I remember being at the state fair and younger attractive lady approached me holding a clip board asking for signatures in opposition to buffer strips along Flowing water ways. I did not sign the petition as I found it ridiculous that farmers were arguing they should be able to pollute our water along with our southern neighbors. During the course of our conversation she said "farmers are the ultimate conservationist" about 3 times.

I keep thinking of that as I drive around and seeing massive destruction caused by farmers. The smaller farmers used to appreciate the Lil patch of woods that held deer, the cattails that held a pheasant or the oaks the Turkeys roosted in. As the farms have grown so has the lack of appreciation for these things and it has hastened their destruction. It's just sad, there's nothing that can really be done and whining may not help but I'm just sad.

I get tired of seeing the black snowdrifts too.

As a farmer I have to say that I agree with you. The larger farms in my area will buldoze every twig. And fill.in every creek to gain a foot of crop land regardless of conservation and often even there own economic intrest.

I hear you. Miss the family farms

There's more usable wildlife habitat in housing divisions than there is on some of these farms.

Drain tiles in the Prairie Pothole Region are the worst thing that ever happened to waterfowl populations. Present day waterfowl counts are at 1.5 million ducks less than the LTA (Long Term Average).

I get wanting to be able to use every acre, but we are exporting 50% of our soybeans, 46% of our wheat, and 20 something percent of our corn. What sense does it make for us to deplete our natural resources only to export half our crop? Seems short sighted to me

Developers and houses are made out to be the bad guy, but I'd bet farming practices have been just as harmful to wildlife over the years

Its been going on around here for over ten years. seems that every small wood lot has to go to make room for crops Clearing the trees along creeks and streams too then they plant grass. the trees that used to keep the banks from eroding are gone.They have declared war on the sinkholes filling them burying the trash that old farmers dumped in them cutting the trees the waterways have had the trees cut too.I guess my question is if this is good land stewardship? hundreds and hundreds of trees have been cut and burned.the loss of habitat that has been lost.

Exactly. Had a neighbor here hire an excavating company to “clean up” the old home place along the river. Was about 20 acres of woods and the old house and barn. All along the river. I pulled in to talk to him about something else as they were burning the piles. He said “my dad would kick my a.. if he was here to see this. I said “then why do it?” He said, Oh, we want to run some cows in here and running cows and fence with all the trees is a pita. His dad had died 2 years earlier. Within 4 years the farmer was broke, bank took all the ground, 1000 acres or so. He moved away, presumably ashamed of peeing away 3 generations of farming.

They can’t help themselves. Even at their own destruction. The big corporate farms don’t care and the little farms wanna look like the big shots.

$8 corn is a trees worst enemy.

Had one big acre farmer tell that tillable land is worth more than all those trees .

One of the big guys bought one of the smaller farms here in town probably 15 years ago now. He immediately cleared all the ground that wasn't already and had a plan to fill in a 3/4 of a mile section of creek so that he could farm over it. It was going to require a 3/4 mile long 6 foot diameter culvert to handle all the water. The only reason he never ended up doing it was because the state conservation department came and shut them down.

Some of the farmers I know are definitely not conservationists or stewards of the land as some of them proclaim to be. Fence lines are torn out. Trees bulldozed, building sites demolished, and miles upon miles of drainage tile being installed. And on top of all that, they get government subsidies too! 

They bought excavators with $8 corn but they ain't letting them sit in the shed with $4 corn.

I farm, I understand the need for production but it's just getting stupid and sad.

I have no problem with most family farms in our area. But, there is a corporate farm nearby that milks 1700 cows. They have massive amounts of liquid manure they haul to the fields. When they haul to the fields they spill liquid manure on the roads which eventually corrodes the tarred roads. They have contaminated some wells in the fields for nearby homeowners causing the homeowner to drill deeper wells which is very costly.

You are correct.

And it's sad that ag has such power in our state legislatures.

Just a bad or maybe worse, depending on how you want to look at it is, an area in MI is planning to clear 400+ acres of state forest to install solar panels.

Bigger is better in government , farming, insurance, banks, corporations of any kind. I'm just guessing but many of the individuals that are driving those bigger is better attitudes all started out with a (not physical) but mindset of low self worth. What some use to call a Napoleon complex. When we feed those short comings with the wrong attitudes we are no longer eating to live, but living to eat.
Some could be blamed on greed, a farmer no longer wants his neighbors wife, but would rather have his land. Doesn't only apply to farmers.

For a quick allegory story. There was a farmer named Mr. Needsmore. Mr. Needsmore was out driving one Saturday looking over his investments to help him get the satisfaction of his self worth. As he drove by his lush pastures and looked at his prosperous cattle herd he could see his oil pumps on the hill side pumping away. As his passed his irrigated corn field he thought, boy am I rich. Soon he came upon a 20 acre plot that was smack-dab in his thousands of acres. It was still a little farm whose owners had refused to sell and had left it to there only son. He thought to himself if he could just get that plot he could clear it off and get rid of the trees so when his big machinery went by he wouldn't get it hung on a limb and maybe tear something up. But he knew the old guy would not sell, still when he looked to house there sat the old man saying grace over his meager meal on his porch. He stopped just to be friendly. After some small talk the old man told Mr. Needsmore that he had a dream that morning that the richest man in the county was going to die tonight. Well Mr. Needsmore assumed the old man was talking about him and it irritated him so he cut the conversation short and left for home. On the way home he dismissed what the old man had said and that the source was just a crazy old man. Then he remembered just a couple years before when the old man predicted a storm and it happened, Mr. Needsmore remembered the incident best because the storm had ravaged his best patch of timber in the bottoms. He thought the old mans dream could become true, so he called his Doctor friend to come out and spend the night with him. They played cards and told jokes all night and as the sun was coming up he told his Doctor friend about the old mans dream and the real reason he wanted him there for the night.
On Sunday morning the Doctor headed for town. Mr. Needsmore was thinking how silly he was to even pay any attention to the old mans dream. Then he looked up and saw the Doctor coming back. He told Mr. Needsmore he needed to use his phone, that he had just found his neighbor dead on his porch.

So there lay the "Richest Man in the County" dead on his porch.

earl butz

So what's stopping you people who want to restrict what other people do with their land from buying land of your own and making it all habitat for wildlife?

Why would a farmer want to leave wildlife habitat, they could otherwise profit off of, to hold animals that will eat their crops, that they count on the profits from selling to live on?

Without incentives, it seems unreasonable to expect people not to do what they want with their own property.

People should be free to use their property as they want to with just a few limitations.

Keith

Do they plow a field to plant or just burn it with chemicals?