>As an aside, with respect to the value of field margins,  my uncle got through the Great Depression, with its droughts, and grasshopper plaques in eastern MT with his ranch and cattle herd intact.  He deliberately left wide margins go wild and to 'weed'.  When the grasshoppers and crickets hit, they did damage to his grazing land and crops, but the hoppers and crickets concentrated much of their feeding these margins, helping to conserve his hay fields and rangeland. 

I remember the conservation people used to recommend that when I was a boy on the ranch. My father practiced that and he was also a beekeeper [to pollinate the alfalfa he raised for seed under contract and cantaloupes].

>He was also innovative - when things got very bad, he noticed lots of Prickly Pear Cactus on his rangeland.  Because of the spines, his cattle won't eat it.  So, Uncle Willie set up a backpack with tanks filled with kerosene; and each day, Willie walked his rangelands, torching the prickly pear.  The fire and heat burned off the spines.  His cattle herd followed behind, eating the fleshy pads of the Prickly Pear as soon as it cooled down.
 
I remember well in the drought of the early '50's my father and I burning those spines off with a propane torch. Worked well but it also trained the cows to eat the cactus and we would sometimes need to remove spines from their mouths. Those years were very tough for the bees since my father would not feed them. Many hives died out and remember restocking with packages from Montgomery Ward.

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