The Future of Farming

I often wander what farming would look like if it weren't for fossil fuels.

Grain bins

The most fuel intensive business is farming grains/legumes/oilseed crops like wheat, barley, rye, oats, field peas, lentils, chickpeas, canola, sunflower, corn, soybean.... that sort of thing.
With the advances (really?) of modern (umm) farming, farms are getting bigger and bigger, and to manage more acres, equipment is getting bigger and bigger.

A modern tractor with seeding unit

Most people are so far removed from farming, that the modern farming process is not familiar to all, so let us walk through it, starting in early Spring.
The farmer needs seed and fertilizer. Maybe he has seed left over from last year (if he is allowed to use his own seed - certain seeds like Monsanto owned Canola, Corn, etc can only be bought, NOT stored from last year and re-used.)
So the seed he has needs to be cleaned of weed seeds - a  seed cleaning machine is used for this. An auger is used to move grain from grain bin to cleaner, and from cleaner the weed seeds and smaller cracked seeds go one way (maybe into a grain truck) and the cleaned seeds go another way - into another bin or grain truck.

If the farmer doesn't have seed, he needs to buy it and transport it to his farm. Also fertilizer. Lots of fertilizer is transported in semi trailers to the farms.

Soon after Spring runoff, maybe the farmer will need to work some of his land before seeding. This involves using a tractor and heavy harrows or discs to 'tidy up' after runoff. Maybe he needs to work in some chemical to catch early grassy weeds - again using heavy equipment.

Then comes seeding with heavy tractors and seeding equipment. Grain trucks are used to load the grain carts that go behind the tractor for seeding. Fertilizer is moved to the field this way too. Now the farmer can seed.
 Certain crops (like peas) need to be rolled so a land roller is used, again with a heavy tractor.

a small roller, I couldn't find an image of a bigger one.

Next the crop is sprayed, with tractor and sprayer.

modern sprayer unit

Maybe it gets sprayed a second time before harvest.

A combine harvesting, and filling a grain trailer pulled by a tractor

older style grain truck.

Now it is harvest time! Depending on the crop, this gets done differently:
Lots of crops get 'swathed' which means cut down in rows to dry before harvest.

Swather

After it has dried sufficiently, the combine can come and pick up the 'swaths' and separate the seed from the plant. The combine needs to be emptied, into a waiting grain truck or semi. The truck or semi unit then drives the grain to the grain bins where it gets unloaded using an auger.
The grains get tested for moisture and if it is too moist, aeration fans are plugged into the bins to dry the seed to stop it from spoiling in the bins.
Then, once the farmer sells his grain, it gets hauled out with a semi to a terminal someplace - normally on a railway where rail cars are filled with the grain.

As you can see, that is a lot of steps and a lot of heavy equipment use!
That wheat is nowhere near being made into bread or the canola into oil......

It is estimated that for every calorie of food produced, 10 calories are used up in energy.... seems.... not really sustainable, does it?

two horsepower unit.... nowadays there are 600 horsepower units.....

Conventional livestock is raised on grain.
Chickens, eggs, pigs cannot be raised commercially without grain.
Should we lose fossil fuels, our diet would change considerably!
Eggs, chicken, bacon, bread.... would be a rare treat indeed.
Conventional dairy barns cannot function without grain. Milk (and its by-products like cheese, etc) would sky-rocket in price as production drops without added grain.

How would we deal with this?
I think farms would have to revert back to smaller farms, more producers farming.
Vegetable and fruit cultivation, and ruminants like cattle, sheep and goats rotating over pastures. Pigs can be raised outside too and fattened on root vegetables and the like.

Animals require fodder in the winter months, and making hay means using tractors and swathers and balers..... in the olden days, farmers used to cut hay and grain with sickles and then 'stook' the hay and grains. In fact, in a lot of third world countries this is still done. But one needs to understand how much faster the mighty machine is! There would be severe limitations as to how much we could accomplish, without machines. I would not be able to make hay for my 200 animals, oh no. I might be able to make hay for 20. The same for other producers. We are completely hooked on fossil fuels, as much as we hate to admit it.

But it gives some food for thought! How would we feed the world, if not for oil?

Bale grazing Goats and sheep

There are several methods of winter feeding. Some of it depends on where you are situated, how mild or severe your winters are, etc. A lot depends on the scale of your farm too. Someone with just 5 goats, might be feeding differently than someone with 500.
Conventionally, animals are kept in a corral (or inside a barn) over winter. Hay is put into feeders to minimize waste, and straw is provided as bedding. But what goes in, must come out. It is amazing how bedding and manure and feed waste can add up over the winter into several feet of glorious compost - but it does no one any good being left in the corral or barn! . The concentrated waste can spread disease if the animals are confined too long and it is not cleaned up. Cleanup is labor and equipment intensive and costs $$.

Feeding in corrals with feeders - with snow and waste, the feeders get packed down pretty quick, and you would have to chip at the ice to free them to move them around, or eventually they will get buried in wasted feed and compacted snow.

So what are the alternatives? Through Holistic Management, I know that 'bale grazing' is an excellent option for cows, I just wasn't sure how it would work with goats.

Cows bale grazing Spring 2012 next to the Spring flooding creek. Lucky cows, beach front dining for a few weeks in Spring! 

Remus finding a comfy spot on some rolled out hay, with goats and sheep in background

Let me explain what bale grazing is:
Generally, ranchers would pick a spot that could do with a fertility boost, a piece of poorer pasture or hilltop would be good, but any area will do. Shelter can be a factor here - some ranchers put up artificial windbreaks (for those of us in the Prairies with not a lot of natural shrub and trees, this is an option.)

The bales are placed 10-20 feet apart on end. Strings are removed, and the cows are rationed according to their needs and the ranchers goals. Rationing is done by separating the animals from their feed with a portable electric fence. The fence is moved daily, every other day, or once every week or 2, depending on how you like to do it. The bales are weighed, ruminants (cattle, goats, sheep) generally consume 3% of their bodyweight in feed a day. We calculate 10% for 'waste' on top of that, and then ration.

The bales themselves kinda act as windbreaks, so if you have a whole supply set out and start feeding from the South, the bales to the North are a natural windbreak.

The 'wasted' feed and manure and urine stay on the land. When Spring comes, it is a wonderful fertilizer. The 'wasted' feed bits are like a mulch, insulating the soil and retaining moisture. Over time, it breaks down into humus and becomes food for the teeming bacteria that keep our soils healthy. Healthy soils grow healthy plants, that in turn grow healthy animals. It is a long term investment in your pasture, and takes about 5 years to see the full benefit.

With Bale Grazing, you do not have to haul manure. The 'wasted' feed become bedding, so no need to use straw. The animals move to a fresh spot everytime the electric fence is moved, meaning there is no buildup of manure and decreased risk of disease causing  bacteria.

When I started building my herd of goats, I wondered about bale grazing them and did a google search. I didn't find anything on bale grazing goats and found ONE link to bale grazing sheep- from Ranching With Sheep. I started communicating with Arlette from Dog Tale Ranch and even got my first sheep from there.

We find that rolling out the bales creates a thinner layer of 'waste'. But this winter with our strong winds and unpredictable heavy snowfalls, I started leaving bales on end so that feed is easier to find.

A half-eaten bale. The wind had carved snow around it, creating an extra bit of windbreak for animals laying down on the 'wasted' feed

Sheep finishing off a bale

Sheep at a fresh bale

Goats at a fresh bale

Goats bale grazing

So far it has worked well. I had one goat get stuck - goats have horns that curve back and they get their heads stuck everywhere. But much more so in feeders, so feeding without the use of steel feeders, is actually a goat life saver :) 

Next winter I plan to stage all the bales in the Fall, to minimize having to run the tractor. Right now we feed every 4 or 5 days, but sometimes the snow makes it hard to get in. Having the bales placed before winter would be a great labor saving.