>How much would it cut into the profits to leave hedgerows? 

To my knowledge, the main reasons for running large tracts of monoculture are 1. the cost of land and 2. efficiencies made possible by not having to work around obstacles and therefore being able to use larger machinery.

> If the hedgerows provided habitat for pollinators, you might be able to retain adequate pollination, without bringing in honey bees. That would be a huge savings and could more than offset the supposed inefficiency created by having many smaller plots versus huge acreages. 

That is a supposition at this point.  Moreover it does not address the probability of years with low pollinator populations, nor does it address what to do with the bees in the vegetation years unless the rotation is half and half.

Being a believer in the wisdom of existing farmers, I'm wondering why this is not the common practice, other than the possibility that this is essentially free land, at least at the start, making maximizing land use less of a pressure.

>The mono-cropping plan is used extensively in the west where there are vast acreages of flat lands. Many wildlife restoration schemes involve hedgerows, or natural habitats within these areas. In contrast, the region under question already is complex system and you would have to show me the advantage of clear cutting versus more of a patchwork of crops and hedgerows, especially on varied and uneven terrain. 

Well, I am not advocating clear cutting since I know little about the situation and am only looking at what is being done at present in other places and assuming that the stupider ideas have been out-competed.  There are always people willing to try anything and there is no need to make mistakes oneself.  It is much easier to approach the successful, surviving people in the industry and ask them to tell you stories about dumb ideas they or others tried that looked like they shoulda worked and what happened. 

>In my area of NY State, crops are interspersed with creeks, gorges, woodlots, villages, factories, universities, etc. When you fly over it looks like a crazy quilt of diverse land uses. 

Much of it is abandoned farmland.  I wonder why?

Out west you can fly for hundreds of miles and see the same fields with an occasional large river and its riparian habitat.

Much of it is profitable farmland.

I wonder why.

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