posted 12 years ago
I'm working with a friend to help to develop a demonstration of broadscale permaulture/restoration agriculture/keyline design on a small piece of land in relatively flat corn and soy farm land. This is a large conventional family farm, and permission has been given to the son (and probable future heir of the land) to try out his permaculture ideas on 1-3 acres of land. They family will want to see some results, and obtain a marketable yield within the first years. We've talked about subsoiling, planting trees, and running pastured chickens over the land. I've also though subsoiling and planting a hay crop may help obtain a quick yield and build soil.
Im especially interested in the broadscale application of permaculture, but nearly all of my on the ground work has been small urban scale. I have an idea, but im not sure the best way to appeal to farmers. What could be done on a small chunk of conventional farm land that would grab the attention of conventional farmers? The longterm goal would hopefully be to convert the whole farm, but thats not going to happen until theres something fully functional, on the ground, and producing a yield. There are no known commercial farms using these methods in the area and we believe that this might be a critical experiment for the area.