The Advantages of Mixed Cropping Farming
Nelson Early was a farmer who actually benefited from the crop rotation programs. He proved his worth by doing crop rotation and he successfully made it worth enjoying. It outlines some of the advantages of using mixed cropping farming since it was easier for him to benefit from the different variety of crops. He was also equipped with spacious hector of the land which was one hundred and twenty after freely leasing two of it t voluntarily. He deduces that the most important thing in farming is capital. This was with reference to the amount of the money which he heavily invested in the farming (Houlbrooke, Paton, Morton, & Littlejohn, 2009). However, sometimes the manuals type of farming could end up failing in most of the times, he concludes that it entirely depends in the amount of the fertilizers which is appropriately being used to earnest the activities of farming. He illustrates some of the key aspects of farming which was incorporated by criterial well-organized plans for farming. The most fundamental approaches which were used by the Nelson were as follows:
- Crop rotation.
This was one of the basic formulated ways of sequentially planting of different types of crops in a certain year over the period of time. Crop rotation not only helps in farming but it also helps to make some of the key decision based on the best-performed crop in a certain field as well as realizing some of the corn crops which are most adapted to grow in a certain field without the aid of fertilizes. More importantly, crop rotation is one of the ways to keep crop pest. This entirely helps the farmer to get rid of specific crop diseases which is associated with a certain crop. It also helps the farmer to control soil erosions. This is true based on the fact that most of the crop exhaust the soil in the manner that they lessen the uppermost part of the soil thus erosion does occur if they are routinely repeated over a certain period of the farming period (Williams et al.,2013).
1.2 reasons for placing crops in the sequences.
The basic reasons for doing crop rotation is due to geographical and prevailing weather condition of a given place. A place with a high amount of rainfall are predominantly routinely being shifted with the crop. However some places with the low amount of rainfall characterized by a given type of plant. That is only plants with a chance of withstanding high temperature and are adapted to grow in the arid are likely to be grown. Being Mr Nelson got a piece of land in one of the most fertile soils he had to routinely shift the crops so that the fertility of the soil to remain constant. This not only helps the crop but it also aids the ability of soil to produce the best types of crops per certain hectors. Furthermore, it also characterized by the aeration of the soil which gives the soil ability to hold more water and also aids the decomposers in the soil to acts uniformly to the soil. However, some of the weeds are incorporated by the certain crop type thus if the plants are alternatively done on the sequence, such kind of the weeds are smothered off (). It also the farmer to determine some of the specific crop diseases which are associated in a given prevailing season thus the farmer can budget for it. Lastly, it also helps the farmer to distinguish the specific amount of the money to be spent in controlling the weeds and amount of the fertilizers which are required to in a given period of time. Nelson tends to do crop rotation in the sequence of the four to five years.
The Importance of Crop Rotation
1.3. Harvesting and sowing dates of the specific crops.
Some of the crops like clovers which required irrigation and many others are timely harvested to avoid the pest and animals which destroyed them. This notably reduces the cost and labour. Some of the cereals crops have fixed dates of the sowing and harvesting, this is so due to precautions on the reductions of the cost and yields of the crops (Moot, Mills, & Pollock, 2010). One of the crops have attained maturity, they are prone to pest and other forms of the diseases which might affect them. Remarkably, most of the planted to be planted are decorated in such a way that they indicate the specific date and time for harvesting that gives the farmer prior knowledge of preparing to harvest before they are affected by the pest which is characterized to attack the crop at the late stage of the development. The date of sowing mostly is considered priority thus help the plant to smother the weeds and also help the farmer to compete for the timely market demand of the consumers. However, some of the crops need to mature well to resist attack by the pest in the store. This simply means that different crops have different stages in maturity (Horrocks et al., 2010).
1.4. Additional management of the crop in a certain period.
Some of the specific types of crops need additional management so that they do well. Some of these activities are the removal of the suckers, thinning of the crops, gapping especially at a time when crops have been planted. Some of these activities aim at helping the farmer to realize good yields and meets some specific demands. In the maize plantation, the farmer should routinely revisit to recheck some of the affected ones which are due to over-application of fertilizers or certain diseases which normally attacks the crops at stages of the development. Some of these activities in cooperates also spraying of the stalk-borers in the lentils plantation. However, most of the additional activities in wheat plantation are thinning and gaping. This helps in the uniform distributions growth and aims at high yielding of the crops. Similarly, the additional management in the rice plantation involves the checking of the canals of the pipes. This greatly helps in reducing the amount of water lost. It also helps the rice to uniformly grow thus avoiding wilting at a given stage of development (Millner, Roskruge, & Dymond, 2013). However, certain activities management involves the use of the fertilizers and also spraying of the crops.
Reasons for Placing Crops in Sequences
1.5. Descriptions of the other crops grown by the Nelson.
Nelson tends to reduce certain types of crops due to the cost of the plantation and problems they intend to bring during and stages of the development. He prioritized on the ryegrass which he vividly described to have less demand in drilling (Wratt, & Smith, 2015). He also described it as having minimum tillage but it is associated with high weeds. It also characterized by the use of too much water thus it gives to much lose to the farmer. He intends to give much attention to the crop which ranges with the low amount of the management. He specifically deduces that he will only consider some of the crops which will have fewer impacts on him in terms of the management and frequently environment-friendly. In the comparisons to other cereal crops, which tends to give poor yield returns. Thus tends to major on one with less demand in terms of the cost (Qiu et al. 2016).
1.6. Importance of the irrigation.
Since relying on the rainfall sometimes may fail the farmer, thus irrigation is the most reliable source of farming. It acts as the supplement of the water when the amount of the rainfall is less as required by the crops. It is considered most important when the farmer prioritized in growing of the forage crops which demands a high amount of the water. Most areas depend entirely on the irrigation thus acts more appropriately in the ride and semi-arid temperament for the plant to survive. However, since the droughty period stands at every year, hence growing certain crops becomes difficult. This may make the farmer switch to an alternative option which is irrigation (Sandhu, Wratten, & Cullen, 2010).
1.71. Gross income generated by the crops.
Crops ha used of the land amount of the used yield price
Red Clover 4 1500 30000
French Lentils 21 40000 100000
Feed Barley 20 50000 200000
Red Lentils 4 8000 21000
Peas 16 47400 2356700
Feed Wheat (QR) 21 30000 600000
Feed Wheat (STUW) 18 43990 6782000
White Clover 16 27000 700000
Freed wheat 2 1300 27000
TOTAL 124 249190 10,816,700
PROFIT IN 124 ha = 10,816,700- 249190 = 10,567,510
PER I Ha= 10,567,510/124=85,221.8584/-.
Conclusion
As it is described above some of the factors which determined the choice preference of the crops over the other depends on the prevailing weather conditions. However, some are also considered due to their adaptability. Plant rotation stands a chance to have impacts nearly all types of crops. This is based on the preference and incorporations of the field pest which normally associates with certain varieties of the crops. As it deduces above in the calculation of the gross income, it clearly demonstrates certain yields of the specific crops and how best they show in terms of the distribution in the field. Finally, as it stands, various crops have specific factors which hindered their growth. Some are general while others are specific depending on the prevailing weather condition.
References
Horrocks, A., Davidson, M. M., Teulon, D. A. J., & Horne, P. A. (2010). Demonstrating an integrated pest management strategy in autumn-sown wheat to arable farmers. New Zealand Plant Protection, 63, 47-54.
Houlbrooke, D. J., Paton, R. J., Morton, J. D., & Littlejohn, R. P. (2009). Soil quality and plant yield under dryland and irrigated winter forage crops grazed by sheep or cattle. Soil Research, 47(5), 470-477.
Miller, J. P., Roskruge, N. R., & Dymond, J. R. (2013). The New Zealand arable industry. Ecosystem services in New Zealand: conditions and trends, 102-114.
Moot, D. J., Mills, A., & Pollock, K. M. (2010). Natural resources for Canterbury agriculture. In Proceedings of the New Zealand Grassland Association (Vol. 72).
Qiu, W., Curtin, D., Johnstone, P., Beare, M., & Hernandez-Ramirez, G. (2016). Small-Scale Spatial Variability of Plant Nutrients and Soil Organic Matter: An Arable Cropping Case Study. Communications in soil science and plant analysis, 47(19), 2189-2199.
Sandhu, H. S., Wratten, S. D., & Cullen, R. (2010). The role of supporting ecosystem services in conventional and organic arable farmland. Ecological Complexity, 7(3), 302-310.
Williams, R., Brown, H. E., Dunbier, M., Edmeades, D., Hill, R., Metherell, A., … & Thorburn, P. (2013). A critical examination of the role of OVERSEER® in modelling nitrate losses from arable crops. Occasional Report, (26), 8.
Wratt, G. S., & Smith, H. C. (2015). Plant Breeding in New Zealand. Butterworth-Heinemann.
Order an Essay Now & Get These Features For Free:
Turnitin Report
Formatting
Title Page
Citation
Outline
