Logical Farm Changes
Farm logic is hard to define and put into use. Before Albert Einstein died, a reporter interviewed him. He decided to ask: Define Logic? Albert Einstein answered with a question: What does Logic mean?
Einstein shared this story. “Two men entered a chimney to clean it. One man comes out with a dirty face, the second comes out with a clean face. Using logic, which man will clean his face?”
The reporter replied quickly, “The man with the dirty face!”
Einstein answered, “NO. You are wrong! The man with the dirty face will look at the man with the clean face and assume his face is clean. He will d
o nothing. The man with the clean face will look at the man with the dirty face and assume his face is dirty, and he will clean, wash and scrub his face, even though it is already clean.”
The reporter thought for a moment, agreed, and said, “That sounds logical!”
Einstein just shook his head and said, “NO! You are wrong again! First, there is nothing logical about two men entering a chimney to clean a chimney. Second, there is nothing logical about one man coming out of a dirty chimney with a clean face and another with a dirty face! Logic on its face can collapse!”
Einstein continued, “Too often we ask flawed questions! If we ask flawed questions, too often we answer with flawed solutions. Put another way: Are we teaching to do wrong better?”
Einstein concluded, “Any fool can know there is a problem but can you understand the problem. Understanding the problem leads to better solutions.”
Looking at the USA farm situation today, USA farmers were number 1 in soybean production until 2024. Brazil is now the number one producer of soybeans at 40% (USA 28%) producing 171 million metric tons of soybeans (USA, 119 MMT). Argentina is third at 12% and 51.1 MMT of soybeans.
Brazil is a low-cost producer and the USA is a high-cost producer. The USA is the producer of last resort. USA uses more fertilizer and pesticides to produce 53 bushel of soybeans per acre on average and has or had better soils but we are losing out due to high cost.
Brazil started out with Oxisols soil, highly weathered worn out sandy soils, that are now transitioning closer to Mollisols soils, better known as dark black prairie soils. Brazil averages 50–55 bushel soybeans per acre, similar to the USA.
How is that possible?
Brazil did not follow the European way of conventional farming by doing tillage. The whole country uses no-till and cover crops. If they did not, they could not farm. They take the minerals and the organic matter in the trees, burn it up (still a waste) but they preserve the minerals which they spread out on the land as their fertilizer. Then they plant a cover crop or put it into pasture for a couple of years before they start planting a crop of soybeans.
All soybeans are no-tilled before a heavy cover crop and they use very little fertilizer or pesticides. If they did not use no-till and cover crops, their soils get so hard and dense, they erode away and their farm is ruined. The same thing happens in the USA, only at a slower rate.
Over 20–30 years, they have changed their soils to become quite productive by using the cover crops to recycle soil minerals and to build soil organic matter to improve water infiltration, drainage, and to store more plant nutrients. They also have the advantage of longer growing seasons and more rainfall (60 inches on average).
Brazil has about 25% of its rain forest converted to farmland, an area the size of all USA farms. They plan to convert another 25% of their forested land to cropland.
It used to take 3 days to transport their product to market. With the help of China, they have now invested money in roads, bridges, ports, trains, and storage; they transport it to export markets on the ocean in one day.
Perhaps, the USA should look at Brazil and look at how we are farming to see how we can do better?
Quoting Albert Einstein, “I hope the majority of people disagree with me! Why? Because if you disagree, logically you have to question yourself and start asking the right questions. If you agree with me, it forces you to look at your own farm management and see how you line up. However, you can lead a horse to water, you can not force it to drink. It still requires action on your part to understand the problem and fix it. Good Luck!”
