View Full Version : Farmers.......why do they hate trees so much?
Actually, I know why......because they take up ground that can be used over and over and over to make money.
I'm frustrated. We live in farm country, but are not farmers. We're letting our 35 acres "just be itself". We fought invasives for many years but have given up. The world is changing.....and so is our natural environment. So........if you can't be with the one you love, love the one you're with!
Our invasives give so much habitat for lots of animals. And all our weeds provide a lot of food. The downed trees provide shelter and also bugs/worms for many birds.
Our neighbor farmer has gotten into "composting". He's made a big production of it. I thought it was cool, until he told me he has certain stuff shipped in from Utah. WTH? Anyhow.......at the back of our property, which borders his, there was a perpendicular row of trees....several hundred feet long....all the way to the road. It used to separate the last farmer's land from the other farmer's. But our neighbor bought the other field. So I can understand that maybe he's tired of having to go out to the road to get to his other field, but it's unfortunate that he's cutting them all down............and then burning everything. Why couldn't he have shredded the wood for his huge compost endeavor? It makes me sad that farmers seem to find trees so offensive. We have paths through our property that go right up to the area that he's cutting down. It was always a lovely area and the animals and birds loved it. I'm angry. I'm angry that so many people think there's no room for anything that gets in their way........no matter how important it is to the health of the planet.
The world is getting to be too much for me. Sorry.........just had to whine a bit.
Rant away. That type of thing drives me crazy, too. I've been known to be the crazy lady who goes out to interrogate the Public Works people cutting down trees in the park adjacent to my property--I realize they probably needed to be cut down (at least that's what they told me) but I get so suspicious that some mothers in the park will b*tch about acorns hitting their kids on the head and the Township will bend over backwards to appease them.
A real good farm would have more polyculture, including habitats for pollinators, IMHO.
Did you talk to him about it?
What kind of farm is he operating? Around here, most people integrate woodlot management into their farming practices, and also leavc forested areas in some of the watershed to protect against erosion and keep the streams viable for the fish.
I can imagine though a guy doing monoculture with big machinery might want the simplest-possible layout. Especially if he's trying not to go bankrupt.
Around here, I clear all invasives from my land, farmland or otherwise, as it is required by the county. If I don't, I get fined and they send out a control team, at my expense, to deal with the situation. I'm fine with this - many of the invasives would impose externalities upon my neighbors without their consent.
iris lilies
1-22-16, 5:21pm
I am from Iowa and I hate damn trees when there are in my way. I never considered that my Iowa farm heritage accounted for that.
Trees are fine when they live where Imwant them to live.
Weve lived here 26 years and the trees we planted back then are in various stages of decline. They will not be replaced. We are worked ng with the city to cut one of them, the other one pn our property is an ash and will soon get ash borer, so it is comi g down.
More sunsh e for the lilies!!!!!
The Storyteller
1-22-16, 5:51pm
Wooded areas can actually be good for farming. Pigs and goats both do well there, since many pig breeds sunburn easily. Goats like the forage (prefer it, in fact) and forests are great rooting areas for pigs.
Wish I had a few on my farm.
No, even though this guy seems to be concerned to do things more "naturally", he really has no trees....except that line the creek and are out of his way. It's funny.......I read an article he had written about his using no-till, and using cover crops, and now he's making compost and he said "I'm even seeing more bees and butterflies". And I felt like telling him.........Hmmmm.........maybe it's because you live next to us, who let tons of milkweed and other "weeds" grow." I used to think I had a lot in common with farmers, and then realized......I don't!
You're right catherine.........polycultures are needed......but very few seem to understand that.
Bae........there's absolutely no way of getting on top of the invasive bush honeysuckle anymore. It's everywhere now. I had the township's something-or-other come by several years ago and tell us we had to get rid of our thistle, or they would come in and spray it. Fortunately, once you mow that, it gets rid of most of it. But.........the bees and insects love the blossoms, and the goldfinch wait to build their nests until they can use the thistle's down.
But people don't realize that this planet isn't for just them.........and we need all the things that we are destroying to keep it balanced.
Storyteller........he has one of those confined-in-a-building hog operations.......so hey.......he doesn't need trees. :(
The Storyteller
1-22-16, 6:47pm
Storyteller........he has one of those confined-in-a-building hog operations.......so hey.......he doesn't need trees. :(
Then he isn't doing it right. Gently point him the direction of Polyface farm. He could make a lot more money with humanely raised, pastured pork and selling direct. :)
Depends on the farmer. I planted 250 trees on my 56 acres, and nurtured those present when I bought the place. Farmers are not an homogenous entity. There are many farmers who love trees, many farmers who raise woodland pigs and poultry, many farmers who rely on trees for shelter for their cattle. It's unfortunate that your neighbour is a fencerow to fencerow type, and that he doesn't understand the benefits that trees bring to watersheds, but that's his personal ignorance and not a marker of all farmers. I remember a new neighbour coming to visit, and telling me proudly how he had personally lifted every rock on his acres and sprayed in ant poison. He was frankly jealous of the birds and butterflies on my property, and it was hard for me to explain gently just what he had done.
Storyteller........he has one of those confined-in-a-building hog operations...... :(
Ah, well, then, there's your problem right there.
I grew up on and around farms. We used the trees as wind protection, boundaries for different parts of the land, great place for nature to let wild animals live and every kid needs a tree house or somewhere to play. I am strong believer they offer nutrients and ya know, that whole cleaning the air thing, to this planet.
I live in the Pacific Northwest. I love trees, but I am tired of the big fir trees being on people's lots in towns. I love big firs out in the woods, but on city lots they are so huge and dominating.
I would love to have some meadows and some forest. People marvel at our trees, and they are indeed marvellous, but a little space wouldn't go amiss.
Teacher Terry
1-23-16, 2:25pm
Grew up in Wis with lots of trees and love them. WE protect our trees unless they become a hazard. Too bad that farmer is cutting them down. When I lived in Kansas there were not a lot of trees and i missed them.
ToomuchStuff
1-23-16, 5:01pm
There have been a few farms around here, where they let the tree's grow, then cut them down after so many years (or let you cut them down). They are called Christmas tree farms.
Not all farms are the same.
There have been a few farms around here, where they let the tree's grow, then cut them down after so many years (or let you cut them down). They are called Christmas tree farms.
Not all farms are the same.
I have about 2 acres I devote entirely to trees that will heat my home.
Teacher Terry
1-23-16, 5:08pm
When we lived in upstate NY we would find trees that had fallen on public land and you were allowed to take them for firewood which we did. We had a wood stove that we mostly used instead of our furnace but you could not cut any trees down.
Here in Glorious Socialist People's Republic of Minnesota ;) -- or at least in the Twin Cities metro -- developers are required in their plans to work around as many existing trees as possible and must plant new trees if they have to raze healthy trees. Even outstate there are encouragements/restrictions on tree use as windbreaks and preventers of soil erosion.
I grew up in farm land, South Dakota to be exact. We love our few trees out here on the wind blown prairie. I have lived many other places and trees aren't valued as they are in SD.
Its not just a matter of driving the tractor around the trunk of a tree. When it comes to modern, mono-crop farms we have to remember that most of those single crops don't do well in shade. On top of that, trees in an individual setting use a lot of nitrogen and transpire a lot of water. Both of those are essential to field crops. We can discuss the horrors of that type of farming all day, but the simple truth is that big ag has done a great job of locking most farmers into that system. Using that criteria the only conclusion is that a tree is nothing more than a very large weed that threatens profits and therefore must be eliminated.
We bought an interest in a few acres some years ago. Its planted with 72 walnut trees that are now ~50 years old. The crop is sold every year to a fellow that does all the harvesting, processing, marketing, etc. If you look at what he grosses from the crop the income is somewhere in the range of 30x what it would be if the land was planted in corn. It was even close to 10x a few years ago when corn prices went through the roof. Granted, its a small piece of ground and there is no way it would make sense to scale up to a 3,000 acre walnut crop, but it could be a viable alternative for a few tree loving farmers if we ever return to smaller farm operations. Also worth noting, its not a certified organic plot because we won't pay for the designation and because its an island surrounded by farms that spray everything, all the time, but we have never done any form of chemical intervention and have never had to irrigate this crop. That lack of chemicals, labor and water contributes directly to the bottom line.
I grew up in farm land, South Dakota to be exact. We love our few trees out here on the wind blown prairie. I have lived many other places and trees aren't valued as they are in SD.
Nebraska sandhills boy here. I know exactly what you mean.
Yes, I was quite stunned when I first met people who willingly cut down trees, the only trees I had known to be cut down where ones that simply could not be saved, and then it was a sad moment.
Cutting down trees, many times, shows people's lack of awareness of our connectedness to everything.
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