notillgrowers

Open full view…

Annual rainfall

farmerjesse
Mon, 01 Jul 2019 09:47:56 GMT

Hey y’all. What is your annual rainfall like and what kind of no-till system are you using. We are primarily using deep compost mulch with an average rainfall of what seems like a million inches (but actually is closer to 50”-70” depend on the year).

David Blanchard
Thu, 04 Jul 2019 09:52:42 GMT

Our long term average precipitation in southwest Nova Scotia is 1400 mm (around 55"). Slightly over halfway through 2019 we're already at 1035 mm, so we could see 2000+ mm this year. This is my 50th growing season working in agriculture, and I have never seen such a wet year. We are farming long and somewhat steep slopes with a lake at the bottom of the hill, and a highly erodible sandy loam soil. The slope and the lake make us very conscious of erosion control and nutrient management, which rules out deep compost mulch, since surface-applied compost is just as erodible as bare soil, and carries a much higher nutrient load. We don't want to see the lake turn green from algae caused by runoff from our farm. The farm is laid out in 4' wide beds running across the slopes, with 2' permanent sod paths between the beds. We try hard to keep the soil covered year-round with either growing plants or a hay or straw mulch. For straw, we like a winter-killed oat and pea cover crop for early spring plantings, or a flail-mowed rye/vetch cover crop for later plantings. The photo shows a recent view from the tractor seat while mowing rye/vetch which is 2' above the tractor hood, about 6 1/2' tall. We made holes with a dibble and transplanted storage cabbage directly into this chopped mulch, which was about 3" deep. We are not a 100% no-till farm, since for small seeded crops we still do some shallow tillage with a spading machine to prepare the seedbed. But we are doing less tillage every year. We bought a mini no-till grain drill this year which fits our 4' beds, and which should allow us to do some direct seeding right through mulch once field conditions improve. Because of the extreme wet this year, it hasn't worked well so far because the coulters just push the mulch down into the mud instead of slicing cleanly through it. Sort of like trying to chop an onion on a pillow instead of a cutting board. But, for the first time this year, there's a week of warm, sunny weather in the forecast, and it's time to plant storage carrots and beets, so hopefully the drill is about to start paying its way. [IMG_6527](//muut.com/u/notillgrowers/s1/:notillgrowers:dHpw:img_6527.jpg.jpg)

sonorapermaculture
Thu, 04 Jul 2019 15:02:58 GMT

were in california sierra nevada mountains so it gets weird depending on the year. three winters ago we had around 100 inches at the farm. two years before that it was 18. this year it was around 60-70. average is supposed to be around 40. were farming deep compost mulch on contour beds. even in the drought years i dry farmed some watermelons to prove a point about what proper rainwater harvesting can do.