A day in the Life of Blue Lizard Farm

Rodney gives us a preview of what a day in the life of a farmer might entail

I usually try to get up and going, into the office an hour before my crew arrives. It gives me time to check my emails.  Then, just before the crews come, I will head out and kind of assess what needs to be accomplished.

It’s really important that you keep your people busy because they’re costing you money, and you want to be as efficient as you can possibly be with their time. So I go out and I figure out what it is we need to cut what passes need to be watered, make sure there’s nothing being stressed, check for disease, critter problems, whatever may be affecting the crops.

Then, the crews arrive. I get them lined out. We get started washing, cleaning, harvesting, vegetables.

Blue Lizard Farm, Farm Equipment Land Prep

When we first got started, there wasn’t a lot of tools for specialty crop farmers, and we had to kind of adapt as we went along. Now there’s companies out there that are building equipment just for specialty crop producers.

Tractors
Most of your tractor work will be needed at the start of your operation on new ground. If there are other farmers in your area, consider sharing the cost of big equipment.

Rototillers- I have one but have not used it for years. In the beginning, you might need one to help move organic compost into the soil. Once you get your beds set up, I don’t recommend deep tillage any longer. Rototillers tend to disturb too much of the microbiome  and do more harm than good.

A good square shovel. We mostly use it for when we have our our leftover crop residual, when we’re what we call turning the beds and reestablishing and replanting. We rake up into piles and, flat shovel is great for gathering those piles, putting in your barrel and taking it to the compost heap.

Farm Equipment Maintenance and Harvest

Hoss Wheel Hoe
I haven’t really named products, but this has been my friend for since the beginning. We bought it once. I’ve been through two sets of handles, but it is just absolutely essential to get your weeds between your walkways. We used to use it to take out your last crops before we plant the new crop.

Collinear Hoe
The hoe is probably for us, the most important tool we use. This hoe is used for removing weeds around plants. It works really well and edges of hoop houses can be very beneficial. But mostly it really works. There’s lots of dexterity you can get around, plants that you’ve planted and get rid of your weeds.

Soil Testing
Sometimes you need to test your soil on your own. The tools that you have to do that, is really important and with the right p-h means you, are able to make nutrients available to the plants. And so sometimes you’re having problems, but you don’t have time to send off a soil sample

Farm Equipment replanting the next Crop

Sod Cutter
After years of green crop removal with the wheel hoe. I found an old sod cutter for sale. It is like a gas-powered wheel hoe. So after we cut the crop remains, I just let it set and it’ll dry out.  Within a day, by tomorrow, we can rake this up, and we could plant right away.

Lawn Mower
Mowers- A good lawn mower will help speed up clean up for your cut-and-come-again greens.
Plus, if you set the height of your mower just right it resets your plants for a better cut the next round.

Landscape Rake
A good rake is important for cleaning up crop residuals so you can get your beds ready for the next planting.

Broadfork
Over time soils will become compacted. Broadforks break up the compaction without turning over the soil.