the soil is such the plowing is needed, plow away.

[Doggy Daddy]

But, I repeat myself.

[Doggy Daddy]

But, I repeat myself.

[Ben]

I have no idea how I did that. I must have blacked out for a minute. 

[charby]

Not the article I was talking about earlier, but it has a similar thesis:

https://cosmosmagazine.com/biology/less-ploughing-leads-to-higher-crop-yields

It appears much of the value is long term, so I can see where it wouldn't be accepted by large agro-concerns trying to maximize profit on every square inch of soil. An analogy would be the almond companies in CA that drill million dollar wells to suck up every bit of water for the almond crops, then will move on to another location when things dry up.

I can dig this method being used by smaller farmers who are more concerned with preserving and improving their land than with maximizing profit. I don't really count since I just have pasture, but I was warned not to go plowing my lower pastures because of all the rock underneath the somewhat thin topsoil layer. I'm just overseeding and harrowing. Otherwise the article seems to imply that farmers should examine their land and environment, and if there's no need to plow, use alternatives. If the soil is such the plowing is needed, plow away.

yep, no till doesn't work everywhere and too much government control with a lot of pressure from big ag has really narrowed what a small producer can farm to barely make a living. Sucks when 4 companies control over 85% of the ag commodities, 2 which are 100% foreign owned.

[HankB]

. . . then the Army Corps of Engineers comes in and threatens fines for environmental degradation.

Every time I read of ACOE actions against Americans within the USA, I find myself thinking "If the army can go after US farmers and land owners, why can't they go after foreign illegals?"

And . . . it's a mistake to NOT apply the Posse Comitatus act to ACOE actions off military bases. IMHO it's absurd to let ACOE meddle with purely civilian situations.

[charby]

Every time I read of ACOE actions against Americans within the USA, I find myself thinking "If the army can go after US farmers and land owners, why can't they go after foreign illegals?"

And . . . it's a mistake to NOT apply the Posse Comitatus act to ACOE actions off military bases. IMHO it's absurd to let ACOE meddle with purely civilian situations.

If you read their missions, it is not tied to just military bases/property. 

https://www.usace.army.mil/

Non military actives goes back to at least 1824.

"The General Survey Act of 1824 authorized the use of Army engineers to survey road and canal routes. That same year, Congress passed an "Act to Improve the Navigation of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers" and to remove sand bars on the Ohio and "planters, sawyers, or snags" (trees fixed in the riverbed) on the Mississippi, for which the Corps of Engineers was the responsible agency."