Preparing our hand scale regenerative farm for the winter. Some reflections on cover cropping and our second growing season.

A few years ago my partner and I started a small market garden farm on ~1/4 acre of leased land. We’re working to stay hand scale, minimizing our fossil fuel and off farm inputs to produce intensively with ecologically minded methods. Always more to learn but it’s been a wonderful journey so far, made possible through support from our local community, and I’ve written a few pieces about our experiences.

New research from the University of Aberdeen and Edinburgh Napier University has found that simple changes to the timing of conservation measures on farmland could significantly improve protection for some of the UK’s most rapidly declining wading bird species.

The study has implications for species including lapwing, oystercatcher, and curlew – birds that were once a familiar sight and sound across the British countryside, but whose populations have fallen sharply in recent decades.

In this hour-long interview, Gerry Wilhelm, one of the 2 authors of the massive tome Flora of the Chicago Region, gives us insight into how fire is essential to prairie ecosystems.

Cross posted from https://lemmy.zip/post/70351759

America’s biggest berry empire doesn’t actually grow berries.

Driscoll’s is the middleman that controls the genetics, reaps the profits, and then shifts blame.

A whistleblower alleges the Canadian government repeatedly flagged their berries for exceeding pesticide limits.

cross-posted from: https://infosec.pub/post/51251751

We have received word that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids are anticipated for tomorrow, August 21, this weekend, extending early next week with a specific focus on farms, farmworkers, and construction sites. Farms with H-2A employees should stay particularly informed. Some key considerations at this time:

There is reported to be a current increase in ICE agents in Maine using drones to monitor entrances and exits to job sites. If you see a drone over your farm, please report it to the ICE watch hotline at 207-544-9989 immediately.

ICE, border patrol, and law enforcement must have a judicial warrant or your consent before detaining or searching your buildings. Here is an informational sheet to help you understand your rights. They can enter farm fields, however. Have a plan in place with your staff about moving to a building if a drone is spotted.

If there is ICE activity on a farm the hotline should be notified immediately, and anyone who is able should film activity. Please make sure everyone knows that they can legally film, however they cannot interfere with any detention.

Make sure that all employers and employees if possible understand the difference between an administrative and a judicial warrant. Here is an informational sheet.

Have emergency contact information for your staff in case someone is detained.

Make sure indoor spaces are posted as private (see example sign above and here to print and put up).

If workers are detained ILAP needs to be contacted and forms filled out for legal aid.

Please stay safe and informed at this time. If you know of other farms that may not receive this email please forward it to them.

Peter Wohlleben explains the cause of forest fires. I've decided to post this in farming because forestry is farming in a wider sense.

From my personal haunting grounds: Portugal's ICNF (Instituto de Conservação da Natureza e Florestas, haha) continues to recommend landowners the planting of eucalyptus and pine. In the name of fire safety they created regulations around having to clean your land. That means that organic matter that would improve soils over time has to be removed, as well as plant cover that might help retain moisture in the soil for longer. In early summer all you hear is the sound of weed cutter machines, the fossil fuel industry is of course delighted, and everything dries out even faster. Add some Roundup to the mix for some extra toxic flavour.

Decades ago the ICNF used lies and deception around blue tongue disease in livestock to appropriate common pasture lands and force the planting of pine forests, and despite all studies clearly indicating that 'planting matches' is a problem.

The fucking profiteers from all this mess don't have to live in the affected areas.

Meanwhile the large paper corporations (Navigator is the biggest one here) have their greenwashing on point - if you read their advertising you would think they plant nothing but magical fairytale forests when in reality it's eucalyptus monoculture (with FSC label of course!) They have firefighting gear and helicopters for their own plantations, while private landowners (often poor fellows who own a few hectares of mountain land) who have been lured into planting the euca have their landscapes burn down with whole mountain ranges turning black.

Summary: Fungus-powered farming delivers higher yields and better-tasting crops, says study

Researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have found that an extract from the yeast-like fungus Pseudozyma aphidis can significantly boost crop yields while improving produce quality. Unlike previous approaches using live fungal cultures — which are difficult to apply consistently at scale — the team used a secreted extract, making results more reliable across different climates and environments.

Testing on tomatoes, corn, and melons showed an 18% improvement in tomato germination rates, flowering one to two weeks earlier, over 60% more ripe tomato fruit by weight, and melon yields five times greater than untreated plants. Tomatoes also scored higher in taste tests for firmness, sweetness, and aroma. The extract works by producing auxin-like plant hormones and siderophores that help plants absorb iron.

The researchers say the approach offers a practical, eco-friendly alternative to synthetic fertilisers and pesticides, supporting food security without the associated environmental costs. The team plans to continue refining the extraction process to identify the specific compounds responsible for these effects.

A post about the problems with climate change leading to extreme rainfall events reminded me of this concept. I saw a great video about it years ago, and I couldn't find it, so I am just linking a journal article about the concept.

The TL;DR is that we need to be doing as much as we can to slow water down on the land.

Giant dams across rivers, while useful for flood mitigation and power generation, are ecologically harmful. Small structures, essentially providing resistance to flow of temporary streams, have a whole giant host of benefits, from decreased erosion to increased water infiltration and water sequestration.

If you live somewhere arid (or honestly in many places that are now experiencing more eratic rainfall), you should think about where you could potentially use one or more of these strategies.

I've got a big piece of land, it is all fenced with a decently high fencing, but during the times animals dug holes below it, some parts broke, some animals climb it.

Since I'd like to cultivate/hold animals in, what would be the best way to make THIS fence animal proof, without relying on other fencing around animals or my cultivations? Is it even possible/worth it? We have wolves, foxes, boars, etc etc etc..

I was thinking about electric wiring somehow (?), does it make it foolproof? Otherwise what other options may I have?

The benefits of agrivoltaics—the placement of solar panels over cropland for more efficient land use—varies dramatically depending on where it’s located, finds new research from the United States. As agrivoltaics spread and attract more interest, this is one of the first studies to really dig into its inherent trade-offs, and identify places where it works well for both electricity generation and farmers’ bottom lines.

The trade-offs in question are that while the huge increased electricity production enabled by more solar panels is a positive, and renting out land to solar providers can also provide new revenue streams for farmers, the shading effect of solar panels can disturb crop growth. Weighing up these costs and benefits has complicated the picture for farmers who may be considering agrivoltaics on their land.

To shed some light on the issue, a study led by the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign started by looking at 14 years of maize and soybean crop data from the Midwestern US. The dataset, which included information on crop yield and water-use, compared conventional non-solar cropland with farms where a third of the productive area was covered by panels. They also applied climate simulations to the data, to determine how crop-growing conditions and solar panel impact could change under a low, high, and highest-emission future scenario.

Very quickly, stark differences appeared in the model, between the more humid eastern stretch of the Midwest, and the drier semiarid western Midwest.