3 ms·

The two crops are corn and soybeans. Everything else is decimal dust. I'm not sure how much sense it makes to mix them within a plot, as opposed to mixing them

The two crops are corn and soybeans. Everything else is decimal dust. I'm not sure how much sense it makes to mix them within a plot, as opposed to mixing them by crop rotation. Also, all of the crops have to be herbicide resistant to coexist with corn and beans. Now, for things like veggies, sure.

bryanlarsen 1y ago
It makes a lot of sense to mix corns and beans. Corn is usually more profitable than soybeans, but they are rotated for soil health reasons. If you planted both together you wouldn't have to rotate. Corn & beans are 2 of the "three sisters", the traditional native American agriculture technique.
- analog31 1y ago
  Will the beans get any sun?
  - bryanlarsen 1y ago
    You'd want to grow a shade tolerant bean, like cornfield beans. 80% of soybeans are fed to animals; the pigs won't care what type of bean they get fed.
    - analog31 1y ago
      Indeed, the only variable is yield.
      - bryanlarsen 1y ago
        You're not going to get a full yield of either the corn or the beans, but the corn harvest should be pretty close to a full yield and then the beans are pure bonus.
- HeyLaughingBoy 1y ago
  How would you harvest them separately? Or is the plan to harvest them together and let the combine sort it out?
  - bryanlarsen 1y ago
    They're highly unlikely to be ripe at the same time. The idea is to basically do it the same way the native Americans did, except using robots instead of humans. Which is how gardeners do it today. You regularly walk the field, removing the ripe ears and pods, leaving behind the stalks and unripe ears/pods to check again in a day or two. Then after all the ripe ears/pods are gone you can mulch the stalks.
    - analog31 1y ago
      As I understand it right now, the corn & beans are ready to harvest when the water content falls below a certain threshold, to minimize the cost of drying it. In my region, it's a betting game against the weather. If the right conditions emerge, everybody's trying to harvest everything at once. During this time there's also a crush for the available harvesters, semi trucks, and elevator capacity. All of which rides the ups and downs of prices. The robots could be programmed to manage this process too. Of course we'll need less of these crops, if we all become allergic to beef because of that tick. ;-)
    - HeyLaughingBoy 1y ago
      Sounds energy intensive == expensive.
like_any_other 1y ago
> Also, all of the crops have to be herbicide resistant to coexist with corn and beans. For now. There's already significant R&D on robotic versions of herbicide.
whiplash451 1y ago
> The two crops are corn and soybeans. Well, that's mostly because this was convenient for mass monoculture. We've killed crop diversity as a byproduct, but polyculture could open up opportunities to fix that.
- analog31 1y ago
  The apex monocultures are beef, pork, and chicken.

bryanlarsen 1y ago

It makes a lot of sense to mix corns and beans. Corn is usually more profitable than soybeans, but they are rotated for soil health reasons. If you planted both together you wouldn't have to rotate. Corn & beans are 2 of the "three sisters", the traditional native American agriculture technique.

analog31 1y ago
Will the beans get any sun?
- bryanlarsen 1y ago
  You'd want to grow a shade tolerant bean, like cornfield beans. 80% of soybeans are fed to animals; the pigs won't care what type of bean they get fed.
  - analog31 1y ago
    Indeed, the only variable is yield.
    - bryanlarsen 1y ago
      You're not going to get a full yield of either the corn or the beans, but the corn harvest should be pretty close to a full yield and then the beans are pure bonus.
HeyLaughingBoy 1y ago
How would you harvest them separately? Or is the plan to harvest them together and let the combine sort it out?
- bryanlarsen 1y ago
  They're highly unlikely to be ripe at the same time. The idea is to basically do it the same way the native Americans did, except using robots instead of humans. Which is how gardeners do it today. You regularly walk the field, removing the ripe ears and pods, leaving behind the stalks and unripe ears/pods to check again in a day or two. Then after all the ripe ears/pods are gone you can mulch the stalks.
  - analog31 1y ago
    As I understand it right now, the corn & beans are ready to harvest when the water content falls below a certain threshold, to minimize the cost of drying it. In my region, it's a betting game against the weather. If the right conditions emerge, everybody's trying to harvest everything at once. During this time there's also a crush for the available harvesters, semi trucks, and elevator capacity. All of which rides the ups and downs of prices. The robots could be programmed to manage this process too. Of course we'll need less of these crops, if we all become allergic to beef because of that tick. ;-)
  - HeyLaughingBoy 1y ago
    Sounds energy intensive == expensive.

like_any_other 1y ago

> Also, all of the crops have to be herbicide resistant to coexist with corn and beans. For now. There's already significant R&D on robotic versions of herbicide.

whiplash451 1y ago

> The two crops are corn and soybeans. Well, that's mostly because this was convenient for mass monoculture. We've killed crop diversity as a byproduct, but polyculture could open up opportunities to fix that.

analog31 1y ago
The apex monocultures are beef, pork, and chicken.