[sammus]

Hey all, I'm pretty new to this form but im working on a school project for Landscape architecture designing an organic farm so i hope this is an appropriate place for this thread. I have been trying to brainstorm ideas for amenities or things on the farm to increase productivity, diversity, and the overall sustainability of the farm. This can include many categories from physical items such as composting bins and chicken coops to techniques or practices such as crop rotation, but should be kept to the issue of increasing the effectiveness and productivity output of the farm itself. So far my ideas for necessary things on the farm will include;

Apiary for honey and pollenation
Smokehouse for curing/preserving meat
Water cisterns for runoff/rainwater collection
Green roofs to insulate and reduce heat in ranch house
Greenhouse for seed starting/overwintering
Solar panels for supplemental winter lighting
Large composting bins for organic fertilizer
Chicken coups for meat/eggs

I'm leaving alot out because i don't want to drone on. But I would really like some input on what everyone else thinks about what kinds of things would be useful for a sustainable farm The only limitation is acreage size being 52 acres basically square.

 

[Jerry D Young]

Go a little further with the composting and do an acre or so, adding compostable material to the field regularly and grow green manure crop each year to turn under. Keep adding all sorts of things that will enrich the soil, as well as adding some additional soil occasionally as you take out some of the good humas to use on the other fields. Make arrangements with people and businesses to accept their compostable leaves & grass, manure from horse, cattle, and swine operations, and any other thing you can think of.

Rotate the crops in the proper order to prevent diseases and pests building up in the soil and to have the appropriate nutrients in the ground for the next crop to be planted.

Leave 1/4 of the crop land fallow each year planted with green manure crop

Install an effective irrigation system

Have on site storage of crops to allow selling only at the the highest prices

Have on site storage of seed, fertilzers, etc when they are cheapest and available so you don't have to pay the high prices at the peak of the season

Have the largest fuel tanks you can get if you buy fuel so you can buy fuel at the time of year it is cheapest and treat it as neccessary to keep it fresh and so the diesel is resistant to freezing up in the winter time.

If you have a smoke house sounds like you are going to process the meat on site. Have a separate kitchen equipped for the activity and an outside butchering station with the appropriate tools to get the meat ready for processing. Have plenty of cold storage room available for aging the meat and storage after processing

Consider commercial sized dehydrator for drying fruits and vegetable and making jerky from your own production

Consider a large insulated/earth sheltered ice house to reduce the cooling load if you live in an area where you can freeze water in the winter and use it during the summer in the storage cold room.

If you have milk cows have a processing shed similar to the meat kitchen to handle the milk safely and make butter and cheese

Build a mobile roadside stand to sell products near the farm

I don't think 52 acres is enough to raise biodiesel oil crops to make your own fuel, but it might be doable if the land is very productive

Use eheavily insulated arth sheltered buildings to lower heating and cooling costs. This includes barns and processing sheds.

Consider putting in a small fruit and nut orchard for long term investment. Can use dwarf trees among the full size trees initially to get some production as the larger trees are grown. Once the full size trees are beginning to produce the dwarfs will be nearing the end of their productive lives.

Consider some grape vines and berry patches

Accumulate a quality set of tools, including portable welder and cutting torches and learn to use them so as much maintenance can be done in house, as well as minor to moderate repairs

Buy farming equipment sized to the acreage and the amount of work to be done. 52 acres doesn't call for a 400hp 4x4 tractor with 24 row equipment.

Hire experienced hands, preferablly with a wide range of farming skills, including mechanic work, and pay them well to keep them. Try to have winter work available at least part of the off season.

Have a good garden to help feed yourself. Include grains if they aren't already commercial crops you are growing, (wheat, oats, rice, etc) Invest in a grain mill and oat flaker/roller, huller, sheller, etc to process the products than need it.

Consider growing enough oil crop (canola) to produce your own cooking oil

Consider growing enough sugar beets to produce your own sugar


That's all I can think of off the top of my head.

 

[Tammon]

Set up an aquaponics system for growing vegetables close to the house such as herbs etc and supplying your own fish (tilapia).
Small dams for recreational use such as canoeing and small scale fish.Out here we set up with crustaceans called yabbies and marron (types of fresh water shrimp).
Wind generator to supplement power.

 

[sammus]

Thank you jerry great information. For more information the site selection is in northern Colorado, zone 4-5, annual rainfall 10-20" aprox. The composting will be extensive as i want to bring in as little soil amendments to the site as possible. Accepting compost-able material from nearby sources is an excellent idea. Animals incorporated into site will be chickens, some dairy cows, and perhaps a small amount of sheep, swine, and goats. so all of these will produce usable compost material/fertilizer as well. Irrigation system will most likely be mainly drip

for efficiency. The design will also include a market building to sell to the public, as the farm is located within city limits so this is going to be the majority of the business being a market garden. I'm not interested in growing crops for fuel production as your right it wouldn't be cost productive at this small scale. Most of the acreage will be dedicated to growing produce for sale, but i am interested in diversifying the remainder for sugar/oil production however i'm not sure how much space this would take.

The main aspect of the design is to incorporate diversity into it and make it a social as well as educational space for the public. Ultimately the farm will offer courses of instruction and teach many homesteading skills as you addressed: dairy production, cheese making, brewing/wine making, canning and food preservation, smoking and curing meat, tending chickens, Aquaponics/fish farming, hydroponics, culinary/cooking courses. Just to name a few, will all hopefully be offered classes for this farm design. I'm still trying to think of more physical aspects of the design such as buildings you listed for butchering and meat processing. I would also like to make an Amphitheater and ranch house for classes to be taught in.

If anyone is interested i will post the project when it is done here to give others ideas for plans.

 

[hurricanemtn]

In ground green house would be good for year round crops and you have a creek with enough flow you could do hydroponics.

 

[sammus]

In ground green house would be good for year round crops and you have a creek with enough flow you could do hydroponics.

That is a good idea, its not necessary for the design but i have always dreamed of using inter-connected shipping containers buried underground for cooler storage as well as hydroponics stations. Thank you

 

[oldcamper]

Don't forget to plant trees as a wind block/fuel source

 

[slim]

How bout a book Teaming with Microbes –by Jeff Lowenfels on organic gardening using beneficial microbes. Pretty good for the most part.

 

[PoorRichard05]

If this is a farming area in northern Colorado you may want to raise hay (alfalfa). You would need the necessary equipment. Also, appropriate fruit trees and grapevines. Have the water table checked out and see about pumping water for irrigation. If it is as windy there as other areas in that region have multiple windmills. A sand cistern might work out well, too.

 

[Tammon]

That is a good idea, its not necessary for the design but i have always dreamed of using inter-connected shipping containers buried underground for cooler storage as well as hydroponics stations. Thank you

There is a very good thread on here about putting shipping containers underground. It points out the supreme dangers of simply wishing to bury and backfill with surrounding earth.
The thread shows it can be done but by the time you do it you could have justified building your underground storage with other materials.

That thread should be read by anyone contemplating putting shipping containers underground.

 

[Horned One]

Three things I would add.

1. A large, heavily insulated root cellar. Critical for long term food storage.

2. Raise rabbits. They give you food, fur and fertilizer. The nice thing about rabbit poop is that you don't need to compost it. It can go right in the garden. You can build a rabbit colony so that you don't have individual hutches, which makes them easier to clean, feed and water.

3. Raise pigs. They will eat most left-overs, are the best garden tillers/fertilizers around, you get meat from them, and you can make your own methane.

 

[ForestBeekeeper]

Don't forget to build a dovecote.

 

[sammus]

Don't forget to build a dovecote.

wouldn't it almost be detrimental to build a dovecote because that would cause problems with the birds eating grains grown on the farm and seeds planted to produce the crops?

 

[ForestBeekeeper]

Your thinking of crows.

I planted an orchard; plant once and harvest for decades.

This year we are starting a vineyard; plant once and harvest for decades.

I have bees; they feed themselves.

I tap maples; I don't have to feed or water them and they give me food.

My land has 10-acres that produces wild fiddleheads; all I have to do is pick them.

Doves feed themselves; and they provide squab and soil amendments.

 

[sammus]

Wouldn't any birds even doves be eating any forage seeds they could find also thou? Im just wondering if the benefits of their Colombine would outweigh them eating some or any of the crops...

 

[ForestBeekeeper]

Wouldn't any birds even doves be eating any forage seeds they could find also thou? Im just wondering if the benefits of their Colombine would outweigh them eating some or any of the crops...

'Forage seeds'? Sure just like chickens do.

If you leave seeds laying on the surface of the ground, not covered by soil, then they are always subject to being eaten.

One workshop I attended done by Rodale Institute, they were saying how a 3foot by 3foot piece of soil taken from a fallow field and analyzed will contain between 50,000 and 100,000 seeds in it.

I live in a forest. My farmed soil is a tiny portion of my land. Most of what we are focusing on are perennials, that are only planted once and you harvest for decades.

We do have raised bed gardens, but in them we 'plant' seeds. We do not leave seeds on the surface as bird feed.

As for foraging, We forage mushrooms from our forest. Fiddleheads, Birch bark, Beech cambium, Spruce, Queen Anne's lace, Lambs Quarter, Yarrow, Mullein, Maple, lots of things. I am not aware of any of our forage crops that doves would be interested in.

If birds want to 'forage' for seeds, they are welcome to them.