HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Wingham Advance-Times, 1985-03-20, Page 49The Farm Edition Week of Marsh 20 1
Ashfield farmers find cow -calf herd will work with cash crop
By Sharon Dietz
One Huron County farmer believes a case
can be made for incorporating a cowcalf herd
on a cash mop farm.
"Not only can marginal land, which most
fames have, be put to its best use as pasture,
but the better soils on the faun and the crops
on those soils can benefit from the cows,
particularly if conservation tillage practices
on those soils are made easier by the removal
of cop residues for cattle feed and bedding,"
says Ray Hogan of Ashfield Township. Ray,
his father and brothers run a cress -bred
cow -calf herd of 120 cattle and produce oom,
white beans, kidney beans and winter wheat
on their combined 2,000 acnes.
The Hogans and Howards have always had
beef cows on their farm and Ray rerrrsmbrrs
as a young boy just about everyone else had
either beef or dairy cows: He also remembers
that most of Ashfield lbwnship, like the rest
of mid -western Ontario was hay, pasture and
small grains. Since that time, most of the cow
herds have gone and along with them, most of '
the pasture fields.
like many others the.Hogans and Howands
have converted most of their pastures to crop
land. Ulike many others they have kept the
cows.
The Hogans and Howards didn't keep their
cows because they were smarter or stupider
than others, says Ray, but because all of their
land is not suitable for cash cops. A creek
mosses the back of the farm and the adjoining
creek flats and hillsides are suitable only for'
pasture. "And I guess we kept the cows
because, despite the poor returns in some
years, we have always liked working with
cattle," Ray adds.
The Hogans and Howards were forced to
Cow -calf herd can be incorporated with cash crop
develop a different approach to their
cow -calf and cash cep operation during the
yeals they were converting pastures to corn
fields. They found two major problems
developing.
Since they had less pasture acres available
than ° previously, and they were trying to
maintain or increase their cow herd to match
their stable and feeding facilities, which were
mostly in place before they began to convert
to cash cop, they found they often ran short
of pasture late in the season, despite
increased applications of fertilizer to the
pastures.
The second problem was more serious,
says Ray. They quiddy found as other cash
coppers were, as they converted pasture
fields to com fields they began to experience,
for the first time on their farm, very serious
wind and water erosion, compaction, weed
control problems, moot onn infestation and
many other problems associated with conven-
tional tillage monoculture. The Hogans and
Howards also found as fuel, machinery,
labour and other crop production costs
• increased and' as crop prices became more
volatile, the returns from conventional tillage
cash copping diminished.
Cow -calf profits ware low because of high
feed casts and cash crop profits were low
because of agronomic problems associated
with monoculture or poor rotations and the
high oasts of conventional tillage. Product-
ivity and prefi •: on the Hogan and Howard
farms werebeing threatened by an ever
increasing soil
The Hogans and Howard blong realized
they had an abundant source of cheap food
available in the form of crap residue including
oom stalks, wheat straw and under seeded
red clover growth. Fbr many years they used
these sources to some extent, however since •
they were pxactising„conventional tillage fall
moldboard plowing, they were often not able,':
to fully take advantage of these cheap feed
sources. •--
"It is pretty hard to graze coin fields for
very long following harvest. if yqu are fall
plowing," Ray observes.
The . Hogans and Howards also realized
high cash cep production costs and the, soil
erosion problems were mostly the results of
fall moldboard plowing and poor cop
rotation. They derided •the way to improve
profits and reduce erosion on their farm was
to plow less and improve the cop rotations,
providing they could maintain yields. Five
years ago they started experimenting with
conservation tillage, as well as including
more beans and wheat and less corn in their
rotations. Since the Hogans and Howards
were not fall plowing all the corn fields and
wheat stubble, they were able to use more for
late fall - early winter winter grazing or in the
case of com stalks they had more time to bale
them for winter feed. They also found by fan
grazing or baling some of the cop residue, it
was much easier to make reduced tillage work
tum to page 21
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