On Thu, Jan 29, 2009 at 2:58 PM, Ken Norton <ken@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>
>> One question coming up:
>> Why would people fence their soybeans? Usually the purpose of a fence
>> is to keep animals in - or out - but in this case?
>>
>
>
> The primary reason is the farmers may run cattle on the land during
> off-years when they aren't planting corn or beans on that specific plot.
> It's easier to just leave the fences in place than to run new posts and
> electrified line.
>
> A typical rotation is to run beans year one, corn years two and three, hay
> year four and then repeat the rotation.
Right. Farmers used to rotate alfalfa and clover in methodically as a
natural fertilizer (nitrogen fixing) and make hay from those "fallow"
fields of clover or alfalfa. Those were the idyllic days of farm life
as I remember it when I visited my grandfather as a boy. The clover
fields were beautiful and sweet and a haven for small critters that
were fun for boys to pursue when we weren't teasing the hogs.
There is much less crop rotation and lots of additional fertilization
with anhydrous ammonia now. It is hard to find an earthworm in some
fields anymore.
Cattle often graze the fields after harvest too. It's a major problem
if cattle get through a fence and out onto a highway. There is more
paved highway in Iowa than in Texas and about the same number of
cattle IIRC.
Joel W.
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