Did you have a wet fall harvest this year? If you did, you may have rutted many or all of your fields, a perennial problem for those of us in rainy climes. If only we could keep the rain in the spring and summer, but then borrow Arizona’s climate for the harvest season, that would be great. Alas, until we get the weather control satellites up and running, we’re likely to have to deal with fall precipitation and the resulting soil problems.

One thing worth considering – that rutted field might not actually be compacted nearly as much as it would seem on first examination. If the field is extremely wet, water fills the pore spaces under the surface, and water doesn’t compact at all. If the soil was wet but not waterlogged, then the pore spaces had air in them and partially collapsed under the weight of equipment – that’s when you get real compaction. When you were driving on the field, if water and mud oozed from the wheel sides, then it is quite likely that your field was sufficiently waterlogged that the pore spaces didn’t collapse.

Check the type of ruts your equipment left in the field. If the rut edges are raised on each side of the track and are muddy/clumpy, then the odds are good you don’t have deep compaction. Once things have dried up, test the soil for compaction with a simple rod test – insert the rod with even pressure to a depth of three or four feet. If there’s a sudden increase in resistance, you have a compaction layer. If there aren’t any compaction layers, all you need to do is a light surface tillage pass to break up the clumps left by your tracks.

If your tracks are more like depressions in the soil, then you’ve probably got compaction. Check with the rod to be sure, and if your compaction is within ten inches of the surface, you can break up the layer with a chisel plow or subsoiler. This can be irritating if you’ve been following a no-till approach, but unfortunately it’s the only way to break up those layers. Don’t worry, though, you can go back to no-till and restore the soil structure once the immediate problem is dealt with.

One possible hitch – if your land is classified as Highly Erodible Land (HEL), you’ll have to get permission from the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service before you can legally perform tillage operations. Your local NCRS conservationist can consult with you on what actions you can take on HEL fields.

I won’t be posting much more over the next couple of weeks, spending holiday time with the family – so have a great Christmas season and a prosperous New Year.

President-Elect Obama has named Tom Vilsack as his Secretary of Agriculture, a choice expected to sail through the Senate’s confirmation process. Vilsack has a long history in politics; he started out as the mayor of Mount Pleasant, Iowa, back in 1987. From there he moved to the Iowa State Senate, where he spent six years before running for Governor. He won that election in 1998, and served two terms. He didn’t run for a third time, instead gearing up for a Presidential run which didn’t really get off the ground. He wound up endorsing Hillary Clinton, and in fact was one of the national chairmen of her campaign.

Despite his Iowa political experience, Vilsack was never a farmer – he was a lawyer for most of his working life pre-politics. He spent much of his Governorship trying to attract non-agricultural businesses to Iowa. During his term, he originated a seed-preemption bill that barred local communities from blocking planting of genetically-modified crops, and he also started a biotechnology initiative in Iowa. During his brief Presidential run, Vilsack didn’t focus on agricultural issues very much. He has expressed strong support for cutting US carbon emissions and improving domestic energy security.

Vilsack has come under some fire from the Organic Consumers Association, which opposes his nomination on the grounds that he is in favor of big farms, genetically modified crops, and biotechnology. He is also known to be a booster of ethanol and alternative sources of energy production. I’m generally a pretty pro-green kind of guy, but I have to say I don’t find these criticisms terribly compelling. Everybody likes small farms – nobody more than me! – but big farms are just a fact of life and the Agriculture Department shouldn’t beat its collective head against that brick wall. And, we’re not likely to get out of our current situation with energy and agriculture policy using the tools of the last century. Genetically-modified crops and biotechnology are the wave of the future; surely, we need responsible regulation and some reasonable constraints on what the ag companies get up to, but equally surely, we’re not going back to the days of 20-acre farm plots planting cultivars unchanged from the days of our great-great-great-grandfathers.

On balance I think Vilsack is a pretty good choice. He’s knowledgeable about agriculture, seems to be a pretty good manager, and in a long political career hasn’t shown himself to have crazy ideas or a dangerous mindset in any direction. Both political extremes seem to dislike him somewhat, which to my mind is a good sign. I think he’ll be a good Secretary of Agriculture and will make reasonable policies that will strengthen our farm sector in the years to come.

I discussed hydroponic farming’s potential in an earlier post, and wanted to start talking with you about the potential to add hydroponic operations to your existing farm. One story that caught my eye earlier this year concerns this Florida operation, a small organic hydroponic farm operating profitably on just two acres in an industrial area.

Most existing farmers aren’t set up to replicate Urban Oasis – the last thing a farmer needs is a daily commute to an industrial zone to manage the hydroponic operation! But the folks at Urban Oasis have hit on a model that I think many existing farmers can adapt for their own farms, creating a new revenue stream and attracting new customers to a farm without having to convert operations. Urban Oasis uses a self-picking model, which keeps labor costs very low. They also specialize in the types of fresh produce that their urban market enjoys but finds too expensive or too hard to find at supermarkets.

Because hydroponic farming does not use soil, it doesn’t matter what the land underlying a hydroponic farm looks like. You can grow hydroponic crops on the Moon (and NASA plans to at some point). So you don’t need to lose any productive land for a hydroponic operation; you can put your hydroponics buildings along the road, in an unproductive small patch, next to the farm house – wherever it is convenient for you. (You will want road access to the hydroponic sheds, as well as utilities – and someplace visible from the nearest main road won’t hurt, either.)

Before you put up your first building, however, you should decide what kinds of crops to grow. A common mistake is to try too many different plants – sure, you have a broader market appeal, but you also have a higher learning curve as you figure out the mechanics of caring for all the different types of crops you’re growing. To maximize the salability of your product, consider your local market. Remember you’re not selling this to a distributor who trucks it five states away – you need to grow things that your neighbors want to buy, and which are expensive in your area. That will depend on your local geography and climate; it wouldn’t make much sense to grow corn hydroponically in Iowa. Salad-oriented vegetables like peppers and tomatoes are perennial favorites, and often command decent prices.

Another decision to consider is whether to grow organically or not. Going organic is quite easy with hydroponic farming – it’s a lot easier to control insects in a greenhouse than in an open field, and the price premium for organic produce is considerable. I would advise you to give organic a try, if for no other reason than that you can learn how to raise organic crops on a small scale without a major investment. Lots of farmers I talk to express an interest in going organic, but are reluctant to make the huge investment of time and energy up-front that learning a whole new method of farming will take. Going organic on just the hydroponic portion of your operation reduces the cost of that risk – worst case, you padlock the shed and you’re not out very much.

Urban Oasis further minimizes labor costs by using family members as working staff. A hydroponic operation makes an outstanding opportunity for teenaged children to get involved on the business side of the operation, without risking a $500,000 harvester or a multi-million dollar crop. This also might be a great way to get your wife who may have had to take a job in the local town back on the farm. 

If you decide to add an experimental hydroponics operation to your existing farm (or if you’re just so excited about hydroponics that you decide to make it your first farming experience), then please contact me via this blog – I am very interested to hear your stories, and to share them with my other readers.