Could an organic farm be worthwhile?

This decision is vitally important, and the data might astonish you.

One farmer who ran his chemical farm as a business approached the quandry in a scientific plan when he took up organic farming. He kept book keeping records before and after.

He was delighted to learn that the labor costs of distributing manure and other natural fertilizers were unexpectedly less than the expenditure for chemical sprays.

Depreciation of Organic Farm Assets

Any accountant will insist that you should think of depreciation of assets when you balance the books. So how could farmland depreciate?

The most distressing example now is the appearance of dust-bowls or salt making farmland worthless.

Farmers who live near a free resource of compostables such as seaweed, or a sea-food canner with lots of waste can actually build up the soil flora and fauna in their soil.

Here in Australia many wheat farmers burn their straw. I'm sure they'd be amenable to let an organic farmer to dispose of the straw to build up his own farmland. Think how your fruit and vegetables might like to get their roots protected from the scorching sun by six inches of decaying straw.

Erosion is a big consideration with arable land - but not if it is covered with mulch. So in yet another way, your soil assets can be maintained.

Farm Livestock

If animals are given the choice of grazing the beautiful pasture resulting from NPK fertilizers, or any other grassland, they will avoid the NPK fertilized pasture. Also, artificially fertilized grazing harms their health, and they won't thrive as well. It is obvious how that makes a difference to the accounts.

But it gets worse. The mixed farmer mentioned above found he could buy prize breeding heiffers for butcher's prices because they were infertile. When he got them away from the poisons their fertility returned. That sort of appreciation alone would have made it worth while to avoid artificial fertilizers.

Permaculture

In Australia farmers are walking off the land when it becomes saline. Tree roots used to absorb the salt before it reached the surface, but the farmers ring barked them.

Permaculture uses perennials such as trees to evade the expenditure of annual ploughing, harrowing, seeding etc. Trees are useful perennials, but are they compatible with farming? Take a drive in the country in the middle of the day, and watch where the cows are. They're all crowded under the thirsty trees that are left. Why not provide shade, remove the salt, and grow food for them all at the same time? Tree lucerne plants take some years to grow, and need protection from the livestock during that time, but they meet all the above requirements.

Walls don't break storm winds because of turbulence, but hedges do. Why not plan for rows of trees interrupting the storm blasts damaging your organic farm?

If you have an organic farm think how much you can cut costs by getting rid of annual planting.