Scaling up!

I have a small growing area and I'm experimenting with growing a small range of crops that I am adapting to the climate and soil environment here. It's been a challenge (see my simple farming thread for the history) but I am starting to think of 'what next?'. The grains, particularly the black oats, show promise and one ambition would be to grow enough to get our local water mill restored and operational again. It is a tiny overshot wheel mill, very rare survivor, but out of operation for about 30 years - so that would be another project in itself.
Supposing I get a grain landrace I am happy with, and can find land that I can use (the owner of the mill has land which may be negotiable, since they would be happy for the mill to be back in use), would it be practical to scale things up? I can scythe a little (badly) but so far have been doing everything by hand. What are my options for a simple rotation? I currently do legumes -> grains -> potatoes -> roots but don't much fancy digging half an acre of potatoes with a spade! What other options for making the work easier might there be?
Thankyou!

If you mulch them heavily with wood chips, potatoes can be dug with a hand fork or literally pulled out with your fingers (we call it "bandicooting" in these parts). Now I haven't done a wheat, oats, or barley crop in my deep mulch plots yet, but that's where the corn grows and it's doing well. Maybe I need to do a test patch...it's the perfect time to sow winter grains now.

I've been eyeing a Kartoffelhacke for years. You may want to order one of these to speed up your potato harvest:

Kartoffelhacke

This looks like it would make short work of your potato harvest. Especially if you loosened it up first with a broadfork.

A book that's good for grains is "The Organic Grain Grower" by Jack Lazor, residing northeast Vermont. His is an operation that's at one end of the spectrum, but gets to the soil level simply and for a range of grains.
 That scything thing will do two things quickly, how little time it takes to work yourself to your knees and how far you have to go to be competent at scythe sharpening. Been there done that, the answer was buy several JD 30 pull combines, be a good attention to detail mechanic and then let John do the hard part

Small scale combines exist, in a price range around $3000.

You might could find and repair older combines for similar $.

I can harvest, thresh, and clean about 5 pounds per hour of wheat, rye, or barley. If you invite 10 friends for half a day, that's about 200 pounds of grain.

Phil Stevens wrote:If you mulch them heavily with wood chips, potatoes can be dug with a hand fork or literally pulled out with your fingers (we call it "bandicooting" in these parts). Now I haven't done a wheat, oats, or barley crop in my deep mulch plots yet, but that's where the corn grows and it's doing well. Maybe I need to do a test patch...it's the perfect time to sow winter grains now.

Wood chip is not easily available here. Seaweed and bracken are probably a possibility, but a lot of work to gather. However if this is my retirement project maybe I'll have more time, and the mulch will certainly benefit the soil!

E Sager wrote:I've been eyeing a Kartoffelhacke for years.

I've actually got one! I inherited it from a house clearance locally - it's basically a fork with the tines bent through 90 degrees, I expect a good blacksmith could make one from a standard (non stainless) garden fork.
I do like the idea of a broadfork, although as I would be likely be starting from turf (no one really does arable farming here anymore) the thick mulch of Phil's suggestion would possibly be a better bet depending on how compacted the soil is - probably very based on my experience on my own land.

Joseph Lofthouse wrote:Small scale combines exist, in a price range around $3000. You might could find and repair older combines for similar $.

Maybe there are possibilities to rent one?

I can harvest, thresh, and clean about 5 pounds per hour of wheat, rye, or barley. If you invite 10 friends for half a day, that's about 200 pounds of grain.

I like the idea of a harvest party - many hands make light work! The oats are harvested a bit green and allowed to ripen after harvest to avoid grain loss. I might need a drying shed to avoid too much grain spoiling.