As we know, farmers rotating crops is a good idea, as is leaving the field unplanted for a season or so.
So what’s the story with grass? There’s got to be hundreds of thousands of places around the planet that have only had grass on them and for centuries at a time.

Spiny Norman said:

As we know, farmers rotating crops is a good idea, as is leaving the field unplanted for a season or so.
So what’s the story with grass? There’s got to be hundreds of thousands of places around the planet that have only had grass on them and for centuries at a time.

The grass growers rotate locations in the hope of not getting caught.

Rotation of crops is when you are pulling the guts out of the ground by harvesting and removing.

Harvesting of grasses is usually done by herbivores or lawnmowers and they largely drop it back where it came from.

Spiny Norman said:

As we know, farmers rotating crops is a good idea, as is leaving the field unplanted for a season or so.
So what’s the story with grass? There’s got to be hundreds of thousands of places around the planet that have only had grass on them and for centuries at a time.

Perhaps it comes down to no reason to as the grass isn’t useful for much unlike food crops (bar animal fodder)

Spiny Norman said:

As we know, farmers rotating crops is a good idea, as is leaving the field unplanted for a season or so.
So what’s the story with grass? There’s got to be hundreds of thousands of places around the planet that have only had grass on them and for centuries at a time.

Well right, and grasslands are not very productive. Farmers want land that will have high productivity over the long term.

dv said:

Spiny Norman said:

As we know, farmers rotating crops is a good idea, as is leaving the field unplanted for a season or so.
So what’s the story with grass? There’s got to be hundreds of thousands of places around the planet that have only had grass on them and for centuries at a time.

Well right, and grasslands are not very productive. Farmers want land that will have high productivity over the long term.

Tell that to the Amazon rainforest slash and burners.

Cymek said:

Spiny Norman said:

As we know, farmers rotating crops is a good idea, as is leaving the field unplanted for a season or so.
So what’s the story with grass? There’s got to be hundreds of thousands of places around the planet that have only had grass on them and for centuries at a time.

Perhaps it comes down to no reason to as the grass isn’t useful for much unlike food crops (bar animal fodder)

Native grasslands are generally well adapted to conditions. Planted pastures are usually best in their 2nd and 3rd years, like most perennials, and are usually stuffed after 15 or 20 unless there is some leaving the fields to seed out or oversowing. Also good pastures usually have clovers or vetches, some nitrogen fixing plants in the mix.

roughbarked said:

dv said:

Spiny Norman said:

As we know, farmers rotating crops is a good idea, as is leaving the field unplanted for a season or so.
So what’s the story with grass? There’s got to be hundreds of thousands of places around the planet that have only had grass on them and for centuries at a time.

Well right, and grasslands are not very productive. Farmers want land that will have high productivity over the long term.

Tell that to the Amazon rainforest slash and burners.

oh I will

Spiny Norman said:

As we know, farmers rotating crops is a good idea, as is leaving the field unplanted for a season or so.
So what’s the story with grass? There’s got to be hundreds of thousands of places around the planet that have only had grass on them and for centuries at a time.

Grasslands are most productive when they are grazed periodically. The grass is digested and the nutrients recycled by way of the poo and piss these herbivores produce.

There is a new(ish) farming fad around which tries to simulate short but heavy grazing activity patterns of large herds as found in the wild. It is somewhat controversial but seems to have its followers, who reckon the process is much more productive than long grazing in the same paddock.

generally a feed legume is encouraged, medic/clover, and other things whatever break crops, makes it easier to get consistency across whatever area, gets the nitrogen in, you spray the unwanted plant types out that carry or promote bad things in the soil or grow on whatever, good sheep feed clover, make hay too, and the bur (seed) persists way after the other feed has gone, sheep look for that, in fact they be looking for it now and over the next few months, when that starts to disappear they turn stones over and look under them

there was a time some people might fallow a paddock, couple a plows behind the tractors turn the green feed over and in, which takes some pulling, i’ve done quite a bit of that, uses quite a lot of fuel plus wear and tear on equipment, and time, how is a man suppose to afford a holiday or get time off if he’s fallowing unnecessarily. Generally this part of world they don’t loosen the soil too much, try to leave some cover, so doesn’t blow away

To put some numbers of it, grasslands have a productivity of about 5 tonnes per hectare per year. Potato farms average around 20 tonnes per hectare per year.

transition said:

generally a feed legume is encouraged, medic/clover, and other things whatever break crops, makes it easier to get consistency across whatever area, gets the nitrogen in, you spray the unwanted plant types out that carry or promote bad things in the soil or grow on whatever, good sheep feed clover, make hay too, and the bur (seed) persists way after the other feed has gone, sheep look for that, in fact they be looking for it now and over the next few months, when that starts to disappear they turn stones over and look under them

there was a time some people might fallow a paddock, couple a plows behind the tractors turn the green feed over and in, which takes some pulling, i’ve done quite a bit of that, uses quite a lot of fuel plus wear and tear on equipment, and time, how is a man suppose to afford a holiday or get time off if he’s fallowing unnecessarily. Generally this part of world they don’t loosen the soil too much, try to leave some cover, so doesn’t blow away

The oceans should have fallow year(s) give them some time to recover

dv said:

To put some numbers of it, grasslands have a productivity of about 5 tonnes per hectare per year. Potato farms average around 20 tonnes per hectare per year.

Five tonnes of beef?

A typical cycle of rotating crops might go:

Cycle 1 Cash Crops – the crop the farmer makes their money from and which take nitrogen from the soil.
Cycle 2 Cover Crops – something like grass, which prevents erosion but doesn’t support the animal pests and such that enjoy eating the cash crop.
Cycle 3 3 Green manures – something like legumes which adds nitrogen to the soil

Wild grass exists in a balanced ecosystem which sustains it’s perpetual growth, but an ecosystem is disadvantageous whilst growing crops so we do not allow the fields of crops to develop such an ecosystem and have to compensate for the missing good stuff through artificial means like crop rotation.

roughbarked said:

dv said:

To put some numbers of it, grasslands have a productivity of about 5 tonnes per hectare per year. Potato farms average around 20 tonnes per hectare per year.

Five tonnes of beef?

Grass

party_pants said:

Spiny Norman said:

As we know, farmers rotating crops is a good idea, as is leaving the field unplanted for a season or so.
So what’s the story with grass? There’s got to be hundreds of thousands of places around the planet that have only had grass on them and for centuries at a time.

Grasslands are most productive when they are grazed periodically. The grass is digested and the nutrients recycled by way of the poo and piss these herbivores produce.

There is a new(ish) farming fad around which tries to simulate short but heavy grazing activity patterns of large herds as found in the wild. It is somewhat controversial but seems to have its followers, who reckon the process is much more productive than long grazing in the same paddock.

I went to a course advocating cell grazing when I was in my twenties – probably 1980.

Michael V said:

party_pants said:

Spiny Norman said:

As we know, farmers rotating crops is a good idea, as is leaving the field unplanted for a season or so.
So what’s the story with grass? There’s got to be hundreds of thousands of places around the planet that have only had grass on them and for centuries at a time.

Grasslands are most productive when they are grazed periodically. The grass is digested and the nutrients recycled by way of the poo and piss these herbivores produce.

There is a new(ish) farming fad around which tries to simulate short but heavy grazing activity patterns of large herds as found in the wild. It is somewhat controversial but seems to have its followers, who reckon the process is much more productive than long grazing in the same paddock.

I went to a course advocating cell grazing when I was in my twenties – probably 1980.

I learnt about strip grazing when I was in primary school, so 1960s…as far as I know, it’s still in use.

When land is limited, it is common practise to leave paddocks to recover before moving stock onto them. A number of sheep or cattle will trample and spoil the grass not giving it time to recover, therefore to keep them confined to a smaller area permits other areas to regrow to produce a better crop of grass.