I am not a farmer; and anyone who knows me knows that to be true.  I couldn’t keep a green thing alive for any length of time if my life depended on it.  Heck, most of the time I would forget that I even owned any plants, and would never water them.  My wife can attest to that since she always left plants in my apartment when she was still in college; the only time they ever got watered was when she did it.  So, after sharing that, all of you know that I am not a plant expert and I’m definitely not a farming expert.

I thought I knew one thing, though:  that farmer’s normally rotate crops.   Usually if the field is planted with beans one year, then the next year it will be planted with corn.  And if the field is planted with corn this year, then more than likely it will be planted with beans the next year.  I thought that was the rule.  Apparently I was wrong, though.

After Jeff and I got done checking on our treestands the other night, we drove around the backside of the property to see what crop was planted this year…….and it was beans….for the third year in a row.  I thought that was odd since I knew some of the benefits to crop rotation – improved soil structure, improved soil fertility, pest control – but the evidence was right there in front of us that not all farmers believe in crop rotation.

With my interest peeked I started to check around to try and figure out what the reasons were behind this farmer’s decision.  Apparently, monoculture – the process of planting the same crop in the same place over an over – does have some advantages according to Encyclopedia Britannica:

First, if different kinds of soil exist on the farm, a monoculture system may permit each crop to be grown on the soil best suited to it. Forage crops, for example, could be confined to steep land to minimize erosion; intertilled crops could be planted on the better soils with gentle slopes. Wet areas could be used continuously for crops not requiring early-spring field operations, while dry soils could be used for drought-resistant crops such as sorghums or winter small grains.

Second, the fertility level of the soil can be adjusted to fit one crop more precisely than it can be adjusted to fit all the crops in a rotation.

Third, where continuous cropping is practiced and perennial forage crops are used, regular reseedings are avoided. This is an advantage, because each seeding is accompanied by the possibility of failure.

Fourth, systems based on monoculture usually offer greater flexibility in planning the system to meet year to year changes in the need for various crops. Part of the acreage can be shifted from one crop to another without upsetting the total farm cropping plan.

Whatever the reasoning behind the farmer planting beans three years in a row, Jeff isn’t very happy about it.  I don’t think it will affect the deer movement in our area much, but it would be nice to see a different crop in that field next year; it would be interesting to see if having corn planted there really affected the deer movement patterns at all.

This year we just have to get used to the beans…..again…..and move on with our lives.  And my light research into the subject at least proves that the farmer knows more than Jeff or I ever could about his own land.

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