farming and conservation

I don't have the heart to hunt any more. If it meant starving or hunting I would hunt for game. I raise animals that could be food but the same rule applies. I have "pools" with bluegill, catfish, and crayfish. I am trying to find out if it is feasible to raise for food.

 

I think of it as far more humane than industrial farming, which is where the majority of store bought meat comes from. I hunt and fish for food and not terribly often (well, the hunting part....)

Consider tilapia farming, IIRC it's cold where you live? Need some good heaters. Some of these or an above ground pool?

 

Considered Tilapia but even in zone 7 it gets too cold. The energy consumed would be cost prohibitive... Unless the fry were conceived in smaller tanks, inside during winter. I also considered Redclaw crayfish. But they are also cost prohibitive. Everything except my tropical and goldfish were wild caught.

 

I want to raise some tilapia for shark bait but I cant put them in my smallish pond with goldfish. I guess I'll just have to continue a detour to throw my castnet for bait. I generally get 10 15 in about 5-10 throws in the 2 to 5 inch range with a 6 ft net. But it sucks if you are on the way fishing and bait gets scarce. Done spent the gas, got the day off, cooler full of beer and ice...

 

I'm not sure where you would apply your first statement, but knowing what was used on my foods is important to me, and should be to most people.

 

I hope I don't end up where your BIL is. It's aggravating and disappointing as it is, and while I joke that I'm down to pine nuts and celery, that's an exaggeration.

I guess the use of bt would have to depend on the size of the operation. While I hand pick the nasties and drop them in a pail of water with Dawn dish detergent and vinegar, it doesn't make sense to try and do that on multiple acres. I'd equate it to using diatomaceous earth. I'd rather not, but I would if I had to. I'm not sure where the "plant “manufactured” in GMO’s' part come from.

 

A corn plant will take its nitrogen from natural or man made sources. There is no difference in the final product. And the plant makes no distinction.

 

I have bluegill and catfish in my goldfish pond. But Tilapia get rather large.

 

Were you thinking of breeding Tilapia for fertilising?

 

No aquaponics for me. I have a garden that I have been conditioning for years. The bluegill and catfish are food fish. Tilapia need heat. Bluegill and catfish survive well in cooler temperatures. Also crayfish. I just had a pair of crayfish mate. This time I will try to do better with the spawn. I only got a few survivors last time.

 

But I do use plants to filter my water. I have water lilly, pickeral rush, duckweed, and other stuff like flag lilly.

 

I guess you could use water from your fish ponds to water your plants.
You'd have to stop growing the lillies etc though for full effect.

 

Of course a plant will absorb what it is fed. But it does make a difference in the end product, because the human or animal that consumes that corn, is also consuming the man made synthetic nitrogen.

 

here's my secret bait spot don't tell anybody I threw my net three times this morning and got about 15 of them from 2 to 6 in

 

There is no difference.

 

Tilapia?

 

Primarily so and those damn plecostomus catfish I did catch one small pan fish in the cast net which I tossed back these damn tilapia run the native fish out and a lot of places there's also eating size in there I've caught severalthat's actually a cow pasture but I can throw the net from the road without crossing the fence but it's typical of a lot of cow pastures in the area

 

I never was any good with a cast net
Lack of experience probably. We cast net for shad below the damn. Good catfish bait.

 

My uncle by marriage had a brother who was born deaf in the early 1900’s. Sadly he never learned to talk or lip read, just sign some and read and write. He was the best gardener I’ve known. All organic. Spent almost every daylight hour in the garden. All insect pests got smashed between his thumb and index finger.

Even when I basically lived with him working for my aunt and uncle I didn’t take the time to learn everything he had to teach. It’s one of my greatest regrets in life.

When I refer to plant manufactured Bt I’m referring the the specific proteins (very specific toxins targeting certain species of pests like corn borer) coded for by the bacterial genes inserted into the corn genome. The toxin is the exact same protein produced by the soil bacterium (and sprayed on organic crops), it’s just assembled in corn cells instead of bacterial “cells”.

 

It just takes practice it's all in the technique there's a lot of YouTube tutorials on it everyone swears by their own method but as long as it works I guess that's all that matters I've got a 6 ft bait net which is as big as I've ever thrown but I want to get an 8 or 10 ft mullet net and teach myself how to throw that with theaters on YouTube videos or friends of course

 

What benefit is synthetic nitrogen to the soil?

 

Presumably these toxins are harmless to humans once they get in the food chain?
Are you a farmer by birth then or did you decide by yourself to go into it?

 

The same as natural nitrogen but nitrogen speeds the decay of organic matter. It is good for the plant but not so good for the soil. It supplies nitrogen that is not present in soil. Just like manure or organic matter. But, organic matter uses nitrogen while it decays.

 

Yes they are harmless to humans. The toxins only effect very specific species of insect larvae.

The bacteria B. thuringiensis can produce around 50 different crystal protein toxins that affect insect larvae. They are coded for most often by plasmids in the bacteria, not from the main chromosomes of the bacteria. In the case of genetic modification of corn, genes coding for only the crystal protein that target specific pests, most famously, corn borer are selected and inserted into the corn genome. In contrast, Bt insecticides sprayed on crops since the 1960’s included the whole spectrum of crystal protein toxins so killed many beneficial insects as well as the targeted pests.

B. thuringiensis is naturally occurring in soil, in grain storage facilities, any place insects are common,etc. Even in the absence of Bt spray insecticide and GMO’s humans would be ingesting the crystal protein toxins.

I have farmer genes on both sides of the family. My paternal grandfather homesteaded in Kansas under the Homestead Act, “proved up”, sold out and moved back to Independence Missouri where he ran dairies the rest of his life. I grew up on a “ hobby farm” not a commercial operation. My uncle by marriage to my maternal aunt was a “commercial“ wheat and beef producer.

I did not expect to farm for a living. My first two years of college I was a biology major at a college that emphasizes sciences preparatory for careers in the medical profession. I toyed with the idea of a forestry/wildlife management career. I kept funding education by working in agriculture and eventually discovered it’s the thing that would bring me happiness as a career choice.

 

This farm has been in the family since 1930. Paul hadn't really intended to take it over. He was working as a grain chandler in Bath when his father died and he had to return to help his uncle run the farm.
His son is fully involved and went to agricultural college so the future is as secure as a small farm can be these days.
A lot of small farms unfortunately get sold off because there's no one to take over after a farmer dies. Even if there are children the value of over £10,000 an acre for agricultural land is too temping for many when you consider how little a small farm actually earns. It's a lifestyle choice more than a career.