Alabama agriculture - Alabama

Victory garden - Graham Leader

17.04.09

When the crop came in that year, I had enough greenery to fill a large tub and one small tomato which had been on the plant when I purchased it from Wal-Mart. With the money, I could have bought enough tomatoes to fill a fairly large truck. I could have sold them to Hunt Ketchup Company. I think I would even have qualified for one of those tomato throwing contests in Italy … if they still have them.
Since that time, grass has grown over the old garden. Dogs have trod upon that soil and left untold number of chewed rubber toys and other "gifts." I’ve tried other planting spots, to no avail. I just have no garden-able spot in my yard. There is a tiny spot in the front of my house that gets about four hours of sunlight, and it’s covered with asphalt.
So, I’ve given up on large-scale agricultural projects. I have managed to grow a few shade-happy plants. If the trees leaf out slowly, I get a few roses off that bush in the front yard. If it doesn’t freeze too late, my japonica blooms

Source: Graham Leader, TX

Need horse hay in north Alabama area? Group of horse owners getting desperate!?

Jun 26, 2007 by MoonStarsandRoses | Posted in Horses

Hi all !

If you have noticed, Alabama is in severe drought. The farmers have fields of dust!

I've looked for good, clean, fertilized hay for over a month. My usual suppliers are getting less than half their normal cut - one cut so far ! They all have lists of 15 - 30 !

I've found bales of hay in AR, OK, TX etc, but the freight is about $1.50 to $2.00 a mile - one way.

Today, I called the Alabama Agriculture Drought Committee and left a message with a secretary. People are getting rid of their cattle if they have no other recourse.

There are groups of us going in together. We need burmuda, burmuda/orchard mix (maybe even some fescue in), timothy, timothy mix. We need at least 400 square bales (the normal small rectangle shaped bales). We could also use several round rolls to put in pasture rings.
{ I don't know how to measure the small square bales in tons. }

We're in trouble here, folks!
Can anyone suggest something in AL, TN, GA, KY, MS ?
Thanks for tip, but ........
Along with another 2 couples, I am the one that helps the Humane Society in my area with horses, ponies, donkeys, goats, cows, etc......

We buy extra for the purpose of rescue. I am worried will we have MANY rescues this upcoming year.


The barns needing hay are Southern Cross (mostly AQHA in English, Western, Trail, Dressage), B & W Stables (Am. Saddlebred), JMK Quarter Horses (World Champions in halter),and Hollytree Farm ( I also show Dalmatians under Hollytree Dalmatians.)

We have alfalfa being trucked in. The prices are killing us.

Need more help, please......
Ugh, this is what I thought.

We have alfalfa. There was hay here, but the problem is it is not enough and the grass is not growing. The burmuda and others are turning brown in the field.

One man was cutting hay and watched a fire start out from under another tractor ! -they had water tank on the truck and put it out.

I started garden, but letting some of it go because I can't water it all.

We had a split strawberry crop..... some killed by frost and later variety did well.

Blueberries were heavy damaged by a frost, the blackberries are looking good.

I've still not heard back from AL Farmers Federation or my county exchange officer.

Ya'll keep looking and I'll do the same !!!!!
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Deborah -

You don't allow a e-mail - How can I reach you?.
Can you e-mail me by clicking on to my name ?

We need bales and good, clean hay with no blister beetles. Burmuda, Tifton, timothy, orchard grass, Dallis grass, clover, mixes of these, etc.

NOT PICKY !!!! Just need something we can afford. At $8 total for a bale and we get 1,000 that equals $8,000 !


I have other people looking now. I've talked to Ag. Commissioner and my Senator. They are trying to work with Truckers Associations and seeing what National Guard can do - but Nat'l Guard has been really used in Alabama for Iraq and Afghanistan. Trains raise price 3 x the amount of hay.

Alabama has sold 50,000 more cattle at this point in the year than last year BECAUSE we can't get hay !

Need ROLLS, too !


HELP ! ?

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here is a web site that may help. http://cattletoday.net/ it has a search for products near you using zip code. I have found hay from hear and it usually is a good price. I know how you feel I couldn't find hay a couple of years ago and ended up having it shipped from over 300 miles away. It cost a fortune to ship so i got enough for several years. Good Luck

willard | Jun 28, 2007

What do you think about Obama taxing ranchers per head of cattle for their flatulence and burping?

Feb 28, 2009 by RLP | Posted in Politics

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/12/05/tech/main4651448.shtml

(AP) For farmers, this stinks: Belching and gaseous cows and hogs could start costing them money if the federal government decides to charge fees for air-polluting animals.

"This is one of the most ridiculous things the federal government has tried to do," said Alabama Agriculture Commissioner Ron Sparks, an outspoken opponent of the fees.

He will be taxing my shiftless unemployed 37 yr old son then if thats the case. He lays about all day eatin KFC and drinking Colt 45's and fartin up a terrible storm.

Henrietta Hughes

Henrietta Hughes | Feb 28, 2009

Anybody know anything about crops?

Apr 24, 2008 by Izzy | Posted in Garden & Landscape

Ok I need to know some stuff about agriculture! Like Alabama crops and their average growing season, how their grown and the soil type. You know all that jazz, this is for science class...i hate farming

HERE IS A FEW SITES FOR YOU, HOPE YOU FIND WHAT YOU ARE LOOKING FOR.

GOOD LUCK!

ASK MRS. JAFFY | Apr 24, 2008

A Short History of Alabama Agriculture, 1820-1945

by Dr. Dwayne Cox, University Archivist

From statehood (1819) until the end of World War II, nothing influenced Alabama's economic, social, and political life more than agriculture. Before the Civil War, climate, soil, and market demand fostered cotton cultivation, which brought with it slavery and a paternalistic social order. After the war, white and black tenant farmers replaced slave labor, the price of cotton dropped, and grass-roots agrarian unrest followed. Government and business interests combined to gain control of agricultural policy during the early twentieth century, which they retained through the end of World War II. By that time, mechanization, rural to urban migration, and crop diversification had altered Alabama agriculture, but farm and forest products remained central to the state's economy and those who had an economic interest in them still had a political voice as strong as any.
Extensive white settlement of Alabama followed the War of 1812 and the defeat of the Creek Nation. Most of the settlers came from North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, pushed by land exhausted through the over-cultivation of cotton and drawn by the rich soil of the Tennessee Valley and the Black Belt. They brought with them slave labor and the plantation system, which were readily transplanted in Alabama. Steady demand for cotton made this product the nation's leading export during the first half of the nineteenth century and solidified the planter elite's sense of self-importance. On the eve of the Civil War, however, Alabama was only one generation removed from the frontier and most of the state's farmers owned few, if any, slaves.
After the war, tenant farming replaced slavery as the state's primary source of agricultural labor. This system suited itself to the state and the region's lack of capital. It provided work for landless laborers who knew farming but had no other skills, no means to acquire them, and no money to invest in land and...

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