Machine love

This last week on & off the farm has been all about machine love. It began last week, as we used our chisel plow successfully for the first time (documented in our last post). Then it continued on Saturday and Sunday, as we used the new Lely Roterra for the first time as secondary tillage on the same fields we plowed earlier.

As with the chisel plow, the Roterra exceeded our expectations. For those of you who unfamiliar with the machine, a Roterra is similar to a rototiller in that it has tines that move in a circular fashion. However, rather than circulating vertically (up and down), they circulate horizontally (side to side). The blades are then followed by a roller bar that further breaks up the ground while simultaneously smoothing the soil surface. Here’s a picture of the Roterra in action:

With its ‘horizontal’ action, the Roterra mixes the soil, breaks up clods and preps ground without dramatically mixing the soil strata. Why is this motion potentially advantageous? For one, it doesn’t bring wetness or weed seeds to the surface from lower layers. It also allows important soil organisms to remain in the strata they prefer, rather than bringing them to the surface to dry out. The Roterra’s motion also preserves the soil structure while still prepping a suitable seed bed. The result certainly isn’t as ‘fine’ as a rototiller, but that’s our goal with this new tillage method: to achieve an adequately prepped bed (i.e. a mostly smooth surface containing no living debris that will become a weed problem or out-compete vegetable plants) without burning up excess organic matter and turning our soil to dust (which we observed happening last year). Our cultivation and planting methods are such that we can accommodate a ‘chunkier’ or high residue soil texture, especially if that texture is due to the preserved natural soil structure rather than to the ‘clodding’ effect that can result from rototilling in too wet or too dry soil.

For further illustration, here is a picture of one of our fields a few days after one pass with the Roterra:

As you can see, the previous cover crop has been integrated almost fully and is breaking down, and the surface has been smoothed by the roller bars (which leave the hatch marks you can see on the soil surface). And, here are two pictures of the resulting soil … first a ‘chunk’ left by the roterra:

This ‘chunk’ is different from what we’d seen before with tillers because it still has good ‘tilth’ (the quality of soil that allows plants to grow). It is soft, easy to break up, and certainly penetrable by roots. Here is another shot of some of the more ‘broken up’ soil, still preserving diverse sized soil aggregates — a result we’d hoped for with the Roterra:

Of course, the fields aren’t ready to plant into yet. We’re going to wait a few weeks until the cover crop is further broken down and then use the Roterra once or twice more, to achieve a smoother bed surface into which to plant. From what we’ve seen so far, we have every reason to expect good success with our transplants with the new tillage method. What we’re less certain about is the germination rate we’ll achieve with our direct sown items. Most likely, the positive effects of the Roterra will counter-balance any potential problems resulting from a less fine seed bed. For example, the dust-like nature of our formerly rototilled beds led quickly to crusting and compaction — a bad combination for newly emerging seeds. That’s our theory, anyway … we’ll keep you all updated.

… after using the Roterra on Sunday morning, we left for a three-day retreat with other production oriented organic vegetable growers at Breitenbush Hot Springs. This is the second year we’ve attended this event, and we love it. The energy and ideas in a room full of farmers can be over-whelming. And, like us, this group is definitely a group of machine lovers.

Besides the general companionship, I think most farmers’ favorite part of the event is the evening slide shows, when everyone shares photos from their farms. Images are such a great way to share information and ideas, especially regarding our favorite tools and machines — regardless of the scale (tractor-mounted implements or hand-held tools). I think that Casey and I had an even better appreciation for much of what we heard and saw after another year of farming on our own. We left with very full minds, and the conversation on the drive home was full of new dreams and inspirations gleaned from the event. (Although a few key farmers from previous years couldn’t attend and were sorely missed.)

The beauty of Breitenbush was especially striking this time too, since earlier this month received record snowfall. The snow has obviously been a significant inconvenience to the Breitenbush staff — the access roads are only open to one land of traffic and all travelers have to be convoyed in and out of the center … but the snow was truly magical. Here are two pictures from the cabin area that show the beauty of the winter setting:

We arrived back at the farm on Tuesday to find no disasters, which was great — last year our hot house blew over while we were gone, and we dreaded something similar befalling us again this year.

Since we’ve been back, we’ve been getting back into the swing of things. We skipped the CSA harvest and delivery this week because of the Breitenbush trip, so our whole weekly routine is somewhat off. Plus, the dry weather has continued … we shouldn’t complain, but it’s hard to plan when the weather page keeps predicting rain that hasn’t yet to arrive. So, we’ve gotten some more ‘dry weather’ projects done, including spreading feather meal on our two worked up fields and working in some messy old beds in last year’s field with the Roterra.

To prepare those newly worked in fields for the summer, we decided to try out another new machine purchase: an 8-foot grain drill, which we purchased for sowing cover crops. Figuring out how to use the drill took a few tries, but it turned out to be pretty simple. And the results were great: evenly sown (and covered) lines of seed. Getting an even cover with a broadcaster is very difficult, especially in a small area where you don’t want to accidentally ‘over sow’ into other patches (we’ve done that — it’s not fun to weed out your cover crop later).

We sowed annual rye grain, which is something we use a lot out here (we’ve mistakenly told some folks that we sow annual rye grass in out paths, but it’s actually rye grain). We like it because it really ‘gets up and grows,’ which fits out needs for these fields. We’ll let the cover grow on them until we’re finally done harvesting the rest of our over-wintered crops (onions, garlic, etc.), and then we’ll work the entire field and sow a cover crop for the late summer, fall, and winter (probably oats and red clover). But now these empty beds will have a more even cover going into summer (and we were able to work in some of the weeds that would have gone to seed this spring).

Here are some pictures of the grain drill in action:

And, up close … the seed drops from the hopper through the hoses at a regular adjustable rate and the disks below open and then close the soil over the seed (the depth is also adjustable) …

And, the resulting lines in the bed, indicating where the seed was dropped:

After out initial use of the new drill (which we bought used as we do all our equipment), we’re loving it. It’s wonderful to be able to sow in one pass, even in choppy or high residue ground.

Ah, machine love. It’s a wonderful thing, now that we’ve become used to the idea. Quite honestly, I don’t think either of us started farming with any kind of machine love … very early on, our romantic sensibilities initially drew us to a ‘less is more’ philosophy regarding tools and equipment: we wanted the least horsepower possible in our tractor and to use hand tools as much as possible. A super low-tech operation was more desirable and suited our ecological and aesthetic ideas about farming.

So, when and why did this change? I suppose experience has been the biggest factor. For one thing, as we’ve worked on other farms and our own, we’ve simply become much more comfortable with everything about machinery: how to use it, how to ‘fiddle’ with it, how to buy it, etc. Although we wouldn’t have admitted it at the time, I think fear of the unknown was a big factor in wanting to avoid machinery.

Over time, we also grew to understand the significant role a little horsepower can play on a small farm. Hand labor is not free. Far from it. It has a cost on one’s own body and on the planet, just as much as tractor labor. We’ve done the calculations on how many employees it would take to run our farm without tractor-power, and it’s a lot. All those people would require the basic material possessions of the American lifestyle, plus the fuel to get to and from the farm — these are huge costs and resources. On the other hand, we are able to buy all of our equipment used and it requires minimal fuel to operate each season. Last year we filled up the Gator diesel tank twice; the Allis twice; and the Landini tractor less than nines times … Our deliveries to town are much more fuel-intensive than our actual production methods, and we’re only 13 miles from all of our markets. Considering that fact, it seems ridiculous to then skimp on incredibly useful production equipment.

Anyhow, we could analyze some of these decisions at length, and probably will continue to do so in further blog posts. But suffice to say that we’ve come to the conclusion that machines can be a part of a sustainable system — especially when purchased used and employed conservatively. How lovely.