Farmscale Permaculture

A few years ago I attended a Farmscale Permaculture workshop at the MOSES Organic Farming Conference in LaCrosse. This was a great opportunity to try visual note taking, as the subject really lent itself to that format.

Enjoy!

Ecology and Economy need to work together in a farmscale permaculture model. Permaculture comes from permanent culture, which is a bit of an oxymoron. Culture is not permanent. Nature is ever changing. Permaculture design starts with concepts, then strategies, then techniques, then materials. Surplus from this system in reinvested into care of the earth and care of the people. Farmscale permaculture needs to pay it's way to be sustainable.

A ven diagram showing how care for the earth, care for the people, and fair share of surplus is used to reinvest and build the system. Elements of good design 1) relative location, 2) elements perform multiple functions, 3) elements supported by multiple elements, 4) energy efficient planning, 5) diversity.

Permaculture design first starts with observation. Look at the patterns, then down to the details. Agroforesty systems include 1) alley cropping, 2) silvopasture, 3) shelterbelts and windbreaks, 4) riparian buffers, hedgerows, 6) forest farming. Silvopasture is 50 percent shade over pasture plus rotational grazing. Forest farming may include woodland medicinals and mushrooms.

Design should include catching and storing energy. Example: storing water higher up on the farm in ponds and tanks. See a problem? The solution is within it. Example: a slope can be an asset for terracing. Hugelculture mounds can be used to slow and direct the flow of water in a landscape. Pile up dead wood in rows and cover with soil. This is known as the Holzer method.

Where is the heart of your landscape? Where is the circulation of energy, movement, materials, water? Factors that affect farm design are on a continuum from least changeable and most permanent to readily changeable and easily changed. Things like climate, landform, flow of water, and legal issues are the hardest to change and take a long time. Things like building and infrastructure, soil fertility, and aesthetics can change relatively quickly in the least amount of time.

Utilize plant materials that will grow to various heights. Large trees, small trees, shrubs, brambles, with vines and grasses in between. All of these bear fruits or nuts. Plan for resilience with different species and different varieties. Yet don't go overboard on gringing in too many species. It will become a management headache.

Recognize the tradeoff between money and time. There's no one right answer to balancing cost against profit - you have to decide what you're comfort level is. Example: less feed costs and inputs and very nice, but will likely have a longer finish time to a final product. When you're at the point of seeing grant or loan money use the term AGROFORESTRY instead of permaculture. Permaculture still has a woo woo perception and lenders will stay away. Look at how to potentially maximize the profit on your product through value chain assessment. Selling your product fresh and quickly versus increasing your market time with refrigeration, drying, canning, fermentation, preservation, etc.

New crop considerations. Look at the opportunity matrix a niche product versus commodities with established markets. Niche products usually have small markets and a high dollar per acre value. Whereas commodities can be easily sold in many locations, but you take whatever price they're selling at with no bargaining. Assessing the possible growth opportunities of a new product is also critical. Direct Marketing offers four to ten times higher profit margins over wholesale, plus a potential for pre-sales. But may involve extra parketing and processing. What's the trade off? Reference to coppiceagroforestry.com. Pictures of coppicing and pollarding.