Types Of Drip Irrigation Systems

While larger, commercial growers might apply chemical fertilizers as a quick fix to achieve soil balance, taking the time to understand your soil as the living, natural organism it is and continually adding healthy inputs, such as compost, enables your...

These populations are a little harder to nail down, but if Leslie's new book, with more 60 contributors, is any indication, there are more young horse-powered farmers starting up every year—hundreds, perhaps.

A cool-season pasture can dramatically reduce your need for stored feed and extend your grazing season through the winter months. David Wright has 65 cows in his dairy operation in Alexandria, Ala., and his cattle graze throughout the winter, eliminating...

Rubber boots will also be useful—after all, you're working around a puddle!— and I personally advise wearing safety goggles if digging in hard or rocky ground. It's one thing for the lowland fields to be muddy at a time of year when they're not in...

In the barn, fly-dirt left behind on virtually every surface is ugly, unsanitary and difficult to remove. This article originally appeared in the March/April 2013 issue of Hobby Farms.

This doesn't mean that no equipment is necessarily used for field preparation on wild farms. A wild farm co-exists with its wild neighbors. The power that drives a wild farm is largely derived from the natural sources that are abundant during each respective...

You may have a market for smaller trees, or you may have to wait until your trees are 5 feet or taller. Douglas Fir: This Christmas tree tends to be a best-seller. Pine trees, spruce trees and fir trees can all be grown from seed, but you're more likely...

Either way, know what you want out of a co-op, and make sure the other farmers you plan to work with have the same goals. Additionally, members get voting interest in future decisions of the co-op.

No-till land actually tends to drain faster than plowed ground, and in reality, if a field is too wet to no-till plant, it's too wet to plow, and soil compaction will occur. They also advocate the role of earthworms in helping improve soil as well: The...

They're designed to be fed whole, in the field, with or without a hay ring (a cage designed to prevent livestock from lying in or pulling down hay and wasting it). Plastic twine resists weathering, insects and rodents better than natural-fiber twines.

A view out your kitchen window encompasses a lot of life. Branching Out Your property has boundaries, but your woodland projects don't have to. The possibilities are as abundant as your curiosity and interests: collecting plants and other materials to...

Drip irrigation can be operated during windy periods as well. Incorporating small basins around each plant helps to concentrate water at the plant's roots. Unfortunately, much of the water dispersed through sprinklers and hoses by enthusiastic gardeners...

Clover , like alfalfa, is a common pasture legume, though it's considered superior in nutrition—there's a reason for the old adage, “Happy as pigs in clover.” Of all the clover varieties available, lardino—a white clover up to four times larger...

Author's Note: My sincere thanks to Nat Henton and Dr Jim Tidwell of Kentucky State, Professor/Chair of Division of Aquaculture for taking the time to share their knowledge, enthusiasm and love of aquaculture.

Use this visual diagram of an aquaculture pond to consider the best way to build your operation. Tags hobby farm Then pick up the November/December 2011 issue of Hobby Farms for more complete information on starting an aquaculture operation with catfish...

Raising pigs is easy. Rodney Wilson On our farm, we do a bit of all three: We hand-mix an all-natural ration, run pigs in our limited pastures and let herds roam the farm's 12 wooded acres looking for fruits, nuts, bugs, snakes … the forest floor is...

I have personally had mixed results with this practice. Personally, I like sowing them with slow brassicas and tomatoes. Beans Many gardener's introduction to intercropping is through the three sisters method : planting corn, beans and squash together...

This rotation will keep the pests guessing, the soil nutrients building and your vegetables growing as strong as possible. If you are using a walk-behind tractor or rototiller only, this is less of a concern.

In 1928, Demeter International was formed in Europe to support Steiner's methods. Jim Fullmer, director of the Demeter Association, Inc. Biodynamic farmers take a holistic approach to farming, building a personal relationship to their farms and believing...

Go one step further and prevent rainwater from washing off of buildings and into the sacrifice area. Because you're confining livestock to an area smaller than where they normally live, you need to pick up after them.

“There are also millions of additional open pasturelands that could be enhanced as silvopastures by feasibly incorporating trees.” Although relatively new to the North­east, silvopasturing has long been used in the Pacific Northwest, from Oregon...

Where once only natural food stores and farmer's markets carried organic, now everybody wants in on the act. In fact, reports the OTA, about 46 percent of the total organic food dollar volume was sold through mass-market channels during 2005.

“Some pathogens can be spread with the manure to fields and pastures. Proper manure management results in happier soil, water and neighbors, and ultimately makes your farm more productive.

To do so safely, they find protection in hollow plant stems, logs, under rocks and leaf litter. If left to natural processes, these creatures will do the plant gene pools a big favor by dispersing the seeds far and wide as they fly above the topsoil or...

Grassland birds contribute to biodiversity, and their habitat aids in improving water quality and watershed health, so promoting habitat on your farm can benefit both birds and farmers, both in the short term and the long run.

Slimy film can still build up in the trough even if there is no visible algae. The most common cleanliness issue with water troughs is algae, and some of it can even be dangerous for your animals.

Rotate cattle into the warm-weather pasture when temperatures reach 70 to 95 degrees F —the grass should be ready then because you seeded earlier in the year. In the end, we ended up selling our couple of cows, having learned the final lesson that we...