Monday, August 21, 2023

Residence Farm Truck Insurance policy: A small scale subsistence thriving muck fungi farm is NOT a "commerical business"!

 https://www.iruhl.com/blog/farm-truck-insurance-policies/

 3. Farm Auto Policy

A few farm insurance carriers offer a type of commercial auto policy that is called a farm auto policy. Although these are less common than standard commercial auto policies, they can be an economically viable option for farmers in many cases. Commercial vehicles that are not eligible for a personal auto policy, but are used exclusively in the farming operations offer a reduced risk to insurance companies than their commercial use counterparts.

https://www.eriemutual.com/insights/farm-truck-vs-personal-truck/ 

 If you operate a farm, you already know farm work would be near impossible without access to a reliable truck. It’s used to haul material, water crops, transport workers and is one of the most valuable assets a farmer owns.

A farm truck is a truck used specifically for work on the farm (i.e. hauling materials) and intended to remain on the farm property full time. A personal truck can be used for work on the farm but is also used off the farm for personal trips (i.e. family outings, shopping).

 IS FARM TRUCK INSURANCE CHEAPER THAN PERSONAL TRUCK INSURANCE?

Yes.

 Yes but what if all your shopping is for the farm? I think they mean a farm truck that does not have a normal registration. 

if it’s a true farm truck and not a personal truck that gets used on the farm sometimes, the cost for truck insurance is usually lower.

 When dealing with a farm truck the coverage required is for the actual cash value of the truck itself. Since it’s not taken on public roads there is significantly less liability risk to worry about so the cost to insure the farm truck is almost always less than the cost to insure a personal truck.

 if a farm only has 1 vehicle/truck it cannot be classified as a farm commercial truck because it’s assumed that it is also used for pleasure purposes off the property.

 Farm businesses are farms with annual gross cash farm income (GCFI)—i.e., annual income before expenses—of at least $350,000, or operations with less than $350,000 in annual gross cash farm income but that report farming as the operator's primary occupation. Farm businesses account for slightly more than half of U.S. farms,

 Residence farms: Farms with less than $350,000 in gross cash farm income and where the principal operator is either retired from farming or has a primary occupation other than farming.

  • Intermediate farms: Farms with less than $350,000 in gross cash farm income and a principal operator whose primary occupation is farming.
  • Commercial farms: Farms with $350,000 or more gross cash farm income and nonfamily farms.
  •  
    *Farm businesses are defined as operations with gross cash farm income of more than $350,000 (labeled "commercial")
    A commercial farm must have a minimum of 5 acres, produce agricultural or horticultural products worth $2,500 or more per year, and have annual sales of $5,000 or more.

 https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/farm-economy/farm-household-well-being/glossary/

 , farm residents are those who lived on farms of 1 acre or more in rural areas

 Muck Farming pdf

At the median, household income from farming was $210 in 2021.

  Muck Soils Research Farm in 1941. Paul M. Harmer, MSC muck
soils specialist, was the first director of the farm. By 1945, the Record reported
the muck farm was producing “1,000 bushels an acre in onions, and fantastic
yields of mint, spinach, lettuce, dill, carrots, parsnips, cabbage, and other crops.
Experimental findings by Dr. Harmer have enabled the state’s muck farmers to
convert many acres of mediocre land into high producing soil.”4

 Paul M. Harmer was born to Elizabeth and Herbert Harmer on March 6,
1888, in Dodge Center, Minnesota. Harmer earned his bachelor’s degree
from Carleton College in 1911 and his MS (1915) and PhD (1920) from the
Minnesota College of Agriculture (now the University of Minnesota). As he
worked his way through graduate school, he taught chemistry and physics at
nearby Mankato High School from 1911 to 1913. From 1914 to 1915, he was
an instructor in the Soils Department at the Minnesota College of Agriculture.

 Michigan’s muck farmers had relied too much on specialty
crops (celery, mint, onions), Levin concluded. But a rigorously researched and
“diversified farm management plan” would make muck farming “as safe and
profitable as highland farming.”

https://dnr.wi.gov/files/pdf/pubs/lf/lf0059.pdf 

 In some areas tamarack swamps were drained and the lands used for muck farming....drainage ditches were dug throughout the marsh and
large portions of Beaver Creek were straightened.
Some of the ditching efforts were for farming the muck soils underlying the wetland vegetation.

 https://www.uoguelph.ca/alliance/system/files/UofG_Research_Agri-Food%20Yearbook_2019_Web.pdf

 The soil’s moistness, while promoting
vegetable growth, can also help certain plant
fungi and other organisms thrive,

https://pocofarmlandpres.files.wordpress.com/2016/11/poco-farmland-pres-plan-11-10-16.pdf 

The 1950’s also introduced “muck farming” or the growing of spearmint and peppermint, along with cucumbers as a way to supplement incomes

https://ecos.fws.gov/ServCat/DownloadFile/44433 

  These lands have muck, or organic soils
Maintaining mucklands in agriculture is difficult, requiring constant drainage and wind
barriers, as the rich muck soils are extremely susceptible to erosion from wind (as muck becomes wind borne when dry). In addition, oxidation of the rich organic material and subsidence have substantially reduced the topsoil depth and hence lowered the fertility.

All the more reason to plant the trees into mounds....

Evaluate which newly acquired mucklands could be restored to bottomland hardwood
forest. Control invasive plants and plant native trees and shrubs to reforest the mowed-grass
As forests of deciduous trees closed in over the landscape, previously barren zones offered attractive resources, such as hazelnuts, hickory nuts, butternuts, and some tuberous plants. The innovative subsistence strategies practiced by the people of the Early Archaic led them to adjust their...

http://www.rfcengineering.com/HamLake/SWPPP.pdf 

the hummock sedge, form hummocks that may be accentuated by grazing and frost action. The peat/muck and hummocks are composed of undecayed fibrous roots and rhizomes.
The fertile organic soils associated with sedge meadows have traditionally been used for
muck farming.

 Soils are usually organic (peat/muck) and can vary from nutrient-poor to acid, to fertile
and alkaline or neutral. Tamarack typically dominates on the former soils,

  Tamarack swamps often succeed shrub swamps,..by definition must have
more than 50% cover being tamarack trees... all types of Tamarack Swamp have a mixture of shrubs, forbs and grasses in the understory.
Wet meadows are shallow wetland communities that occur on peat, muck and wet
mineral soils. The water table of wet meadows are typically below the soil surface for
most of the growing season, but soils are saturated enough that standing water occurs
during the spring and after heavy rains.

 

 


 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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