2018 Farm Outlook

Page 32 2018 Logan County Farm Outlook Magazine LINCOLN DAILY NEWS Oct. 25, 2018 Going back to our original postulation, not much changes fast in farming, but one thing for sure, crop rotation is a reputable farming practice that has stood the test of time. Growing the same crop in the same place for too many years depletes the soil of certain nutrients. With rotation, a crop that exhausts the soil of one kind of nutrient is followed by a crop that returns the nutrient to the soil. Decisions about rotations may be made in the year prior, season prior, or sometimes at the last minute depending on weather, soil tests and market opportunities. Crop rotation takes time and planning and depends on farm size, climate, market, soil type, and growing practices. Each year the challenge is to rotate crops in a manner to have a profitable farming season. At the same time farmers have to keep in mind equipment rotation and labor capability. The expert farmer considers all these aspects of farming before making the rotation decisions. Alternating crops on Illinois farmland can provide yield increases, erosion control and reduced compaction in fields. Rotating crops over any given plot of land has been an ancient practice of farming dating to BC (Before Christ birth), a long, long time ago. Maybe that should tell us something. In the Old Testament book of Leviticus, chapter 25, the Lord shared some ideas about farming with Moses: It is conceivable that this is where the idea for [2 “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘When you enter the land I am going to give you, the land itself must observe a Sabbath to the Lord. 3 For six years sow your fields, and for six years prune your vineyards and gather their crops. 4 But in the seventh year the land is to have a year of Sabbath rest, a Sabbath to the Lord. Do not sow your fields or prune your vineyards. 5 Do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the grapes of your untended vines. The land is to have a year of rest. :6Whatever the land yields during the Sabbath year will be food for you—for yourself, your male and female servants, and the hired worker and temporary resident who live among you, :7 as well as for your livestock and the wild animals in your land.Whatever the land produces may be eaten. He even goes on later in the chapter to talk about the market: 14 “‘If you sell land to any of your own people or buy land from them, do not take advantage of each other. 15 You are to buy from your own people on the basis of the number of years since the Jubilee. And they are to sell to you on the basis of the number of years left for harvesting crops. 16When the years are many, you are to increase the price, and when the years are few, you are to decrease the price, because what is really being sold to you is the number of crops.]