In part 2 of this presentation, we hear from Russell Hedrick of JRH Grain Farms in Catawba county, NC. Russell has gone from being a beginning farmer just 5 years ago, to rapidly expanding his grain production operations. He is an advocate of soil health, no till methods and utilizes a diversity of cover crops extensively as he blazes trails of innovation and inspiration for young and older farmers alike.
VIDEO: Treating the Farm as an Ecosystem Part 2 with Russell Hedrick
In part 2 of this presentation, we hear from Russell Hedrick of JRH Grain Farms in Catawba county, NC. Russell has gone from being a beginning farmer just 5 years ago, to rapidly expanding his grain production operations. He is an advocate of soil health, no till methods and utilizes a diversity of cover crops extensively as he blazes trails of innovation and inspiration for young and older farmers alike.
10 – 14 days under the tarp kills the cover crop? How is that so? I've put down tarp and some plants are still alive under it 6 months later!
Would it not be better to graze the cover crops shorter before you plant and maybe not have to plant in such a tall stand? It is impressive though.
I really appreciate Russels steaight forward approach Great video
More farmers need to adopt these practices especially in my county, lol.
Russell, do you know that instead of using a toxic method of using plastic sheet laid over the plants you could use diluted vinegar spray to kill off the plants very quickly, in a matter of hours to a few days. Plastic takes long time and it does off-gassing. Vinegar is okay. People use vinegar to spray selectively onto weeds to kill the off as well.
"When the wind blows, sheep die!" Lol…aw…that's so sad. I remember watching an episode of The Incredible Dr. Pol where Dr. Brenda said that when a sheep gets sick it's a 50/50 chance it'll recover, because it thinks, "Oh no, I'm sick, I'm going to die." Is it any wonder that the Lord compares us to sheep?
"life's hard, its harder if your stupid. " Boy aint that the truth. Lol.
I love these concepts. I really hope they get put into practice more and more. This is really gonna make the world a better place. He's made me like pigs a little more than I use to. Lol.
Superb, thank-you from England.
I've already covered my new-to-me half alltment with a grazing rye and tares mix from Kings' Seeds.
One question, then, for you and Gabe: presumably someone must be growing the cover crops to maturity as mono-crops. Yes? Good/bad? A fair compromise? I guess, for tgem such a monocrop is their cash crop.
God I wish I had a way to get the farmers in this area to listen to this! They are tiling and bulldozing the land into submission. It is just sickening.
Good all around topic. Love it a lot. Lots of information and much more is explained in a book, Regenerating Farms & Gardens available on Amazon.
Great stuff as always from Hedrick!
Brilliant stuff Russell! Thank you! I got a call from our animal control in the middle of an experiment (molecular biologist) my pigs (sow and 7 feeders) were about a 1/4 mile from my farm in someones backyard. Had to drop everything and get back home.:^)
planer? planEer..oh you mean plAnter?
Thank you Russell Hedrick!! -if you don't mind, what is you cover crop seed mixture at the "10:46" minute in your video? I am sure you have millions of different options. Is there clovers/chicorys/kale/lower establishing food sources in there or is it all the taller variety seed?
Also, when was it planted? I am in southern Iowa and looking to plant a large variety in the spring(if the lower establishing sources are able to thrive- run cattle on it for a month in the later winter-before reseeding again.(I already have clover/chicory/alfalfa established in the field) I would plan on inter-seeding everything with a planter, after the cattle are removed.I do not intend to cash crop or harvest any agriculture.
I only want to seed in the spring, not in the fall; with the most variety possible.***For instance, how would the germination work it I used your "25:34" minute mark as a 2 year rotation, instead of a 4 year rotation?(Plant the entire left side, CSG and WSG all in the spring and then plant the entire right hand side the next spring)… Thank you!!!
you talk too fast!
Thanks for the great content. I live near the Texas coast and we have far too much chemical runoff and have algae blooms like the dreaded red tide. Your good choices and the idea of greater carbon containment is a key to our future.
Another almost random click that turned out to be fascinating and rewarding.
I have never farmed or grown my own food, and it is unlikely that I will ever farm, although I plan to move to a house with some land around it so I can grow some veg. I have seen a good number of videos of this nature here on YT, and this certainly ranks among those I would recommed.
Thank you.
Great information. Thank you. I have been integrating these strategies into my permaculture backyard. Thanks for sharing the knowledge. It works great in Arizona. 2 weeks at over 110 degrees straight and I am the only one im my neighborhood with a green backyard.
Well I certainly only knew about half the needed knowledge.
"We get free labour" "hahaha" You do understand becasue of the 13th amendment you're allowed to have slaves if they are criminals. You have slaves working for you. They aren't choosing to work for you as an employee.
Thank You for helping and your wisdom future generations need more farmers like you.
Can I come work with you?
I now feel better about the future of agriculture and humanity. This must be the way of the future.
Let us reclaim the original soil health of the world for the benefit of all!
Slowwwww down. Take a breath I'd like to process what you say…..
"Treating"? In natural farming, a farm is an ecosystem. Let everything grow and everything will grow. The only thing humans can and should do is to minimize our intervention. We can protect the seeds of the trees, shrubs, and vegetables that we want to grow. We can disrupt nature a little bit to favor the growth of the things we want to grow. Everything else is determined by nature.
and the media keep telling us we will have to chop up the trees to make room for agriculture to feed the the future generation, when all we have to do is change how we do things.
Oh yea i forget change is hard and people dont want the hard stuff.
Thank you
Nice, Thank you !:)