Fighting 'Solar Farm' Installation

[Fuddyduddy1952]

It's a big business...but in the true sense of the word hay growers are not really farmers IMO...!

No different than commercial clam diggers calling themselves commercial fishermen...

What is your definition of a "real" farmer?

 

[/pine]

What is your definition of a "real" farmer?

Someone that works on a real farm...!

 

[Fuddyduddy1952]

I'm confused. The dairy farmer's great-grandparents were farmers on down the line. They own several farms. The dairy business isn't lucrative, used to be one across the road...even this used to be a small dairy. Now hay...at $13/bale, they get three cuttings and 100,000 bales.
It's very much a crop and lots of expensive equipment.

 

[walhondingMF]

Even though we have disagreed a bit here, I have to step in for these hay farmers...

Hay farming fills a huge agricultural requirement for our country. As stated, a large portion of livestock farmers, whether it be for livestock or even those with horses for recreation, depend on hay farming because they either lack the ground to raise their own feed or prevents the purchasing of their own equipment.
Hay farming is a great second or alternative income for small farmers or property owners. Many hay farmers I know work full time jobs and making hay provides them some extra money along with a way to retain land they own rather then have to sell it out. Some parts of the country, much like Noble county, OH where I live is very poor crop ground, but it is great hay ground.
And as crop growing agricultural practices go, hay is one of the most environmental. Do hay farmers have to use artificial fertilizers in a lot of cases, yes, but it is too costly to over do it. Very little, if any, pesticides are used to grow hay.
A hay field is not tilled, therefore retaining the stored carbon. In comparable biomass terms, grass sequesters 6x more carbon than trees do. Ground used to produce hay contains exponentially more biodiversity in the forms of microbes, fungi, invertebrates and plants.
Not to mention a hay farmer has to own and maintain FARMING equipment. They are farmers.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Hay is a crop, and is farming as much as any other crop is farming.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Some parts of the country, much like Noble county, OH where I live is very poor crop ground, but it is great hay ground.

Our farm is next county over.

 

[walhondingMF]

Our farm is next county over.

Then you understand exactly what I mean.

I'm sure Baker and Sons sells a lot more haybines and rakes than they do corn choppers and silage wagons.

 

[Oaktree]

There are two worlds...the God created natural rural land and the man created technological urban land. I live in the country for a reason. Mixing the two is my idea of he((.

Are you saying you don't use any modern technology?

 

[Oaktree]

Let’s save our country from being over run by foreign junk and sending trillions overseas.

I have a I-phone and an I-pad!
They go with me to work silly!

A bit self-contradictory don't you think?

 

[/pine]

Hay is a crop, and is farming as much as any other crop is farming. IMO

I fixed it for ya...!