Page 25 - MNLGA Free State Winter 2025

IT'S TIME FOR SHARING A Jerry Faulring

COMPOST:

Still the

Black

Gold of

Agriculture

Compost windrows in production
I sustainable systems, such as the After WWII, synthetic fertilizers and
first wrote about compost in 2008,
17 years ago. It was the beginning
"Farmers of Forty Centuries" in
pest control chemicals became the
of my journey into the world of
as early as 2000 BCE using these
organics and their impact on our China, kept fields productive since mainstay of agriculture.
In recent times, organic food
field production nursery. This article methods. George Washington built
production has been revived
reflects updated information from a compost ‘pit’ at Mount Vernon.
enormously through the use of
experience and understanding. Before WWII, farmers mostly relied
organics.
on organics; ammonium nitrate was
I have learned much since we A study published in the journal,
invented for munitions. You may
started using compost purchased Peer Life and Environment, reported
be familiar with Seabrook Farms in
in 2005. That decision was driven by the results of a "two-year field
New Jersey during the first half of the
winter injury to many of our plants; experiment" comparing crop yields
1900’s. Charles Seabook shipped
I suspected that even low rates of from crops treated with one of three
fresh vegetables from his 2,000-acre
synthetic fertilizer delivered through organic fertilizers: rapeseed meal,
farm to Philadelphia and New York
drip tubes were causing the problem. cow manure, and soybean meal. To
City. New York City produced one
We stopped using synthetic fertilizer contrast their yields, the researchers
million pounds of horse manure per
in 2000 and by 2003 winter injury tended to crops not treated with
day prior to the widespread use of
was a thing of the past. Even today, organic fertilizers. Their findings were
automobiles and trucks. Seabrook
with some severe winter weather we compelling.
back-hauled horse manure for use
do not see injury.
at the farm and greatly increased Of the three, crops treated with
Using organics for agricultural productivity. rapeseed meal showed a 161% yield
production is not new. Highly
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