Building Efficiencies Into Your Farm
I love to farm, but I am also happy when the day is over and I can have some time for other pursuits. I try really hard to keep a schedule, and quit for the day at a certain time. Granted, it has to bend some days. Spring is tough--there’s always too much to do. But I think there are some ways to make the time spent each day go farther. It's that whole work smarter—not harder—thing. Kate and I had worked on a few different farms before we started ours. They varied from small, intensive market gardens where the bulk of the work was done by hand, to a larger wholesale truck farm that was fairly mechanized. When we started to develop our farm, we knew that we would be on the smaller size, but still wanted to incorporate some of the efficiency of scale into our operation. (We had seen how running full-force all the time was a recipe for burn-out and we wanted to figure out a way to keep our lives at least sort of balanced as farmers.)
The winter is a great time to think through processes on your farm and see where improvements in efficiency can be made. We have three main areas of work on the farm; the greenhouse, the field, and the barn. I am always thinking of how the work flows in each one of these areas and trying to improve how the work gets done. Winter is also the time of year to make tools; I find that waiting until the spring is too late for me. As soon as the season hits, there’s little time to make big changes.
I am always looking for ways of improving efficiencies on our farm. These are a few of the things that I have done at my place that have really made a difference:
Efficiencies in the Greenhouse
Customize to Fit Your Needs. We grow a lot of transplants for sale in the spring. I love being in the greenhouse, surrounded by young plants knowing that they will go to people’s gardens to grow food. Filling all the trays of six packs with potting soil is not something that I particularly love, however. Our previous method involved shoveling potting soil into the trays out of a bulk bin. While visiting a larger greenhouse operation, I coveted his automated pot filler. It was too big for me though, and at $4,000.00, it was out of my budget. It occurred to me that the real job the filler did was the lifting. I built a bin out of pallets that holds a yard of soil and has slats as the front-facing side. The bin sits on top of a stack of pallets. I built a tray mounted on 2x4s that is held in place by sliding the 2x4s into a pallet below the bin at any height. I pull the slats out as I need more soil, and let gravity do a lot of the work for me as I rake the soil into the flats. It saves both time and our backs.
Small Improvements to Save Time. We have a hose trolley that allows us to move the hose over the plants. It saves tripping over the hose, as well as the time untangling it when it invariably gets tangled on the floor. It’s also a lot cleaner, because the hose isn’t being dragged around on the floor. They are available as kits from greenhouse supply companies, but are also easily fabricated from hardware store parts. My greenhouse is 22’ wide, and one run allows me to get to all the corners of the greenhouse. Super handy, and I can’t imagine not having it.
Always Look for Ways to Improve. These days our weakest point of efficiency in the greenhouse is how we move plants. Right now we carry flats from inside to out and around, and then back into the cold frame to harden off. My project this winter is to build a trolley system that will move as many as 12 flats at a time. My hope is to put it together with some spare parts that I have accumulated over the years of having greenhouses.
Efficiencies in the Field & Barn
Do-It-Yourself: Simple and Cheap Tools. One of my favorite tools is our dibbler (you can find the story here). Every farm that transplants by hand should have one of these tools. They are easy to make, and the time they save both in planting and ultimately in cultivating, especially when done by hand, is profound. Having consistent and accurate spacing allows for better planning, quick strokes with a hoe, promotes good airflow, and results in less culls. It’s one of my favorite tools.
A Stitch in Time. We grow all of our onions in cells rather than bulk trays. I start them in 128's with two seeds per cell and transplant them out at 8” spacing in the row. I get the same amount of onions transplanted as if I had planted one plant every 4”, but the cells make getting the plants into the ground incredibly fast. It's true that it takes a little extra time to do the seeding, but it saves more time when I am transplanting, and my extra effort happens at the time of year when I am not slammed with lots of other work. With one person pulling and dropping plants and two people putting them in the ground, we can get 5000 onions in the ground in a morning.
Re-Purpose For a Quick Solution. A few years ago I got a nail pouch at a yard sale, and we quickly turned it into a harvest pouch. Kate made a few more so each person on the crew can have one. They are made out of heavy canvas. There are two pockets for the different sizes of rubber bands, another pouch for a pair of scissors, and one for a small harvest knife. Being able to just grab the harvest pouch in the morning and have everything I need makes getting out to the field in the morning fast—and I know that I haven’t forgotten anything.
Using Labor Efficiently. I am also a big fan of the front-mounted forks for my tractor--they’re a huge labor saver. We harvest winter squash into bins and load them right into the greenhouse, unload potting soil in bins, move the rototiller, carry plants, etc. If it’s heavy, it’s on a pallet which saves on potential injury as well as lots of time.
It’s Good to be Organized. The biggest way to save some time in the barn is to get it organized. By means of full disclosure, I am not, unfortunately, that guy. But I am trying. The time I spend looking for things is probably my weakest point. I have had a full plate the past few years, but I am hoping to lay some groundwork this spring getting things put away and organized in a system that works for our farm. Resources for Ideas and Inspiration There are lots of resources on the internet that are helpful for tinkerers; here are two to get you started:- Healthy Farmers, Healthy Profits Project, a site from the University of Wisconsin, is where I first saw the dibbler. My design works better for me, but their example was a great place to start. They have some other technical sheets on pack-house design and the like. It has a lot of good stuff that can be adapted to your situation.
- Farm Hack is part of the National Young Farmers’ Coalition and has lots of good information written by people smarter than me, who are into making things and then sharing them with other growers. This is one of my favorite sites.
Green manure crops and cover crops are probably the best mulch because they add nitrogen and other nutrients to the soil.
In addition, I garden intensively, layer my crops, and grow anything that will climb UP rather than having it take up ground space. If mini-melons get too heavy I have plenty of clean, worn out panty hose that can be used to tie up and support the melons. Next week I will start winter-sowing of several perennial flowers and cool weather crops. Once they are planted they will be moved outdoors where they will sprout and grow when the weather is warm enough for them.
My raised beds are reserved for perennial crops: asparagus, Jerusalem artichokes, rhubarb, horseradish. The containers range from old blue jeans customized so they grow potatoes in seats, strawberries in the thighs and pot herbs in the lower legs, to a 5' x 10' x 14" packing crate that will hold perennial herbs; from 40 gallon horse troughs which will hold pole beans, melons and cucumbers in rewire cages, to plastic pots bought at Lowe's, from old pots and pans to an old percolator.
http://www.ncbuy.com/flowers/articles/01_10245.html
Squash beetles are attracted to the smell of cucurbits have. For example burpless cucumbers have no problem with squash beetles but no longer have the chemicals needed to repel spider mites which then become the main problem.
I try use the brown boxes without alot of ink. I have been making my garden beds like this for years and it saves alot of work tilling and clearing the area.
A frame of angle iron can be welded together to fit any number of 20x10 seedling flats. 80" x 20" with a brace in the middle will carry 8 flats and is easy for 2 people to handle. I have 40" x 20" frames that I use when I want to move plants myself, they carry 4 flats and are useful for moving plants inside or outside.
If I have a weedy field that I just finished working I will wash the tillage or cultivating equipment before working in a less weedy field, this way I am not transferring weeds seeds to a place that I don't want them.
At a farm that I worked on in the past, we used an old walk behind tractor sickle bar mower to cut garlic stems off. The mower was attached upside down to a pallet and run by an old 1/2 Hp motor and belt. It saved our hands from all the soreness of running a pair of hand pruners for thousands of heads of garlic, but we had to watch out fingers, this is not an OSHA approved device :)
Whenever a seed pack is used up it gets crossed off, and we don't reorder seeds we don't need.
Also, we get endrolls of newsprint from the local newspaper for mulch, it's a lot quicker to unroll down the side of the garden than to use smaller pieces, just don't do it on a windy day.
Another: Save old undershirts and rip into strips to use for staking plants. They are a bit stretchy and work well.
With this mulch, I have cut my weeding time to almost zero, greatly reduced the need to water, and have increased yields of all my vegetables. It really works!
Not everyone lives near the ocean, but most areas have some free or very cheap resource that can be used like this. Chopped leaves, straw, or local agricultural byproducts make great mulches. Even if you live in the suburbs, you can collect your neighbors' raked leaves, shred them, and use them as free mulch. In the city, try thick layers of newspaper or cardboard to block weeds and retain moisture.
Happy gardening!
For us some days, efficiency is going down the path and raiding the prolific fields of generous neighbors.
Just bring a basket and voila. Dinner. Thanks.
All of my paths are first lined with newspaper and then a layer of hay to eliminate weeds. All of my raised beds are covered with a thick mat of hay around the sides, no wood at all. I had virtually no weeding to do after June last year and the soil stayed loose and moist despite the drought because of the hay.
I made my own soil block makers from recycled house hold items (empty vitamin bottle, charlie's soap jar, Rx bottle) and my plants absolutely took off as soon as I put them in the ground. It seems to me that plants in soil blocks don't get root bound like container plants do. When I was pulling the pepper plants this fall I saw the HUGE difference in the root ball between the plants I started myself in soil blocks and the plants from a local organic farm grown in peat pots.
During the season I keep my seed in a small plastic bin with all of the different varieties organized by crop. When I'm heading to the greenhouse I grab the bin knowing all my seed is there. That way when I'm in the greenhouse starting seed I don't have to go back and forth to the house for different seed that I need.
saved time weeding. We have a rainbarrel right in the corner of the garden.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNjirlkb3R0
One of the simplest but best tips I know: Carry something in each hand.
You do have to keep them out of the peas.
When you set out your onions, do you plant the two seedlings together or do you separate them?
Laura
Sweet Morning Farm